Here's a video for those of you who don't know anyone who has experienced "obamacare." This is just a sample, but it won't take you long to find people yourself that came to the good ol' USA to GET AWAY from this kind of care. Take note of a lady in this video who compares her health care to her dog's. Guess which one has the better health care:
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What ObamaCare Looks Like
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9 comments:
Hi Trina
We felt we had to respond to this video segment - what we have to say is lengthy but please read it (and please also bear in mind that Lesley worked in the UK's nationalised healthcare system for 10 years and knows it pretty well!)!
I take all these arguments as so much sophistry. Here's the rub: Every industrialized country in the world has socialized health care systems, and they work well. The U.S. doesn't because of the enormous profits that are being generated by health care providers. These people (the pharmaceutical industries, insurance providers, etc.) are making a fortune from our current immoral and chaotic system and don't want any system that might threaten their profits. It is that simple.
We hear the more conservative legislators in Washington decrying a government run health plan while they enjoy one for themselves. (Yes, they have a fully funded health care plan provided to them when they are elected, and this coverage continues for life.) This system is financed, by the way, by taxes that we all pay and so the contradiction, to put it mildly, is baldly obvious.
Also beware the conservative commentators (as in this video!!!). They are practicing the art of disinformation and spin doctoring that would have done P.T. Barnum proud. One must be especially aware of this phenomenon (telling the big lie often enough, etc) from the radio commentators. One well known radio demagogue has repeatedly said that Obama is "failing, failing, failing!" And Obama will fail, if enough people swallow this tripe.
We are at a crossroads. If we don't get major national health coverage now, we never will. Obama's plan isn't perfect, but nothing is. The national health plans in other parts of the world aren't perfect either, but I dare say that they are better than no health plan at all, which is what a large segment of American society has. Not to mention the millions of hard working people who lose their houses to the bill collectors after an unexpected illness or accident.
(to be continued...)
Massachusetts has a state run "socialized" health plan. It has some problems, but is working well. We also have several other national health plans that are working as well as any huge bureaucracy can, like the Veteran's Administration and Medicare. The central factor to be considered here is not to be afraid of "socialized" medicine. We already have it! But it is just for our legislators, veterans and those over 65.
As for the cost of a national health care system and those who say we can't afford it, I say BOSH! We can't afford not to take care of our citizens, especially the ageing baby boomers who are now filtering into retirement. If we can bail out huge banking concerns that pay multi-billion dollar bonuses to the morons who bankrupted the industry, we can surely afford to take care of people who are actually working honestly and taking a fare wage. Believe me, this country does have the money to pay for our doctor's visits.
Currently we have an insurance-based health system. It is a tragically flawed system that is based on profit (can anyone make a balanced decision on someone's health care---perhaps a life or death decision---when it may affect their profits?). This system is essentially bankrupt of moral judgement. The foolishness of this system is that only those who are healthy and have a healthy income are accepted. Or, yes, you can get covered if you're ill, but then the premiums are beyond most working American's budgets. So, in the raw, this is a system that smacks of those who believe in the Gospel of Wealth, which---simply put---means if you haven't made enough money to afford it, you don't deserve it! I actually heard one amiable and well-loved conservative commentator say just that, that if you can't afford health care, you should simply do society a favor and die.
We need to have controls on the proposed national health care system. We should have input on decisions for health care based on our religious or moral principles, and ensure that the poorest of our society (and in terms of acquiring decent health care, that is a large segment of the U.S.!) don't end up out of the safety net. This can be done. Perhaps not perfectly, but---again---nothing is! Remember that, at least in theory, we have control of our elected officials, and perhaps these decisions could be controlled with activism. Try that with an insurance official!
Again, don't be afraid of socialized medicine. This is the big lie, that socialized health care is horrible. It isn't. The rest of the world knows that and they are laughing at the American idiots who believe it. Most of them see us as having a third-world health care system....
I will be supporting Obama's health care reform. We really can't afford not to. It won't be perfect. But at least everyone will have health care and I will take it as a challenge to improve the thing after it is done. I, for one, don't want to hear another argument about how horrible socialized health care is. It isn't. And ours won't be.
Paul & Lesley Eblen
ALSO!!!!
Here is an article written by an American doctor working in the UK.
August 14, 2009 at 8:34 am | Reply Dr Andrew Cox
This debate is interesting; especially the misinformed neurosis of right wing propaganda in the USA. This posting is excellent although rightly tempered by its admission of anecdote.
Overall the average person is going to be better off in the NHS. The NHS is undergoing huge change with more emphasis on choice, prompt access and reduced waiting times for treatment, following years of increased investment. The propaganda is out of date and ridiculous (especially for waiting times).
I’m a GP working in the UK. I’ve lived in the USA in my adult life and also worked in New Zealand as a Doctor. The NHS is not without problems, but no system is, but on balance I believe it is the best in the world.
