Health For The Old vs Health For The Poor

I posted this chart yesterday:

Adam Serwer , "I'm not sure there's any other explanation for the fact that Republicans are so much more likely to believe the government should provide health care for old people than the fact that old people tend to be Republican."

That's true, but also seems somewhat unfair. The gap is bigger for Republicans but it's big for Democrats and Independents as well. This probably has something to do with ethnocentric attitudes and something to do with the fact that middle class people all aspire to be old some day and also to never be poor. But from a technocratic point of view, the public's priorities are backwards here. Investing in the health of poor people is something that could very plausibly pay off down the road in terms of increased productivity and national growth. Investing in the health of a 80 year-old, by contrast, is bound to have pretty marginal benefits under any circumstance.