A question for "chasers"...

[analluv27]

The cost can be staggering especially if you don't have a decent health insurance and and drug plan. But even with that there's always the spectre of what if you lose your benefits. I'm poz but wasn't a chaser, I'm not gonna cry over what has been done but if one truly chooses to chase get your "house" in order before you do because if you don't things get that much harder. Outside of some doctors there's not much love for you when you become poz, except within the Brotherhood 

[timfreo]

Im chasing. I want to be pozzed. Not concerned with material costs

[hungry_hole]

On 12/6/2017 at 7:30 AM, drscorpio said:

People remain overweight throughout their adult lives and become diabetic.
People use/abuse tobacco and develop mouth, throat, and lung cancer.
People use/abuse alcohol and develop dozens of different chronic conditions. 
People play violent contact sports and develop mental and physical conditions related to them. 
People participate in various extreme sports and need joint replacement in their 30s and 40s instead of their 60s and 70s. 

There are lot of people outside of chasers who do not do all they could to avoid being sick. These people are also a larger burden on the healthcare system than they might be if they had made healthier choices. 

Overweight people like eating. Smokers like to smoke. Alcoholics  like to drink. People play X-treme sports for the fun of it. None of them is looking to get sick. Chasers are.

[drscorpio]

1 minute ago, hungry_hole said:

Overweight people like eating. Smokers like to smoke. Alcoholics  like to drink. People play X-treme sports for the fun of it. None of them is looking to get sick. Chasers are.

That's a distinction without a difference. 

The other people are not avoiding getting sick which was your original comment. 

[lynn1964]

On 12/6/2017 at 6:19 AM, hungry_hole said:

Universal Healthcare is not free, but healthcare is one of the best candidates for "entitlements" because with the exception of "chasers" most people avoid getting sick. Many entitlements provided with tax money are subject to abuse but not healthcare.

I know Americans are proud of their freedom but I prefer to have less American-style freedom and live in a country with Universal Healthcare.

Damn! how I wish I was part of the soln to tyis

[Scottyrim]

I have a bit of a different answer to this question.

I feel a lot of this is concerned with guilt and also fault. Gay men are in an almost impossible situation. We have had to worry about HIV for nearly 40 years now and the guilt that has come from that.

For me, I literally went through mental illness for nearly 20 years, convinced I had HIV. I was Obsessive Compulsive and literally ended up in hospital , thinking anyone I touched would get it. Needless to say my sex life was non existent. Do you know how much all that treatment and visits and doctors and cost to family and friends and myself  both emotionally and , financially cost?. A fortune. 

So why now? I think when you discuss getting the bug, it seems quite simple, but I  imagine that for quite a few people it takes years to come to a decision to bareback, let alone  with Poz guys.

We have been educated on Sex equals  death since the very beginning and I am sorry I blame a lot of that  and the subsequent Bareback,Brotherhood Poz on basically American Gay and HIV specialists. Why? Because in the US for at least 15 years, anything you did sexually could almost certainly lead to AIDS. I remember reading how you needed to be sure a guy was clean , before you rimmed a guy with plastic wrap. In Australia, where I was from, the doctors took a much more pragmatic approach, on how you got HIV and if it was low risk, they rarely discussed it.

In America, it seemed everything was taken to an extreme and so in a way it was not a surprise , that an extreme response occurred , or that Barebacking really took off in the US originally. I could be wrong on all of this, however this is how it felt like for me watching outside.

So if you were to ask straight guys to be responsible for nearly 40 years, you would have had a cure and a vaccination on Day 7 of the crisis. Instead we have had to deal with an unending onslaught of negative press about sex. Then we suddenly have medication that slows down  the process and other medication which can help stop it occurring. At the same time you have a generation that has grown up without the fear and basically  becoming sluts in front of our eyes, when my generation lived in literal fear of death every day. 

Now, another thing I would add is the US is in a very privileged position. PREP is not available to many other countries as it is to you and the cost is high to get it. So from where I sit you get cheap PREP, which many countries in the world does not have, how much is the cost  being  fronted by Insurance companies?

Sorry for the rambling  reply. I suppose what I am trying to say is for many of us this is not a Cavalier, let's destroy our health and stuff the consequences, someone else will pay. It is trying to cope with real world dilemmas   situations that are difficult to sort out and each person has to come up with their solution.

For me I have spent too long being told what is right and allowing my own life to suffer. I don't actually want to be Poz, but I love sex with poz guys, because there is a freedom with them that I will never have. I understand there is a risk and I hope to God I never become full blown poz, but it is  risk I am unable to stop.