More Evidence of Fractures

"Yes, I know Canada does a good job. That doesn't mean I think our much larger, more populous country with all its pharmaceutical companies, profitable health insurance companies and lobbyists can do the same." (my last blog)

Ambulance Driver commented, "A great many Canadian doctors and healthcare providers would disagree with that statement. In Canada, those that can afford it cross the border south and get their medical care in the US. This is an increasingly common phenomenon.

There's no question that our healthcare system is broken, just like our legal system.

But as someone much smarter than me has said in the past,

"It's the most flawed, inefficient system in the world today...except for everyone else's."

This was AD's answer to my blog on national health care and I was both pleased to get it and saddened. We've all been told national health care is just great elsewhere, so we should have it.

Never did go for this logic. I guess we citizens assume if pharmaceuticals are cheaper in Canada, their medicine care must be better, too. Also specious logic.
But we always want a bargain, don't we? I believed the PR about Canadian health care. I appreciate the correction.

So Bush is vetoing the CHIPS bill the Democrats have proposed. Yesterday, the Democrats pitted the words of a 12-year-old boy against the President's comments. Brilliant, in a way. Also egregious. It is as cynical a political move, as uncaring of children, as anything I have ever seen to use this boy in national politic manuevering. Great fodder for next fall. Thanks, kid. Have a good life, y'hear?

I don't want to imagine how low politics can go. Everytime I do, someone goes lower.
And again, we can vote the rascals out. But who in the world do we vote IN?

AD said our medical and legal systems are broken. I agree. How broken in the political system?

What Are You Willing to Pay for What You Get?

I was startled when it was reported on "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?" that 51 percent of the population is in favor of national health insurance. Wow.
Yes, I know Canada does a good job. That doesn't mean I think our much larger, more populous country with all its pharmaceutical companies, profitable health insurance companies and lobbyists can do the same.

When Hillary Clinton announced she was for national health insurance, one critic, no, I don't know who, and that's dangerous. But he opined it would enlarge the federal government about four-fold, and that sounds like a reasonable enstimate.

And then yesterday the report came out that the only way Social Security can continue solvency is to cut benefits while increasing spending. Allen Greenspan was saying virtually the same thing last week as he talked about his book, and that the Congress is ignoring needed changes when baby boomers are coming into retirement with a vengence.

A charitable hospital district in the area estimated covering routine care beyond emergency care for indigent patients with no insurance for just their county could boost expenses in one year by 40 million dollars.

Everyone is posturing for votes. The truth is barely skimmed in the media, it's more just quoting who has the best sound bite. It is all about the emotion and popularity and who's winning. I am so tired of this. It didn't used to be such work just to find out the facts. Maybe I had more energy, but I don't think so. Not only is Congress mostly operating as a bunch of sugar daddies (or mommas), journalism does an increasingly poor job of covering it.

Oh, yeah, there's a lot that needs to be improved in health care. I just have heard nothing that makes me think nationalizing it would help. Medical care on the par with say, public housing would not make me happy, I think. Ask vets about the VA Administration. Extremely spotty record.

Sigh. It's seems every time I pick a cause, it's defeated, But I hope not, or planners at least come up first with something coherent and address the aging population and the illegal population problems along with the rest of the population.

Both House and Senate will approve a bill this week increasing health insurance benefits for children. Bush has already said he will veto it and both parties know they don't have the votes to overcome a veto. So this seems like a gesture signifying nothing. Bush is reported to have said he will veto because the bill would cover children whose families already have private insurance. How do I find out if this is true? Oh, and they say they would pay for this by increasing cigarette tax again, when everyone piously prays the higher taxes will encourage people to stop smoking. Gee, what if it does? Then what?

I don't like the way my country is being run, and I don't like the choices that are being made, and God help me, there don't seem to be any alternatives.National Health Insurance won't give us more choices. It will give us less. There are too few already.

Freedom At What Price?

I am still such a credulous smuck. I still hope people do the right thing because it is the right thing instead of the politic or power move. Mostly, I am wrong. But I still hope every now and then.

A couple weeks ago I was listening to an NPR political analyst attack Barack Obama for his stance on the funding of the Iraq war. He voted against going to war, which I admire tremendously. He stood up and let his vote be counted. I, a citizen, albeit voting, in Texas, despaired of writing my opposition to the invasion to anyone. I did nothing. I still think any letters I could have written, would have fallen on deaf ground at the time. But he voted. Up front and personal. He voted against it.

And now, the Congress has asked for a timeline to withdraw. And Bush, of course, has vetoed. And Obama said he believes it is time to compromise with the president because "I do not want to play chicken over the bodies of American soldiers."

The political analyst sneered. What's the matter with him? He's in a strong position. He should take on the administration. He's offering to negotiate before we've even reached the line. He is taking a position of weakness when he is still supposed to be fighting for The Team.

I don't know much about Obama, don't know if I would vote for him, but this touched me. When more Democrats than Republicans were voted into office in November, the Democrats seem to think the voting public wants the same old ball game only with them in the ascendency instead of the Republicans. I rather doubt that. I think we are tired of the football game of Red vs. Blue and would like to get back to a time when it is less acrimonious and the two parties have to work together and compromise and actually get some things done. I was pleased the Democrats had such a slim majority for this very reason.

I recently listened to another analyst who said if the war ended tomorrow, and all the money from that could be plowed into the economy, Congress has porkbellied so egregiously it would not make one whit of difference in the national debt or what we are doing. Discouraging. And then I listened to a man opining that 85% of the French voted because who they chose would really make a difference on how their country was run. In our country, eight US senators who had received massive campaign contributions from drug companies managed to block a vote allowing citizens to get cheaper meds from across the borders. The will of the people is not listened to in Washington unless we get really exercised. What talks is money from the lobbyists. I live in a free country. But it does not feel so free today.

Take Me To Your Leader! Uhh, Who's That?

I got out of my car at the elementary school the other day and idly glanced at the car in front of me. The car had a nice, shiny, bright bumper sticker stuck inside the back window. The bumper sticker read "Dump Bush." I did a double-take.

Uh, folks? Is there something you should know?

Maybe it's been there since '04, but then I would expect some wear and tear, some fading. What in the world?

I assume they know Bush is the president. That's good. Heard on the news today that fewer Americans than ever before know the name of the American president, vice president, or the governor of their own state. I'll test my fifth-grader on these tomorrow. She and her classmates are so busy training to the TAKS tests she has to pass to get to sixth grade (despite her straight A and B classroom average) that I hear teachers no longer have much, if any, time to teach current events.

I may need to get back on my Prozac. I have looked forward with satisfaction to the waning months of Bush's term as president, but as I look at the teeming hordes of politicians on both sides jockeying for position as viable candidates in '08, I am overcome with gloom. The field does not shine with promise. With more citizens unaware of who the president is, or apparently, when his term ends, outcome seems a little grim.

Surely things will get better. Surely.