National health insurance: the wrong Rx

[midnight armadillo]

National health insurance: the wrong Rx

By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist | March 22, 2005

THERE IS a bumper sticker on the car ahead of me as I drive down Interstate 93. In white letters on a navy background, it proclaims: ''Single-Payer Health Care!'' That's it. There is no argument, no attempt at logic or emotion or humor -- just an impatient demand for the drastic transformation of one-seventh of the US economy. And note the exclamation point. That is to communicate earnestness, certitude, and indignation -- classic elements of the liberal approach to policymaking: When promoting radical change, passion and good intentions are what matter most. Real-world consequences count for far less.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/03/22/national_health_insurance_the_wrong_rx/

I can't stand Jacoby...but this is really too much.

[etherealtruth]

1. Tell that to the uninsured in America...

I have stated this before: Waiting for care is a whole lot better than not getting care!

(I am sure Jacoby receives all the medical care he desires)

[rogerashton]

2. Jacoby expects a dissertation on a bumper sticker?

He should get real.

[ClintonTyree]

3. What a putz..............

let's take one sentence of this vile screed and substitute just ONE word for another, ready?

"That is to communicate earnestness, certitude, and indignation -- classic elements of the Republican approach to policymaking: When promoting radical change, passion and good intentions are what matter most. Real-world consequences count for far less."

Notice I've replaced, "Liberal", with "Republican". Now how could we apply this same reasoning to Republicans? Let me count the ways.....

Terri Shiavo- The dog and pony show the slugs have made out of this poor woman's misfortune. There's certainly a lot of "passion" and "radical change" proposed by them in this misadventure.

Iraq- Passion and good intentions. Isn't that what the Slugs are claiming now instead of finding all of those WMD's that were spilling out of warehouses everywhere in the country?

Social Security- Passion and good intentions? To hear the Slugs describe it, that's exactly what they're doing. They're intend to "help" us with our Social Security program, and it seems like they're being quite passionate about ramming it down our throats, whether we want it or not.

Those are but a few. This supposed journalist can't see the proverbial forest for the Republican trees in his eye. Of course I've grown to expect nothing less from these neo-con shills, always blaming the left for the shortcomings of the right.

Do we have another bush toady on the White House payroll here? It certainly sounds like it to me.

I guess health care belongs to only the rich. Or someone with irreparable brain damage that can score them some points with their radical right, lunatic fringe, god squad.

[rodeodance]

4. He probably has a good insurance plan

[papau]

5. RW Jacoby has his usual RW lies to sell

He quotes a John C. Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, saying "rationing by waiting is pervasive, putting patients at risk and keeping them in pain" - as if rationing by lack of insurance is better.

Then he sells the same guy's book (2 co-authors, Gerald Musgrave and Devon Herrick) "Lives at Risk,"' - and now the basis for a monograph for the Cato Institute, "Health Care in a Free Society" - that asserts the US Way is more efficient, more equitable, and more affordable - despite the fact we pay 50% more as a percentage of GNP to cover only 85% of the population - perhaps cover 50% with good coverage - but facts never stopped CATO or Jeff Jacoby.

So Jacoby sells the fear of the "limit healthcare" - as if our insurance and pocketbook do not limit healthcare now - and the "wait lists" - as if the ER's now do not now refuse to treat various non-critical problems.

Indeed non-critical - meaning "elective" -surgery folks in thos nasty national health countries face waits of 4 months for 25% of the surgery that they want!

Schocking!

In the US annual physicals must be booked 6 months to 9 months in advance in most areas - but Jacoby is upset by the Fraser Institute of Vancouver report that the average Canadian patient waited 8.3 weeks for an appointment with a specialist in 2003 -- and another 9.5 weeks before getting treated.

I loved the colon canser wait in Britain causing 20% of the curable to become non-curable - since after you are found to have colon cancer the rate of "cure" is minimal, this is silly.

Then there is time spent with the patient - more than 20 minutes or less - can we say that US practice requires 10 times the paper work because of all the laws/regulations needed in a private insurance world - those extra minutes in the US are not always "quality minutes".

Indeed efficiency is in Jacoby's world a bad - the average US doctor sees 2,222 patients annually, the average Canadian doctor sees 3,143 - and no mention of any results study that indicates the American lives longer or has less child deaths - or - right - our results suck compared to those national health countries.

But we do buy the best equipement in the US - much more than any given area needs is purchased in our "competitive" system. Our folks push kidney dialysis, anf Jeff quotes the fact we get five times the coronary bypasses performed in Canada - but what about "results" as in longer life - why Jacoby is again silent.

If Americans really have a better chance of beating a condition -- such as prostate cancer, renal failure, or heart disease -- that would kill them elsewhere - why does this not show uo in our longevity?

[Wright Patman]

6. Once again, the South and Texas

drag down the longevity statistics.

Many of the original settlers to this part of the country were the product of literally thousands of years of in-breeding, which continued to an extent even in the backcountry of the colonial U.S. (Remember the jokes about Arkansas siblings and the like.)

An uncle who was a doctor around here called this having PPP (piss-poor protoplasm). Couple that with what I would call an "anti-health" food diet (google the 'Four Southern Food Groups') and you have a recipe for disaster.

[Bridget Burke]

7. "thousands of years of inbreeding"?

So--they were already inbred when they got here?

Of course, you've chosen to live in East Texas. Houston is geographically close to that fetid, mosquito & KKK infested swamp but worlds away demographically. We've got a diverse population here; Houston ain't Vidor.

[Wright Patman]

8. 'Albion's Seed'

by historian David Hackett Fischer is my source. He divides the U.S. into four distinct cultures. Ours is ruled by the mentality of the Scots-Irish 'borderers' (so named because they were nomadic herders who lived in the lawless border region between Scotland and England).

These folk are the MOST VIOLENT by far of any of the four cultures in the U.S. They were constantly raiding each others' herds or fending off rustlers and there was no "law" in that region to impose civilized norms upon them. The leadership of our military historically has belonged to this culture.

I say thousands of years because when your family never moves beyond a confined territory such as that (no youth went off to college in those days, of course), how could you be anything other than somewhat inbred (even if not spawned by procreating siblings)?

Well, I didn't so much choose to live here as not to live elsewhere. I am a native of the region. Although I've been to Houston a number of times, I've never been to Vidor. That's how big even East Texas is. I think the Vidorites would call me a "North Texan."

[kentuck]

9. If healthcare is one-seventh of US economy....?

then something needs to be changed.....Will it still be OK when it's half of the US economy?

[MollyStark]

10. How much does he think can be put on a bumper sticker?

picky picky picky

[newyawker99]

13. Hi MollyStark!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[justgamma]

11. The Bush Doctrine

"When promoting radical change, passion and good intentions are what matter most. Real-world consequences count for far less."

[bemildred]

12. "earnestness, certitude, and indignation"

Like maybe the Schiavo case?
What a drooling fool.