Comments on: Health care in America is un-American http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669 BTC News: News, politics, opinion and satire Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:52:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Weldon Berger http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669/comment-page-1#comment-995541 Weldon Berger Sun, 01 Jul 2007 15:23:39 +0000 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669#comment-995541 Hey, Gary. Thanks. I'm getting to the competetiveness aspect ... Hey, Gary. Thanks. I’m getting to the competetiveness aspect …

]]> By: Gary http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669/comment-page-1#comment-989262 Gary Sun, 01 Jul 2007 02:59:16 +0000 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669#comment-989262 Great post. Uncharacteristically, you left an important factor unmentioned that I think may, more than Sicko or perhaps anything else, create a window of opportunity to end the insanity: i.e., the belated realization by some large businesses/industries of how much our current, private, employment-based system is a drag on their international competitiveness (and relatedly, a major driver of outsourcing and declines of U.S. manufacturing and now service industries, too). A large and powerful business bloc seeing its interests at odds with those of the insurance/pharmaceutical bloc's interest in preserving the status quo might be just the nudge necessary to get us past the tipping point. P.S. great to see the site back up and running. Great post. Uncharacteristically, you left an important factor unmentioned that I think may, more than Sicko or perhaps anything else, create a window of opportunity to end the insanity: i.e., the belated realization by some large businesses/industries of how much our current, private, employment-based system is a drag on their international competitiveness (and relatedly, a major driver of outsourcing and declines of U.S. manufacturing and now service industries, too). A large and powerful business bloc seeing its interests at odds with those of the insurance/pharmaceutical bloc’s interest in preserving the status quo might be just the nudge necessary to get us past the tipping point.

P.S. great to see the site back up and running.

]]> By: Weldon Berger http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669/comment-page-1#comment-984502 Weldon Berger Sat, 30 Jun 2007 19:44:57 +0000 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669#comment-984502 Well said, Fred. Well said, Fred.

]]> By: Make Them Accountable / Rule by minority http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669/comment-page-1#comment-983764 Make Them Accountable / Rule by minority Sat, 30 Jun 2007 18:36:33 +0000 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669#comment-983764 [...] Health care in America is un-American [...] [...] Health care in America is un-American [...]

]]> By: Fred http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669/comment-page-1#comment-965862 Fred Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:45:09 +0000 http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1669#comment-965862 Here's the letter I sent to Kurt Loder at MTV, whose review mirrored the comments of a piece in the Monterey County Herald, from a Deroy Murdock of the Hoover Institute: "I have not seen Sicko, so my comments concern some of the opinion statements in [Murdock's and Loder's] peculiar review. The nationalized health care systems on England, Canada, the EU, etc. are not perfect - not by any stretch. However, the "long-waits" and "denied-coverage" canards commonly trotted out as the main elements to the anti-national health care straw man argument are debatably irrelevant. There are at least two major categorical benefits that can not be denied about a majority of nationalized health care programs found in the industrialized West compared to fee-for-service systems like the US: lower infant mortality and higher levels of overall societal health using any number of epidemiological benchmarks. From a strictly utilitarian standpoint, such benefits clearly outweigh the "delays" risks. Further, it is common to assert that the US has the best health care because we have the highest level of medical expertise and technology in the World. However, this fact alone does not provide any support for a system in which nearly a sixth of the population has little or no access to these "advantages." And as the managed health industries and third-party payors increasingly influence coverage practices by decreasing them in the face of uncontrolled increases in costs, the situation in this country will continue to decline as more people live longer and face catastrophic health crises. Michael Moore may be guilty of the critical foul of disparaging a system, while not suggesting clear solutions to fill the vacuum - that is his issue to address. But he is not a policy maker nor an expert on health care plans on a national scale. However, a crisis does exist, and it's incumbent upon everyone to get the message to those who are charged with fixing such problems. He has done this in the past with his oeuvre, albeit with a dull knife. Over and against the profit motives of the industrial players and market forces currently intertwined with the US health care delivery system, I have no problem the government devising and running a nationalized program, as they are supposed to represent all citizens and their interests - not a handful of stockholders. I am hopeful a fully comprehensive health care delivery system, with opt-out provisions, will emerge in the near future. I'm not getting any younger." Time for the Right to wise-up. Here’s the letter I sent to Kurt Loder at MTV, whose review mirrored the comments of a piece in the Monterey County Herald, from a Deroy Murdock of the Hoover Institute:

“I have not seen Sicko, so my comments concern some of the opinion statements in [Murdock's and Loder's] peculiar review.

The nationalized health care systems on England, Canada, the EU, etc. are not perfect – not by any stretch. However, the “long-waits” and “denied-coverage” canards commonly trotted out as the main elements to the anti-national health care straw man argument are debatably irrelevant.

There are at least two major categorical benefits that can not be denied about a majority of nationalized health care programs found in the industrialized West compared to fee-for-service systems like the US: lower infant mortality and higher levels of overall societal health using any number of epidemiological benchmarks.

From a strictly utilitarian standpoint, such benefits clearly outweigh the “delays” risks.

Further, it is common to assert that the US has the best health care because we have the highest level of medical expertise and technology in the World. However, this fact alone does not provide any support for a system in which nearly a sixth of the population has little or no access to these “advantages.” And as the managed health industries and third-party payors increasingly influence coverage practices by decreasing them in the face of uncontrolled increases in costs, the situation in this country will continue to decline as more people live longer and face catastrophic health crises.

Michael Moore may be guilty of the critical foul of disparaging a system, while not suggesting clear solutions to fill the vacuum – that is his issue to address. But he is not a policy maker nor an expert on health care plans on a national scale. However, a crisis does exist, and it’s incumbent upon everyone to get the message to those who are charged with fixing such problems. He has done this in the past with his oeuvre, albeit with a dull knife.

Over and against the profit motives of the industrial players and market forces currently intertwined with the US health care delivery system, I have no problem the government devising and running a nationalized program, as they are supposed to represent all citizens and their interests – not a handful of stockholders.

I am hopeful a fully comprehensive health care delivery system, with opt-out provisions, will emerge in the near future. I’m not getting any younger.”

Time for the Right to wise-up.

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