Posted on Leave a comment

The US Healthcare System is the Best in the World!

Well, actually it’s ranked 37th.

Evidence that other countries perform better than the United States in ensuring the health of their populations is a sure prod to the reformist impulse. The World Health Report 2000, Health Systems: Improving Performance, ranked the U.S. health care system 37th in the world…

It is hard to ignore that in 2006, the United States was number 1 in terms of health care spending per capita but ranked 39th for infant mortality, 43rd for adult female mortality, 42nd for adult male mortality, and 36th for life expectancy. These facts have fueled a question now being discussed in academic circles, as well as by government and the public: Why do we spend so much to get so little?

[Source, , ]

Posted on 1 Comment

Dropping Public Option is NOT an Option

Contact your representative today! It’s easy. Just click here. Tell your representatives that giving up a public option is NOT an option. A pubic option is indispensable! Government run health care is not about jobless people or illegal aliens. Government run health care is about the millions of people who cannot get insurance and therefore cannot get affordable health care. The reasons people cannot get insurance vary from being self-employed (living that American dream!) and either not having enough employees or enough profits to get affordable health care, to pre-existing conditions which may or may not even be a factor in their health care (did you know being on anti-depressants 10 years ago could be enough of a pre-existing condition to deny you insurance coverage even if you no longer use the drugs?), to working jobs with inconsistent work schedules which cause the employee to be laid off for lengthy periods of time such as construction and fisheries (that lobster you enjoy so much was probably caught by a U.S. citizen without insurance), people who have maxed out their insurance such as the mental ill (just because they are ill doesn’t mean they should be shoved away), and the elderly.

50 million people is a lot of people. That means you probably know several people without insurance or health care. They are probably ignoring conditions that could be treated which will result in more expensive care in the long term or early death. So if you don’t believe we need government backed health care, have lunch with one of these people today, look them in their eyes, and explain it to them.

Remember, these people do not want insurance! They want health care!.

Update: My apologies for the numerous grammar errors and word omissions in this post. I believe most have been corrected. I was a bit rushed this morning and really did not have time to be posting but felt this issue deserved attention. It definitely won the "2009 post in greatest need of an editor" award.