"I think it's fair to say that Eric's son is justifiably on medicaid. It would be nearly impossible to get, or pay for, private insurance due to the severity of his illness."

He may and I support it completely for kids and those really in need. Do not get me wrong on this. I also believe that we as a society need to hold people resopnsible. Two separate issues.
We have a family in our church that has what appears to be the same affliction as H20's son. The father works construction. Does odd jobs they live in a small apt. and have made `1000 choices to stay together and make it on their own. He did not leave the mother and go father another child with another women and take resorces away from his previous responsibility.
My Fil's medical bills are close to a million dollars a year. 15 years ago we made some serious decisions as a family that made that easier to deal with today. We could have said the heck with it use medicaid and had a lot of fun.