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November 27, 2006
So, You Think You Want Universal Healthcare?
by Tina Grazier
Shudder...not me! A recent article titled "Filth and shame in a NHS hospital" in the UK Sunday Times supplied startling evidence of the failures that doom state run healthcare systems. As Minnet Marrin writes, "Week after week reliable reports and the government's own figures tell a disgraceful story of incompetence, debt, misery and filth in the National Health Service. That story is supported, week after week, by heart-rending personal accounts of horrors on the wards."
The article's main focus is "same-sex wards' but the complaints make it clear that many problems plague the British
healthcare system, not the least of which is uninspired care. Meanwhile, here in America the campaign slogans and utopian promises that herald liberal notions of a free healthcare system do not holdup when the realities of such a system are articulated by those living with it:
"...dying of cancer, was put onto a mixed geriatric ward where confused people wandered about without supervision. One man with dementia regularly ma*tur*ated at the nurses' station and tried to get into women patients' beds; he was a threat to them all but staff took no notice..."
"...patients have to give answers to intimate questions in the hearing of other patients. One deaf old man was repeatedly asked when he last had an erection, until tears ran down his cheeks."
"Patients lie naked, half washed and forgotten, their sick and ageing flesh exposed to everyone, while nurses rush elsewhere. It is commonplace to have to walk to filthy mixed lavatories with gowns wide open at the back. At a time of sickness and anxiety many people are profoundly embarrassed to be surrounded by a clutter of bed pans, colostomy bags, nakedness, cries of pain and sweat, blood and tears -- their own and other people's."
The push for universal health care will soon be back as democrats take control in congress and Hillary makes her bid for president. We must resist the urge to embrace this enticement that the word "free" calls up in us. Nothing is free...and every time it is claimed, the product offered is found to be only a cheap imitation of inferior quality and value, broken by days end.
Posted by Post Scripts at November 27, 2006 08:29 AM
Comments
We rank 42nd in the world for infant mortality, 48th in life expectancy. That is down right embarrassing, since we have the most expensive health care system in the world.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
Posted by: Jim at November 27, 2006 05:27 PM
I was doing some research on this and guess what? Stats don't tell the whole truth! Duh! Who woulda guessed that?
News flash: It's our increasingly unhealthy American lifestyle, not our healthcare system that's the culprit for our low healthcare rankings!
On a case by case basis our quality of healthcare is still #1. Nobody does it better, period.
However, the way we take care of ourselves, from high fat diets, alcohol and drug consumption, poor exercise, violent crime, high stress and smoking, even automobile accidents, this all takes a toll on society despite the best healthcare on the planet. C'mon, people have to take some responsibility here, you can't blame it all on one little narrow segment of society...our healthcare system!
It would be far worse if we had a national healthcare system like some of those nations that beat us statistically. Yes, that's right, those systems would drop us right off the charts pal! You want to see even more deaths? Try a national healthcare without making any corrections as to how people care for themselves!
The personal health accountability issue gets even worse when you factor in a huge new influx of 3rd world people. Literally millions of them are bringing in bad habits from poor hygiene to superstitions that hinder good health practices. Some of these "statistical problems" were begun in other countries and brought by these undocumented masses...you know it too Jim and I can't believe you didn't touch on that?
Check this out..."Americans should be told that diseases long eradicated in this country – tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, for example – and other extremely contagious diseases have been linked directly to illegals. For example, in 40 years, only 900 persons were afflicted by leprosy in the U.S.; in the past three years, more than 7,000 cases have been presented."
"This emerging crisis exposes the upside-down thinking of federal immigration policy," Said the Phoenix Business Report.
The poverty, the ignorance and the unhealthy life styles that come with the flood of poor illegal aliens contribute greatly to our crime stats too.
So, don't assume every statistic is the fault of our healthcare system. Our doctors are the best educated and best equipped in the world, but the results they get are hampered by the pool of citizens they have to work with.
It would be totally wrong not to see this side of the problem and acknowledge it.
Be sensible, fair and balanced. Please see the whole picture and then put some of your blame where it belongs, right back on society! How about blaming some high rates of infant mortality blame on drunk mothers, crack whores and drug addicts that infest the inner cities? And look at all the fat Americans...all we have to do is look in the mirror to see where the blames lies. But, no docs are the easy targets and its not very politically correct to hold society accountable for anything is it? It's not the liberal way....never has been and look what THAT has done for people.
So, if you really want to focus your blame on this problem, I guess you can blame the liberals. They brought us all these illegals with all their problems, they created sanctuary cities, they helped rekindle diseases we wiped out decades ago, they blocked tort reform to keep lawyers from filing frivolous lawsuits and driving up the cost of malpractice insurance, they are the ones keeping people down on welfare where the fat get fatter, the lazy get lazier, the poor get ever more dependant on big government!
Once again...when you look really close at a problem it's the liberals behind it. They are trashing America at every level and ruining it for the rest of us. The evidence is out there, but first you have to have an open mind and look!
Posted by: Jack at November 27, 2006 08:25 PM
Great Common Sense Analysis or (CSA) as I will now refer to it.
It would be well for people to remeber that statistics can tell much more than what the people conducting teh study wish us to see.
Posted by: Nick Freitas at November 28, 2006 03:46 PM
We rank 42nd in the world for infant mortality, 48th in life expectancy.
There's something pretty stinky about these stats as Jack so thoroughly pointed out...I would add aids to the list of health crises that determine the bad stats...both in terms of the death rate and in terms of healthcare costs.
...we have the most expensive health care system in the world.
Expensive is an interesting word. Healthcare that amounts to a few syringes, a blood pressure cuff and "drugs if you can get them" certainly doesn't cost much so I guess that would be termed "inexpensive".
There are a number of contributing factors that make our system costly as Jack has said. Layers of bureaucracy and high levels of inefficiency and waste in government programs and layers of support staff to handle paperwork in private offices and hospitals also add up to make our system "expensive".
I haven't visited the website yet, but I will.
Posted by: Tina at November 29, 2006 07:43 PM
I visited the website and determined that the worst countries for infant mortality and life expectancy were clustered together with slight differences. The same with those with "better" records.
News stories or reports that use statistics in this way (America ranks 42nd or 48th...) without telling the whole story seek only to deceive the public and disparage America. Americans need to stop feeling guilty and rediscover the greatness and goodness of America...flawed rather than perfect, but pretty amazing and wonderful none the less. We are truly a blessed nation by our founding.
Posted by: Tina at December 2, 2006 10:41 AM