[Newspoetry] NewsPoem: "Riddle...."

[John Wason]

Riddle:  When Is a Right Not a Right?

John Wason


"Patients' Bill of Rights?" he exclaimed -
a retired Kraft employee
now working as a janitor
to make ends meet.
"God, I hope THAT doesn't pass!" he said.

"Why on earth not?" I innocently asked.

"Because right now I have a halfway decent
 Medicare supplement plan from Kraft," he replied,
"and if the Patients' Bill of Rights passes,
 Kraft will just take away the plan,
 rather than deal with
 the potential litigation."

(He didn't use the term "potential litigation",
 but I knew what he meant.)

Kraft, you see,
isn't mandated by any law
to furnish its retirees
(or its employees, for that matter)
with any health insurance
in the first place.

As that Yakov Smirnoff guy,
the Russian comedian, says,
"America!  What a country!"