Text 2485, 79 rader
Skriven 2010-01-04 04:09:08 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
   Kommentar till text 2381 av Stewart Arnett (3:772/100)
Ärende: The Evil That Men Do
============================
Replying to a message of Stewart Arnett to Bob Ackley:

 SA>>> I wouldn't. health care is not a business, it is a right.

 BA>> A legitimate right does not place a debt or obligation on
 BA>> another person.

 BA>> One will die a lot more quickly with no air, water, food,
 BA>> shelter or clothing (in that order) than one will without
 BA>> health care.  Yet nobody is caterwauling about water,
 BA>> food, shelter and clothing being some basic right.  The
 BA>> only reason air is still free is only because
 BA>> governments/politicians haven't yet figured out a way to
 BA>> control and tax it.

 SA> While I agree with you regarding taxation, we pour billions
 SA> of dollas a year into our health care via taxes, our system
 SA> is set up so that as a right all and any are able to
 SA> receive free health (medical) care regardless of income.
 SA> This pre-presumes it is the responsibility of our
 SA> government, as they are elected to comply with the wishes
 SA> of the electorate, to accept the mandate of the people to
 SA> supply a fully comprehensive health care system. (woe
 SA> betide a government whom would go against his mandate) This
 SA> is one of the reasons NZ has only a three year term for any
 SA> elected government. We do also have private medical
 SA> schemes, because of such I am also insured within such a
 SA> scheme, this does allow one to jump the "queue" for such as
 SA> hip replacements, but for more urgent medical treatment,
 SA> cardiac problems for instance, it is free in NZ and treated
 SA> immediately, some fees are levied for doctors visits but
 SA> this is only charged for those who have income to support
 SA> these fees. One of my colleagues recently underwent such
 SA> surgery, the total cost to himself was Zero dollars. He
 SA> probably wore his original hip out playing football, he was
 SA> a professional in his youth.

Which is fine for those who like that sort of thing.  I noted in another echo
that there doesn't seem to be much development of new medical procedures/
techniques or new drugs in those countries which restrict the pricing of such
things (basically all those industrialized countries that provide free and/or
low
cost health care to their people).

The government is attempting to get its obomination of a health care 'reform'
bill passed here.  And IMO it will pass, regardless of the wishes of the people
here.  In ten years health care won't be available to anybody at any price in 
this country, and development of new technology, new treatments and new drugs
will have stopped.  The US government has already proved that it is incapable
of running a health care system, let alone running it economically; there's
nothing
done in the private sector of the US economy that the government cannot also
do - half as well for five times the cost.

The US government's Medicare system has a dirty little secret - providers are
dropping out of it, and have been for years.  Just recently the Mayo Clinic in
Arizona announced exactly that, most of the others just quietly refuse to
accept
new Medicare patients.

The US government has a decades long history of setting up these big expen$ive
benefits for the people - and then systematically underfunding, sometimes
grossly
underfunding, those programs.  Medicare is one example, the VA health system is
another.  A little known factoid is that the government has quietly been
closing
military hospitals at active military bases, sending patients requiring
hospitalization
to nearby civilian hospitals.  You may not have heard about the scandal a
couple of
years ago at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC - the plant had been 
allowed to deteriorate to the point that it was beyond saving, and the
buildings
themselves had become health hazards; this is the typical result of government
programs, AFAIK Walter Reed is slated to be demolished and the patients are now
sent to nearby Bethesda Naval Hospital.

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 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)