The blogosphere is all abuzz with debate over who's going to be the next leader of the free world. I have a question. Who's the current one?
If I had a vote, I'd vote for the guy in the middle. Anyone who has a blog and supports universal health care coverage for all Americans can't be all that bad. Besides, he lives in Chapel Hill and that's a very nice place.
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Gore says he won't run. Kerry says he won't run. Apparently we're going through the list of all eligible citizens, so I think I should clear the air now and report that I myself won't run.
I guess a lot of people are looking around lately and saying, "I could do better than this."
Six years ago a bombshell hit our lives when we were told our newly born baby had brain damage and to expect that she would have cerebral palsy - extent unknowable.
(We have been incredibly lucky and she has it mildly , though the full range of problems she will have is still unknown.)
In that first meeting as we asked the obvious questions, including "why" and the most frustrating part of the whole experience was that the staff had obviously been trained by lawyers - you may have experienced it with a car accident where the insurance company says "never admit any liability". Here it was obvious they were terrified of being sued so they weren't going to get into a serious discussion of possible causes. I don't want to sue them, but I want to know what went wrong. (It is highly likely that a hidden infection was responsible, and the hospital did nothing wrong, in fact I'm sure the hospital did nothing wrong as I watched the whole procedure.) So I blame my distress on lawyers like John Edwards who have made their fortunes from these cases. By using junk science and their skills they may help some individual cases but they make the general level of care for parents and children worse.
I always get a weird taste in my mouth when Americans use phrases like "leader of the Free World" and "only in America" and such. Not every country outside your borders is a totalitarian hellhole where freedoms are being crushed and people live in abject poverty.
Excellent choice! Are you aware you had dinner Friday one floor underneath his campaign headquarters?
Anyway, a guy who is hellbent on destroying the irrational (healthcare) system that made him rich because he understands how unfair such a system is on everyone (patients and doctors alike) can't be that bad. He took on the insurance companies and big businesses head-on on a case-by-case basis in the past and is ready to take them head-on as a whole in two years.
Too bad Canadians don't get to vote on our elections; Bush wouldn't have needed Florida in the first place. But I am in agreement on Edwards. He seems to be the best in the bunch of people that would be willing to take such a horrid job as prez of the usa.
" Niobe said...
I always get a weird taste in my mouth when Americans use phrases like "leader of the Free World" and "only in America" and such. Not every country outside your borders is a totalitarian hellhole where freedoms are being crushed and people live in abject poverty."
Not that I disagree with you, but notice that Moran is Canadian (which is American in some sense of the word, but not in the sense you appear to be using)
So, would you say a system where you have to wait months to see a specialist or to get non-emergency surgery is 'universal coverage'? That's the problem, isn't it? 'Coverage' and 'care' aren't quite the same thing. The American Left can get us coverage, but they can't guarantee care.
"So, would you say a system where you have to wait months to see a specialist or to get non-emergency surgery is 'universal coverage'? That's the problem, isn't it? 'Coverage' and 'care' aren't quite the same thing. The American Left can get us coverage, but they can't guarantee care."
And currently the free market, the Invisible Hand that is supposed to be so gracious and impartial, has built a system in which rural access to health care depends on altruistic doctors who choose to earn much less than they can in urban medical centers; we should be so lucky that such altruism continues as the earnings gap widens. We also have a system in which malpractice insurance companies consider any sort of profit ratio less than 3:1 (earnings to claims paid) as unacceptable. They raise their premiums, and rural hospitals and clinics often shutdown exacerbating the problem.
Further, we have a system in which the uninsured have far longer waiting times to see a specialist or to get non-emergency system than in Canada, so they overwhelm the emergency rooms creating an undue burden on county taxpayers who can't turn people away based on lack of ability to pay for care.
Finally, employer paid health care is a major factor in reducing our competitiveness. Toyota can manufacture cars in Japan for $1500 less per vehicle than they can in America. Soon they may choose to close American factories as Ford and GM have had to do.
So, please tell me how the American hodgepodge free market healthcare is better than the Canadian one?
For those who are repeating the conservative "socialized medicine is bad" trope, I suggest a close and careful reading of this and this, for starters.
So, would you say a system where you have to wait months to see a specialist or to get non-emergency surgery is 'universal coverage'?
Yes, as long as everyone has equal access and everyone will eventually get decent care.
Access to affordable medical care is a basic right in a civilized society. Every civilized nation agrees. Any nation that lets people die because they can't afford a doctor is not civilized.
I am.
Les Mackenzie, LFW
So am I!
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