Art is supposed to imitate life, right? Well, often art doesn't. Let's take the role of hospitals in television. Some very respected and long-running shows give us the 'insides' (pun intended), of hospital life. More often, in movies and television hospitals are a prop. They are like automobiles to further the plot. You get hurt? Hey all, let's carry this party to the hospital! It's a field trip. Someone gets a broken arm? To the hospital! Got an elbow to the face? To the hospital! Granted; If you get a broken arm there's not much choice. It needs to be MRI'd, X-Ray'd, Scanned, gotten second opinions over, wheel-chaired, and oh yeah... set. How about a black eye? Oh, don't be a ninny! Go to the hospital! It's no big thing. Well, as long as money means nothing to you, that is.
I fell off a bike. A couple of hours later I was driven to the hospital by my mother, who insisted that I go. They ended up throwing an IV of water put in my arm, seen by two different doctors, several nurses, MRI'd and X-Rayed, etc. The doctor saw me for about five or ten minutes. The MRI took about 15 minutes, the X-Ray 5 minutes... and a few hours just waiting. Cost? It ended up costing me about $5,500 AFTER insurance! So, I sell my bike to help pay for it and because I still couldn't afford to pay them, they took me to a law firm to collect it and now I have a crappy credit rating and can't get a loan for another bike. And, while they're almost paid off now, I still owe them a few hundred dollars and it's been almost a year and a half ago, my rating still sucks and I still don't have a bike. And... I'm one of the lucky ones. I didn't have cancer or get into some terrible accident, or terribly burned. I'm very lucky indeed, and yet the constant reminder of how screwed up the health system is haunts me every day. So, how exactly does this mirror television where going to the hospital is no more painful than going to a drug store and picking up a perscription? Whatever...
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This story about Graeme Frost and his sister illustrate so clearly why the healthcare system in the US is so very broken. They were in a car crash. Their parents make a combined income of about $55k a year. Their work didn't offer insurance, so getting their own would have been $1,200 a month (which by my estimation is close to 45% of their take home pay after taxes), so how could they afford it? So, of course, like 20% of America (about 60 million), they couldn't. How could they be saved? S-Chip. Of course, Bush is against this program and has vetoed the latest bill supporting S-Chip, but for the Frosts, it saved them.
So, how can so many of these right-wing bloggers and radio personalities and politicians jump so quickly to yell and scream and shout against the Frosts without getting all the facts? Why are they so terrified of allowing children to have health insurance? How do they find it reasonable to tax middle class families close to 45% of their 'post-tax' income to buy insurance? How are mortgages to be paid? How are utilities and car payments and food to be paid? There is no choice. The right-wingers rail against people without insurance as freeloaders of the system and yet offer no viable alternative to them.
Why are we listening to these idiots? We're so afraid of being called names that we continued to be bullied around. When someone says "liberal" or "socialized medicine" we meekly crawl back into our holes and bury our heads, like they've uttered some magical incantation banishing us back to our cages. Since when are we the animals? Are not the true animals the holders of the whips and of the shackles? I don't care what those far right ideologues call me if it means that being a provider of funds to the government means via taxes, means that they're thanking me by safeguarding the source of those funds by protecting their investment. If I pay them taxes to allow them to spend it in so many foolish ways that they do, the least they can do is spend part of that back protecting my health so that I can continue to give them taxes. To do otherwise is biting the hand that feeds you. Help me to continue to remain healthy so that I may continue to work and give you taxes. What is so wrong with that? It's in our mutual self-interests.
Update: 10/16 - The Republicans are complaining that S-Chip sucks and that they're going to propose their own solutions "in the following months". In interviews they spend their time saying that all the Dems want to do is make a political issue of it and make it run by the government, stating that nobody wants a government run health care system.... Really? I'd love a government run health care system and I think many people do. So, let's go to the polls and see what the American people say they want over what the Republicans say they want....
62% say Universal Healthcare is better than an employer-based one.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/US/healthcare031020_poll.html
Even 51% of confessed Republicans say they'd prefer Universal Healthcare
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/poll-shows-many-republicans-favor-universal-healthcare-gays-in-military-2007-06-28.html
The Wall Street Journal had a poll over a wide range of health-related issues, including Universal Healthcare (which was favored by 71% of respondents, by the way).
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB112973460667273222-7Jjp4Ckx_LsV4qI5rjzrENNIcAQ_20061020.html?mod=djm_HAWSJSB_WelcomeSkip
Costs?
Average cost per person
U.S.A. - : $4,178
Canada-: $2,312
U.K. - : $1,783
Closest competitor in cost per capita? Switzerland: $2,794 ave. per person.
As a percentage of GDP? 13.6% Nearest competitor? Germany: 10.6% Canada? 9.5%
On reason such disparaties? Admistrative costs in the US account for 19-24% of costs of health care.
42.6% of Americans are uninsured (1999 figures).
So, Americans are healthier that can afford healthcare, right? Well, no. The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 7.2, whereas in Canada it's 5.2. It's ranking in healthcare systems worldwide puts it in 37th place... even though it cost by far the most and excludes 20% of its citizens!!
What's this really mean? This means that the average person in the US pays about $300 a month for health care, and that it comes as a separate bill. It means that in Canada this is automatically taken out as part of taxes and that instead of paying $300 a month for your health, you pay only $200. If you lived in the UK, you'd pay only $120 a month in taxes. Me? I'd go for the Canadian model, pay my $200 a month automatically in taxes and know my baby has a stronger possibility of making it through the first year. Oh, and for all this crying and boo-hooing about nationalized health care being socialized health care run by Big Government? I'm all for it to get rid of the present waste and to make it more centralized (including statistics of doctors success rates, which they currently don't have here). As a bonus, this 'Big Government" would be leaner and less wasteful due to much lower adminstrative costs.
