There’s Poison in the Water

In this scenario, the year is 2029 and medical cost are bankrupting the United States, now with 95% of all bills accumulating in the last year of people’s lives. The solution is a federal government mandated program, known by the public and instilled by the states. At water sanitation plants and bottle treatment plants, the chemical TMW-1047 is infused into the water at minute quantities. At a high dosage, TMW-1047 is lethal, but until that dosage quality is reached though, it has no effect. It is non-addictive and the human body cannot build up an immunity to it since it has no effect until a large quantity in ingested. The government’s goal is for people to continue to drink water as they would normally, eventually result in them dying on average five years earlier than they would have. The vast majority of the population would never reach their expensive medical years, saving their family and their country from their medical bills. Water is such an important aspect of life that it would be hard for anyone to alter his or her behavior towards it. Some groups will try to avoid this program, but on a large scale, it is accepted.

Citizens have the option to monitor their intake levels with a special band designed for Apple Watches. The band can take a small sample of the users blood, and send the information to an app on the Apple Watch. This lets them know how much TMW-1047 is inside them, how long they have been ingesting it for, their average intake of water per week, and an estimation on when they will reach the critical value of TMW-1047.

For a more accurate estimation, people can input their weight, height, age, sex, drinking/smoking habits, any travels outside the country, and other lifespan calculating questions to build a personalized response. Some people might want to know how much time has been taken from them, while others may wish to accept it and live as they normally would.