For my 13000 registered patients (with my fellow 9 primary care doctors) we offer appointments based on medical need on the same day and in a week or so for routine problems. We do some evening and weekend surgeries. If patients need a home visit they will have one on the day. We have nurse practitioners who triage same day emergency problems. Patients can attend as many times as they like / need. We can do as many tests that are needed in the surrey including ECG, blood tests; or at a hospital 4 miles away including same day ultrasound, xray, and CTs. MRIs can also be arranged. Patients with sinister symptoms not needing immediate admission will be seen within 2 weeks of referral, often sooner. Most routine conditions from referral to operation will be completed within 4 months, often less. We have in-house counselling, physiotherapy, midwife, health visitors, district nurses and social worker. Referrals are done on line and I can book appointments for patients from a choice of hospitals and specialists. Patient records are fully computerised and investigation results are returned electronically. We call patients on the telephone for queries. We process 100s of prescriptions a day. We do minor surgery, cryotherapy, travel vaccinations, student teaching, training doctors, we routinely visit nursing homes and look after these vulnerable people as we would the younger.
To be continued...
continued...
For chronic disease we have 1000s of patients that see specialist nurses in the practice for diabetes, COPD, asthma, heart disease, kidney disease etc. We can commence insulin in house, perform spirometry etc; as many times as the patients need.
We manage our patients based on clinical need and evidence-based medicine.
This is all free at the point of need (or via taxes less then 10% national income). Only about 10% prescriptions have a cost paid for by the patient (£7, c.$10); the rest are free.
About 10% of patients need a referral for specialist care.
Contrary to the government-controlled nature of the NHS as feared in the USA, I’m an independent, self-employed contractor in the NHS. The partners own (via mortgage) our well cared for grade 2 listed building and receive income based on our list size, the breadth and depth of services we offer and the quality of care. We run our own management structure and employ 40 staff and are responsible for their tax / pension etc; the taxpayer isn’t.
In the UK GP services account for 90% of patient contacts (350 million per year) in the NHS with only 10% of the budget, This equates to about 1.8 billion patient contacts in the USA per year.
Patients can have private health care too, and now it is unlikely to affect your NHS care.
Recent problems are
1. the media-obsessed myth over over-paid GPs (in fact since the new contract for GPs the perceived increase of income has disappeared via the different way we now pay for pensions and national insurance, and 4 years of pay freezes until this year’s 0.7% increase), fortunately GPs are the most trusted group of individuals in the UK;
2. unnecessary government dictats;
3. the hospital system – often dirty, inefficient, low levels of nursing prioritising paperwork over patient care mainly because of poor management;
4. mental health services.
However, most of it is getting better, with many brand new hospitals – and at least the current financial climate should improve efficiencies.
Trina - sorry to bombard you with so much info, but I feel SO strongly about this.
If you or anyone else is interested, I have other articles, written by expat Americans in the UK. The NHS (Britain's system)is by no means perfect, but it is a good, no, a VERY good system.
Also, those of us who are church members should surely be concerned about the MILLIONS of Americans who cannot afford health insurance
Sorry I used the anonymous button -I couldn't remember my password for Google!
Eblens,
I’m so glad you decided to join in the discussion of healthcare. There is so much information to sift through that these sort of open discussions are invaluable. First, I would like to pose a question regarding the statement you made calling our current system “immoral and chaotic.” Did you mean our free market system? I just wanted to clarify. Also, I was wondering if you had the chance to read my post entitled “Moral Obligations.” You might define the video following it as sophistry, but that could be said on both sides of the aisle, as the video points out. As you have mentioned that “those of us who are church members should surely be concerned about the MILLIONS of Americans who cannot afford health insurance,” I would again refer you to my previous post entitled “Moral Obligations” and my most current post “Religious Freedom.” You may also be interested in the following video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0BpLlnvmME
I understand that there is real need for help in the issue of healthcare. Most Americans do, but this is not the answer. All of the other countries in the world may choose to follow a socialized system, but that does not mean that we need to, or that it is the right thing to do. We cannot erode what makes this country great, what makes this country different from the rest. We cannot erode our freedom— even freedom to be charitable or not to be charitable. I can tell you this—there are many who are charitable, even the majority of the people in the United States. We cannot force charity, but we can inspire it. We must start with ourselves. Just because another has more than us, we cannot envy it and justify stealing it away from them. Two wrongs do not make a right.
The solution to more affordable healthcare is less government and more free market. Examples of this are laser eye surgery and plastic surgery. These services are becoming more advanced and more affordable, yet the government is not involved. In fact, there are many real solutions circulated that would help healthcare to be more affordable. What we cannot afford is to lose our freedoms and our moral, even religious principles. It is a pathway that this great, free country cannot afford to go down.
The Constitution was written by God-inspired men to protect man’s unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Healthcare is not an unalienable right. Healthcare is an individual aspiration. I believe it is an important aspiration. It is our individual moral responsibility to provide for ourselves and to help others who cannot, but not to force it. Forcing, in fact, would be immoral.
With regards to bail outs you might also see what we said about those at our two blogs:
Why I Oppose a Bailout
Where Will We Stand
Let us know if you agree and why or why not. Thanks for commenting.
Another thing, let's remember that our government actually wrote the legislation that supported a health insurance based health care system. That legislation needs to be trashed. Now it is forcing us to buy health insurance through this so called health care "reform" bill. So much for our government saving us from those "greedy" insurance companies.
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