"The quality medical care Ted Kennedy quickly received after his brain cancer diagnosis would not be available to Americans if the U.S. adopted the healthcare policies advocated by the Massachusetts Senator..." (and Obama and Clinton). This is from a recent article on the treatments Ted Kennedy received and the future of that kind of treatment in the US. i sincerely doubt that it's buyer's remorse.The article goes on. On universal healthcare in other countries...
"The expert cites the example of a 22-year-old woman in England — which has universal coverage — who complained of headaches for months, but had to wait a year to see a neurologist.
She then had to wait more than three months to get what Britain’s National Health Service decided was only a “relatively urgent” MRI scan.
Three days before the MRI appointment, she died."
Well, at least we know what to look forward to.
What will the rich do? Go elsewhere. For healthcare, for jobs, for tax shelters. Then no one will be here to pay for this reduced benefit system. Why can we surmise this?
The YMCA's of the nation and most pools are starved for lifeguards in the US. This is a relatively new problem. They cite a number of reasons, but the leading cause is motivational. A vast majority of lifeguards are teenagers and college kids. Think about the alternatives. For the same $8/hour, they can work at almost any retailer or fast food counter. They can show up half asleep, stoned, or hung over, and barely on time and do the job well enough to not get fired. Their training is paid for. Oh, and they get two free uniforms. Pools and YMCA's just can't compete with that.
The same will be true of America. Doctors who can get more money in other countries will leave. Patients who can afford better care will leave too. The richest one percent all have the means to live overseas and receive better care. Most of the wealthiest 10% could afford to travel overseas for specific appointments, treatments, prescriptions, or surgeries. Who pays for most of the government programs? Yup, that bracket. So, by all means, let's create a system that harms or at the very least benefits less those who pay for it. I'm sure they'll stay.
If you think they will, you credit them with high morals. If they had them, they'd already voluntarily be providing that healthcare.
Well, at least we know what to look forward to.
What will the rich do? Go elsewhere. For healthcare, for jobs, for tax shelters. Then no one will be here to pay for this reduced benefit system. Why can we surmise this?
The YMCA's of the nation and most pools are starved for lifeguards in the US. This is a relatively new problem. They cite a number of reasons, but the leading cause is motivational. A vast majority of lifeguards are teenagers and college kids. Think about the alternatives. For the same $8/hour, they can work at almost any retailer or fast food counter. They can show up half asleep, stoned, or hung over, and barely on time and do the job well enough to not get fired. Their training is paid for. Oh, and they get two free uniforms. Pools and YMCA's just can't compete with that.
The same will be true of America. Doctors who can get more money in other countries will leave. Patients who can afford better care will leave too. The richest one percent all have the means to live overseas and receive better care. Most of the wealthiest 10% could afford to travel overseas for specific appointments, treatments, prescriptions, or surgeries. Who pays for most of the government programs? Yup, that bracket. So, by all means, let's create a system that harms or at the very least benefits less those who pay for it. I'm sure they'll stay.
If you think they will, you credit them with high morals. If they had them, they'd already voluntarily be providing that healthcare.
3 comments:
but where are all these rich people going to go that would be different than the US with universal healthcare...
even it ever happens, yeah, you might be right... some people might have to wait for certain services but they are probably the people who wouldn't have had healthcare before anyway. the wealthy would still be able to pay for and recieve better care than everyone else.
besides, every other wealthy nation already has universal healthcare/insurance... and i don't really see the kennedys fleeing the US to live in a developing country where healthcare is questionable regardless of how much you can pay.
Haha, riiiiiight. Plenty of less than wealthy Americans and wealthy ones too fly to Central and South America to see doctors and surgeons when procedures are not approved by the FDA, etc. If you read anything at all about the plans Obama and Clinton have for universal healthcare, you'll discover it would be illegal for doctors to provide care above the standard level.
There are also great doctors and medical service to be found in places like Japan (which doesn't have totally Universal Healthcare).
The argument that we should do it because so many (not every) other developed countries have is nonsense. The countries that are doing this with any measurable success by our current standards of care (not the UK or Canada) mostly have populations smaller than NY. And NONE of them have the massive influx immigration populations that we do. Only France has the same immigrant influx proportionally speaking out of the developed nations, and they have massive problems with their Healthcare now. It's been in the news.
The Kennedys will fly to/live anywhere they have to and always will, you can count on that.
Eventually, some developed country that needs or wants the money will cash in. They'll sell citizenship to the wealthy of other nations in exchange for tax free bank accounts and doctors and healthcare that is not subpar. It'll be the "American Dream" relocated.
i'm not worried, just sad that no one sees this coming. The US won't be anything like it is now within 40 or 50 years. Not with the current trends of secularism, healthcare, politics, pluralism, immigration, terrorism, world politics, etc. It won't be what Republicans or Democrats want or envision. And only God will be able to help any of us, which i'm all for. Privilege and wealth are not our birthrights. Service in the name of Christ is what matters. That's what will be left soon enough when the wheel goes round. No empire lasts forever. Besides, only us and the Roman Empire placed our hands over our hearts as a salute...
Universal health coverage - the great idea that must always be marked with the stain of unfeasibility. In this instance, a marriage of promise and reality seems one that will never occur. A regular Romeo and Juliet of policy stories - especially relevant as it involves an apothecary and death.
I want everyone to have health care but I am just not convinced, however much I desire to be convinced, that such a plan will ever work. There must be a solution, some middle ground but more study is needed. This is the value of discussing the impractical - that out of it may come something of lasting and practical value to the millions of uninsured without dismantling the care that the millions of insured have come to expect.
Now that I've read your blog, you should read mine if you like. It might be insightful, it might be enlightening but I claim to be nothing more than myself when I write.
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