Getting Riled Up on Amazon.com

Getting Riled Up on Amazon.com
Current mood: pugnacious
Category: News and Politics

I typed this up just a moment ago, and figured it was rant-worthy to go in my Blogger blog. I'm also going to put it on my Facebook account as a note. Feel free to comment. I love comments. Even if you violently disagree, please comment.
:-)

The impetus for this post was an interesting thread started on Amazon.com by Ron, who actually had a very good question to ask. Instead, he got a lot of personal attacks and even people calling him a "parasite." It was interesting. I couldn't believe all the anger. And Ron was still nice about it as he was commenting other people's angry comments.

Ron is also an elderly guy, so I don't blaim him for thinking about the consequences of Universal Health Care.

He wrote: "Do the elderly recognize that they'll lose much of their slice of the Medicare pie should nationalized medicine become a reality?"

Already, 125 people had commented on his thread, mine probably won't pull up until the end, but here it is in it's entirety:

TO BE SEEN BY YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY

- OR -

TO OFFER CARE TO EVERYBODY (but wait in line for a long time - hope your cancer's not aggressive).

It's like Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be."

You decide with your vote and what politician you choose. You have that power and freedom of choice! Study them out carefully please. Don't just vote for them only because they inspire "hope." (And then use scare tactics six months later when they want to pass some bills ... ironic, don't you think?)

Ron has a very good point and I think that Anna and Doug should listen to it, rather than falling prey to one of the logical fallacies of attacking a person's character if they don't like what he is saying.

Whether or not our US health care system becomes fully universal (hopefully not) there will be some trade-offs. These trade-offs already exist in many of these "utopian" countries that you have mentioned: Great Britain, Canada, and many other places where they have some form of health care like unto Universal Health Care. It's called time and resources.

In America we have gotten very used to quick health care (relatively). If you go to an emergency room, you will be treated at least in the next 24 hours, depending on how life-threatening your problem is. We United States citizens want to be treated NOW! (We can be very impatient.)

Now go to Great Britain. You have some form of aggressive cancer. Right now (and for awhile) Britain has had really bad problems with long waits to be seen by a doctor -- we're talking a few months here, not just 24 hours. So you are going to croak while you are waiting in line. So guess what kinds of patients come to the U.S. to actually get some service? YOU GUESSED IT!

Also, if you are over 80, they will offer you hospice care ... and that's about it. You can die in comfort. Pass the morphine please. (I guess that's cheaper than a lot of surgery and expensive drugs, or to be on respirators for years.)

Long Lines Make Universal Health Care Suck IN Great Britain: (2008). Please read and be enlightened to the situation in Great Britain.
http://healthcare-economist.com/2008/04/23/health-care-around-the-world-great-britain/

Excerpt from article:
Waiting Times. Waiting lists are a huge problem in Great Britain. Some examples: 750,000 are on waiting lists for hospital admission; 40% of cancer patients are never able to see an oncologist; there is explicit rationing for services such as kidney dialysis, open heart surgery and care for the terminally ill. Further, minimum waiting times have been instituted to reduce costs. “A top-flight hospital like Suffolk Est PCT was ordered to impose a minimum waiting time of at least 122 days before patients could be treated or the hospital would lose a portion of its funding.”

So based on what is happening in the British system, it is likely that more people will die in our country than they do now, just because of long waits and rationing on big ticket items.

Or you can pay more in Britain and get better care, like everyone eventually does, if they make getting health care for themselves a priority. Excerpt from the article, link included above:
"Private Insurance. 10% of Britons have private health insurance. Private health insurance replicates the coverage provided by the NHS, but gives patients access to higher quality care, and reduced waiting times."

How The Health Care System in Great Britain works, if you want a detailed answer:
http://elt.britcoun.org.pl/elt/h_what.htm

Personally, I think Americans will have a hard time sacrificing the immediacy of our health care to offering it to all. It's just our culture and how we're wired. Unless we're lied to about consequences and then slowly discover them along the way, and then have a lot of "buyer's remorse," which is also very possible.

PLEASE!!! Study the issues and don't get caught up in rhetoric. VOTE WISELY! And remember, there's always a trade-off to every system or proposal. Find out what it is first before you get on the bandwagon. Find out what the unintended consequences will be down the road. Don't just live for today.

Thank you for reading my reply. This is an important issue, and we should do a lot of thinking and research before we come to a final conclusion.

-Danelle