Scanning over the news these days, I'm afraid the answer to all of the above questions is "Yes."
At this point I see no realistic way to dissipate the fog of lies, innuendos, and rumor. The president is brown, therefore anything he proposes must be a ploy to destroy whites: ipso facto. One benefit to my learning from all the hullabaloo, though, is that it has motivated me to read articles comparing and contrasting how civilized countries manage their health care issues. There's a concise rundown in the Alaska Daily News today:
"For Native Americans or veterans, we're Britain: The government provides health care, funding it through general taxes, and patients get no bills. For people who get insurance through their jobs, we're Germany. ... For people over 65, we're Canada: Everyone pays premiums for an insurance plan run by the government, and the public plan pays private doctors and hospitals according to a set fee schedule.It's been interesting to learn about the tremendous variety of systems advanced countries use to take care of their citizens, but so terribly sad to realize that the country I live in is no longer advanced or civilized. We have become a post-modern corporate-driven idiocracy. We inhabit the infrastucture-- social and physical-- painfully constructed by the efforts of past visionaries like Ted Kennedy, but we no longer have the will or sense to maintain it, let alone continue their efforts.
"And for the tens of millions without insurance coverage, we're Burundi or Burma: In the world's poor nations, sick people pay out of pocket for medical care; those who can't pay stay sick or die."
So my answer to the question in the title is "We are Terri Schiavo."
Pull the goddamn plug already.
1 comment:
I got a chance to talk to a middle aged couple who were visiting the states from Britain last year. They were surprised at the ridiculousness of the debate here. I got the feeling their politics were more conservative in general but health care in their minds didn't figure on the left/ right axiom.
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