I fell off a bike. A couple of hours later I was driven to the hospital by my mother, who insisted that I go. They ended up throwing an IV of water put in my arm, seen by two different doctors, several nurses, MRI'd and X-Rayed, etc. The doctor saw me for about five or ten minutes. The MRI took about 15 minutes, the X-Ray 5 minutes... and a few hours just waiting. Cost? It ended up costing me about $5,500 AFTER insurance! So, I sell my bike to help pay for it and because I still couldn't afford to pay them, they took me to a law firm to collect it and now I have a crappy credit rating and can't get a loan for another bike. And, while they're almost paid off now, I still owe them a few hundred dollars and it's been almost a year and a half ago, my rating still sucks and I still don't have a bike. And... I'm one of the lucky ones. I didn't have cancer or get into some terrible accident, or terribly burned. I'm very lucky indeed, and yet the constant reminder of how screwed up the health system is haunts me every day. So, how exactly does this mirror television where going to the hospital is no more painful than going to a drug store and picking up a perscription? Whatever...
----------------------------------------------------
This story about Graeme Frost and his sister illustrate so clearly why the healthcare system in the US is so very broken. They were in a car crash. Their parents make a combined income of about $55k a year. Their work didn't offer insurance, so getting their own would have been $1,200 a month (which by my estimation is close to 45% of their take home pay after taxes), so how could they afford it? So, of course, like 20% of America (about 60 million), they couldn't. How could they be saved? S-Chip. Of course, Bush is against this program and has vetoed the latest bill supporting S-Chip, but for the Frosts, it saved them.
So, how can so many of these right-wing bloggers and radio personalities and politicians jump so quickly to yell and scream and shout against the Frosts without getting all the facts? Why are they so terrified of allowing children to have health insurance? How do they find it reasonable to tax middle class families close to 45% of their 'post-tax' income to buy insurance? How are mortgages to be paid? How are utilities and car payments and food to be paid? There is no choice. The right-wingers rail against people without insurance as freeloaders of the system and yet offer no viable alternative to them.
Why are we listening to these idiots? We're so afraid of being called names that we continued to be bullied around. When someone says "liberal" or "socialized medicine" we meekly crawl back into our holes and bury our heads, like they've uttered some magical incantation banishing us back to our cages. Since when are we the animals? Are not the true animals the holders of the whips and of the shackles? I don't care what those far right ideologues call me if it means that being a provider of funds to the government means via taxes, means that they're thanking me by safeguarding the source of those funds by protecting their investment. If I pay them taxes to allow them to spend it in so many foolish ways that they do, the least they can do is spend part of that back protecting my health so that I can continue to give them taxes. To do otherwise is biting the hand that feeds you. Help me to continue to remain healthy so that I may continue to work and give you taxes. What is so wrong with that? It's in our mutual self-interests.
Update: 10/16 - The Republicans are complaining that S-Chip sucks and that they're going to propose their own solutions "in the following months". In interviews they spend their time saying that all the Dems want to do is make a political issue of it and make it run by the government, stating that nobody wants a government run health care system.... Really? I'd love a government run health care system and I think many people do. So, let's go to the polls and see what the American people say they want over what the Republicans say they want....
62% say Universal Healthcare is better than an employer-based one.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/US/healthcare031020_poll.html
Even 51% of confessed Republicans say they'd prefer Universal Healthcare
http://thehill.com/campaign-2008/poll-shows-many-republicans-favor-universal-healthcare-gays-in-military-2007-06-28.html
The Wall Street Journal had a poll over a wide range of health-related issues, including Universal Healthcare (which was favored by 71% of respondents, by the way).
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB112973460667273222-7Jjp4Ckx_LsV4qI5rjzrENNIcAQ_20061020.html?mod=djm_HAWSJSB_WelcomeSkip
Costs?
Average cost per person
U.S.A. - : $4,178
Canada-: $2,312
U.K. - : $1,783
Closest competitor in cost per capita? Switzerland: $2,794 ave. per person.
As a percentage of GDP? 13.6% Nearest competitor? Germany: 10.6% Canada? 9.5%
On reason such disparaties? Admistrative costs in the US account for 19-24% of costs of health care.
42.6% of Americans are uninsured (1999 figures).
So, Americans are healthier that can afford healthcare, right? Well, no. The infant mortality rate in the U.S. is 7.2, whereas in Canada it's 5.2. It's ranking in healthcare systems worldwide puts it in 37th place... even though it cost by far the most and excludes 20% of its citizens!!
What's this really mean? This means that the average person in the US pays about $300 a month for health care, and that it comes as a separate bill. It means that in Canada this is automatically taken out as part of taxes and that instead of paying $300 a month for your health, you pay only $200. If you lived in the UK, you'd pay only $120 a month in taxes. Me? I'd go for the Canadian model, pay my $200 a month automatically in taxes and know my baby has a stronger possibility of making it through the first year. Oh, and for all this crying and boo-hooing about nationalized health care being socialized health care run by Big Government? I'm all for it to get rid of the present waste and to make it more centralized (including statistics of doctors success rates, which they currently don't have here). As a bonus, this 'Big Government" would be leaner and less wasteful due to much lower adminstrative costs.
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