I should have kept my temper in check and not let you know just how bad government healthcare REALLY is.
It really isn't any of my business how clueless you, like virtually all civilians, are about the massive shortcomings of military healthcare.
I should not have told you about the long wait times, how the patient has NO choice about whom to see, how much of a nightmare getting a referral to a specialist is, how routine procedures like a second trimester ultrasound are simply not done, how providers switch prescriptions to cheaper but less effective medications, and how poor the overall quality of care provided is.
I should not have pointed out that Canadians who can afford to travel to the U.S. for treatment often pay out of pocket to do so rather than waiting in the ridiculously long government lines.
I should have kept my mouth shut about that British woman who was forced to give birth ON THE SIDEWALK because some bureaucrat refused to send an ambulance for her when she went into labor early (HT: "Fausta's Blog").
I should have just sat there listening to you in your designer clothes with your overpriced Bugaboo strollers blather on cluelessly ad nauseum about the evil Whole Foods executive who wants to deny Americans health insurance.
That would've been the polite thing to do.
But I just couldn't keep silent any longer...
11 comments:
And before you ask, let me assure you that I have no connections WHATSOEVER to any lobbyists or special interest groups. I have no financial interest in maintaining the status quo in healthcare either.
I'm just a concerned citizen who had to endure nearly five long years using the military healthcare system- and who wouldn't wish that experience upon ANYONE.
Let me get this straight.
We're going to pass a health care plan written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, signed by a president who also hasn't read it, and who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, financed by a country that's nearly broke.
Yeah - no worries...
(eye roll)
Great post.
Glad you spoke up.
Just watch out you may wind up on the White House's list...
YOu might want to read the new WaPo analysis for a larger perspective than person anecdote though, before that next rant IRL or otherwise . . .
Five Myths ABout Health Care Around the World
Right, because what we have going on now is so perfect. People getting denied healthcare for pre-existing conditions that include pregnancy, people getting dropped as soon as they get ill and the masses with nothing at all and no options. This is a great system why mess with it right? Why on earth would we want to simply add another option to help fellow man? Screw them right?
(Eye Rolling)Every one right now is one medical disaster away from financial ruin...but hey thats how America wants it right? I will never understand anybody who is against helping their fellow man especially when they claim to be Godly. WWJD?
Our current system is certainly not perfect, but having experienced both government-run and private healthcare I can say that the latter is a ZILLION times better than the former.
For all the hype about so many U.S. bankruptcies supposedly being caused by medical bills, the average bankruptcy discharges $17,738 worth of credit card debt and $23,574 worth of car loans. If folks were not already up the wazoo in consumer debt, then they'd be much more likely to be able to pay their medical bills. So the real story isn't "medical bills cause bankruptcy" but "spending above one's means and not saving for an emergency causes bankruptcy".
WWJD? Let's check my Bible:
"On the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save, so he may prosper." 1 Corinthians 16:2
"The borrower is the slave of the lender." Proverbs 22:7
"Owe no one anything, except to love each other." Romans 13:8
"Be not one of those who give pledges, who put up security for debts." Proverbs 22:26.
"Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man; he who loves wine and oil will not be rich. " Proverbs 21:17
"The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenty; but the thoughts of everyone who is hasty only to poverty." Proverbs 21:5
Seems to me to be pretty clear- don't go into debt to fund a lavish lifestyle but instead save up in case of a rainy day.
Ouch! Still not feeling well?
Why limit ourselves to one third of the moral lesson, content to see only through the eyes of the begrudging older brother of the prodigal son and call that the love we're called to? I prefer trying to understand the story's power from all three human perspectives (both sons and the father) as suggested here:
"Perhaps the most profound literary tribute to this parable is Dutch theologian Henri Nouwen's 1992 book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming, in which he describes his own spiritual journey infused with understanding based on an encounter with Rembrandt's painting of the return of the Prodigal.
He shows how the story is illuminated by the painting and is really about three personages: the younger, prodigal son; the self-righteous, resentful older son; and the compassionate father
Nouwen describes how all Christians—himself included—struggle to free themselves from the weaknesses inherent in both brothers and are destined to find themselves becoming the all-giving, all-forgiving, sacrificial father."
We live 100% debt free live well within my means and I still cant afford/get healthcare. I haven't had it in two years and my kids thank God have Medicaid. I cant imagine what we would do without it.
We have no car loans, have no debt that isn't medical, and at one time were over $40,000 in medical bill debt and spending every penny on the necessities (had no cable or satellite, no home phone, etc). Our son couldn't get surgery that he needed at 3 because we didn't have the $5,000 up front and didn't qualify for the state-assistance that I pay for so many to get.
Our medical bill debt (our ONLY debt) is now down to just over $17,000 and our insurance has just become crappy again.
Yet I still don't feel like health insurance is a right. I still don't want the FEDERAL government unconstitutionally mandating health care &/or insurance for all.
There are those with crappy insurance stories, crappy medical bill debt, who have done everything right that they can, but still don't want unnecessary government intrusion in our lives.
Amy
People would still be running up massive medical bills if the U.S. had socialized medicine. Only it would be for traveling to another country to skip the long waiting lines or to get treatment that the bureaucrats flat-out refuse to pay for. Folks are already flying to clinics in the Caribbean for cosmetic surgery. What's to stop them for doing it to avoid the rationing inherent in government-run medicine? That's what happens in Canada...
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