Wait wait, that's not funny

[urbpan]

It must be hard for Peter Sagal to maintain a neutral yet funny tone about the health care debate, when someone he loves is and going broke while suffering from cancer because of the American system. Frankly I don't know how anyone reasonable can oppose reforming the system. Yup, it's going to cost money. That's kind of the point, the U.S. is a rich country, it can afford to provide health care for all its citizens--we already pay more than all the other rich countries, and we don't even have universal health care.

What Sagal is asking for, that lots of people chip in a little so his friend's very expensive treatments are covered, hints at the only way health care reform can work. Everyone must be taxed a little more, so that everyone, including poor people and self-employed people and UNemployed people, EVERYONE can get adequate health care. Again, why anyone is against this, why a "single-payer" (socialist) system is thought to be somehow un-American, is completely beyond me.

Edited to Add: I can remember going to countless benefit rock and roll shows, like the one for Brian Wright of Slughog, where somehow a bunch of underemployed rock fans paying twelve bucks a pop were going to defray the cost of chemotherapy and radiation treatments. This should be the content of the health care debate: should sick people rely on charity to receive the treatment they need? What is this, the 18th century?

Comments

[audacian.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. It really breaks my heart.

[vodkanoodles.livejournal.com]

One of the reasons I live in Australia...

It really breaks the heart that your nation can spend so much on war yet so little on publichealth while mine spends too much on the same yet is trying to ditch our public health care n favour of your system..

[ziactrice.livejournal.com]

Heck, right now I'm one of the ones who would pay more taxes to support it... and I'm _strongly_ in favor. If I got laid off before I could finish nailing down and fixing current averagely-serious health problem, _I_ would be going bankrupt paying for it despite the fact I'm usually I'm a hard-working, college-educated, nearly-always employed solidly upper middle class citizen.

That is not right. I'm tired of Big Insurance breaking us on the wheel of medical costs. Doctors are tired of it. Poor people are tired of it. Middle-income people should REALLY be tired of it. That leaves... hmmm. Big Fat Cats and Lobbyists and People in the Pay of Same only in favor.

And they already GET taxpayer-fully-paid GREAT health care. The lying hypocrites.

[urb-banal.livejournal.com]

Simplifing the system which is really what this is about, means far more accountability. I mean, even with one source of health insurance it's hard to figure out what the charges are for sometimes. But what is covered by who? It must be nuts if you have 6 or 7 sources for payment, each with different coverage and requirements. I can't see it not being cheaper for the consumer in the long run to have one general insurance company for everyone.

It might be a tax grab, but like you say it's a rich country.

My own experience with the American Health System was that a drug that I did not qualify for on OHIP which had fewer side effects was available in the States (it cost around $30,000 for one series of treatments, more than my yearly income). A business man with money went to the States and got it having it reported here in the Toronto Star and television media. The response of the public was that the stipulations for qualifing were eased and now the drug is paid for by OHIP. :) I was finished by the time but still glad he advocated for the future cancer patients with our type of cancer.

So what is going to serve as a bad example for us if you get universal health care? What are we going to point at when we say, "Well, look how bad it is in ..."

[propaddict.livejournal.com]

I have to take issue with your "rich nation" claim. What's the national debt? How long have we been in a deficit spending mode? Even China won't buy our debt anymore. We're like a person who got a ton of credit cards and just went crazy, thinking we'd never have to pay it off. We're not a bottomless sack of $$ and we need to remember that.

Moving on, I've had single-payer gov't healthcare for ~6 years now and I love it. My wife actually really hated it when she had to go "out in town" for her care because the base hospital didn't have an OB dept. I have no issue at all w/ all inclusive gov't healthcare; it's amazing.

OTOH, I know lots of folks who despise the military healthcare system. They claim there are unreasonable waiting times for appts., the system shelters incompetent Drs., and treatment received is not to their liking. It's all part of the "me, Me, ME!, now, Now, NOW!" attitude of our society. If more people get access, without increased system capacity, that means I have to wait longer. And, potentially, pay more for services since I'll be footing the bill for them to make me wait in line. Or such is the logic I see.

My big fear is that we'll ask Congress for a horse and the committees will mutilate the proposals and end up giving us a camel. And we'll be worse off than we started.

What nobody's mentioning here is that opponents will always be able to get private treatment. In fact, for profit hospitals will be the next craze among the rich and famous, if this goes through. So, there'll still be options.

[ankhanu.livejournal.com]

This is one of my major concerns when the idea of moving to the States is entertained (I recently considered a PhD position at UofTex)... I don't want to live in a (rich) nation in which people are regularly denied basic or more advanced health care for any possible reason for it to be denied. Our own socialized system is far from perfect, but the fact that my family or I never have to worry about getting medical aide if it's needed, no matter how poor I might be, is a great relief. That people can defend a system that is intended to protect people, that is supposed to be humanitarian at its very core, that can turn someone away (with great regularity) to die because they don't have enough money squirreled away for unforseen medical issues is patently absurd.

I just don't get "average" Americans.

[weofodthignen]

. . . not to mention that we all suffer when people who couldn't afford vaccination, or can't afford treatment, spread diseases around. that we all pay for other people in a more expensive and more divisive way when we have jobs with health insurance. "Lose weight, you're driving my premiums up" is far more likely to be thought or even said when you're in a pool of 30 people. that we all suffer when people who don't like their job cling onto it for the insurance, and when people on welfare don't dare get a job because they'll lose the coverage for their kids. that we all suffer when babies are born disabled due to lack of access to prenatal care. . . . even those of us who don't notice that the US has a Third World level of infant mortality. that we all suffer paying the highest rates for medicines and Emergency Room treatment that the market will bear, inflated by all those insurance companies with deep pockets as well as by all those uninsured who have no other choice. And that's leaving out the fact that most of us know someone who can't get treatment. Or know someone who lost a friend or relative who died unnecessarily.

Public health is cheaper and more efficient, as well as more humane.

M