Letters to the Editor
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The Rout of the Conservaboob
"every other industrial country spends half of what we do on health care."
Mr. Conservaboob, what he/she left off is "and get better health care."
Our infant mortality is ranked about 35, well below England, France, Germany and many other countries with socialist systems.
In most bankruptsy proceedings, a health care problem is usually at the start. This is even true with people with insurance, since many insurance plans require a large co-pay or have coverage limits.
The US health care system is broken beyond repair.
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no that is the point, by every rational measurement they get MORE and BETTER health care
for HALF the money, it's true that in the US you don't have to wait as long to spend 50K on a facelift. USA USA USA USA USA
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read more, you'll get more
Our infant mortality is ranked about 35, well below England, France, Germany and many other countries with socialist systems.
And if you read my original letter, you'd see why. We make a greater effort to save babies in extreme distress than they do. Some inevitably don't make it, but we tried. There they don't even try, so it doesn't show up in their stats. A four-month premie is simply left to die. Some "progress"!
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GEORGE -------------the 'APPOINTED ONE'.
As my Dearly Departed Mother-in-Law said before her Death on her 38th Anniversary and a noted Speaker at AA: concerning George Walker Bush; "He's still on a DRY DRUNK". He still IS, these too many year later.
However, he was Confirmed by Billie Graham making him by another name "George the Baptist" or is there indeed a Methodist to this Madness or merely a Zealot for POWER?
sub sole sub umbra virens
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and poor logic
The other problem with your "thinking" abilities, dataguyx, is that you simply assume I think our system is perfect because I defend it against the alternative. Such thinking is the product of a simplistic mind incapable of juggling more than one idea at a time.
To say one is preferable to another is not to say to say that that one is perfect or not in need of correction. It's simply to say, well, that one is more preferable to the other. Or is such reasoning too supple for you?
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no that isn't the reason, the reason is that many is the US lack access
to basic pre and post natal health care for the babies and lots of the mothers are sicker because they too lack access. The minute number is cases you refer to isn't enough to have any effect on the overall statistics.
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Conservaboobs: Stop digging
Geez, talk about whack-a-mole
The other problem with your "thinking" abilities, dataguyx, is that you simply assume I think our system is perfect because I defend it against the alternative. Such thinking is the product of a simplistic mind incapable of juggling more than one idea at a time.
I have no idea where that came from.
You have not addressed a single one of my points. If you wish to have a conversation, do me the politeness of staying on message.
What about the insurance system? Universal coverage cuts out 17-20 % spent on insurance, and goes from 60 forms to 1. Many physicians (not doctors, i am a doctor) would be very happy with that.
What about the genetic discrimination?
What about the pre-existing conditions?
What about children who need medical care?
Public systems have flaws. They are far superior to our current failed system.
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My friends don't think I am crazy anymore
I have been railing about dangers of American fascism in the form of right-wing Christianity for at least 10 years. I grew up among the "old" variety -- the country churches full of earnest, fearful and gullible (sorry to say) believers. It was obvious to me years ago that our country was facing a real and horrifying threat.
My family still lives in a rural part of the Midwest. The majority of my immediate family are sane, moderate to liberal Democrats. They, too, have understood for years to danger that America faces from the far-right combined with an intolerant brand of fundamentalist Christianity. Like me, they grew up with it in a less virulent form.
For at least 10 years, I have railed about the threat to my fellow liberal friends. You know us: well-educated, upper middle class urbanites who live in VERY blue areas of center cities and inner suburbs. These are intelligent, well-read and political people.
For years my compatriots thought I was nuts. They laughged at and with me at the "threat." Not so much anymore, especially since the 2004 election.
Now, the challenge we face is to wake up the vast middle of America -- the well-meaning, basically tolerant middle class, many of whom live in "purple" or even "red" areas of the country.
I live in Washington, DC, very close to the White House. Another massive terrorist attack is a fear I live with at all times. The other fear I live with at all times are the people in "American Fascists." Will their time come if we are hit by another attack similar to 9-11?
God help us.
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H.L. Mencken....
said it best, as he often did. After observing Nazi Germany first-hand, he returned to say, more-or-less:
"when fascism comes to America, it'll be carrying a cross, wrapped in the flag."
Not verbatim, but close enough. It has been ever thus. We have to fight the idiots among us forever. As long as we're all human, this is how it'll be.
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stop simply opinionating and give some facts
Re: infant mortality, here's an article from a professional demographer that supports my position:
http://www.overpopulation.com/articles/2002/000019.html
The pertinent quote:
the United States also easily has the most intensive system of emergency intervention to keep low birth weight and premature infants alive in the world. The United States is, for example, one of only a handful countries that keeps detailed statistics on early fetal mortality -- the survival rate of infants who are born as early as the 20th week of gestation.
How does this skew the statistics? Because in the United States if an infant is born weighing only 400 grams and not breathing, a doctor will likely spend lot of time and money trying to revive that infant. If the infant does not survive -- and the mortality rate for such infants is in excess of 50 percent -- that sequence of events will be recorded as a live birth and then a death.
In many countries, however, (including many European countries) such severe medical intervention would not be attempted and, moreover, regardless of whether or not it was, this would be recorded as a fetal death rather than a live birth. That unfortunate infant would never show up in infant mortality statistics.
Now put up or shut up with your simpering on how apples to oranges statistical comparisons prove that Europe has better healthcare than we do. I've lived on both continents. I know what I'm talking about. Our system, flaws and all, is much better than you get in Europe.