Health Care, Public or Private?
Daniel Hannan a member of the European Parliament representing South East England discusses his infamous showdown with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Enoch Powell, his opinion of the British National Health Service, and what the Republicans could learn from the recent successes of Britain’s Conservative Party.
thedoc@voicedup.com:
The web is certainly a good place to retrieve unfiltered news although this is not necessarily a good thing. For one, its not always a left wing journalist filtering information. If it was there would not be round the clock coverage of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech with basketball analogies. Coverage would also be extended to people with real health care problems vs. illiterates that shout down town hall meetings with statements such as “Tell the government to keep their hands off my medicare.” Discussions would have centered around Obama’s health care press conference instead of focusing on the Skip Gates and Officer Crowley comment. The media here is so worried about being called the liberal media that they don’t actually report news anymore. When was the last time anyone saw a presidential debate where the news station had its analysts go over and break down what the candidates said and what it means and who was telling the truth and who was untruthful? Today viewers are sent to a democratic “spinster” and then a republican “spinster” who both act as if their candidate was flawless. They literally send you to a place called deception alley and they don’t break down the debate for the public with fear they will be labeled liberal or leftist. The problem with the web is that everyone is in such a rush to get the story out first, that media outlets don’t actually have journalists doing investigative reporting. The validity of a web article is left up to the reader. When Dan Rather went on 60 minutes to report it was known he investigated it and checked his sources. Now most of the time people read the title of an article when Internet explorer opens up, click on the link, glance over the article and aren’t even sure what the source of the information is.
As for his comments on health care, there was nothing concise stated. He attempted to align himself with the founding fathers, Jefferson in particular, but did not lay out any real data. There is information from the World Health Organization on life expectancy, infant and maternal death rates during pregnancy etc, and we fall short of many other countries. We also pay more and get less coverage. I have not found the data yet that he is speaking of that shows survival rates after heart attacks and other procedures. If anyone can find that data let me know. Even if he is right about that, I’m not trying to say that we don’t have good doctors here. Our technology and medical understanding is fantastic, the main problem is not everyone can get it when they need it.
A free market enterprise will not work with health care. France has a hybrid system with a public option and private companies and it works great. It’s one thing when people get fooled when it comes to their money, investments, selling of cars, etc. It’s another thing when you have cancer and your insurance tells you your procedure was denied, please call this number and try again and your cancer kills you while you are waiting. This happens time and time again. Now the problem most people have with this is selfish. It’s like belonging to a country club. Once you let everyone in, its not really a country club anymore. Most people are too afraid to say that out loud, but that’s what they usual mean. its understood except this isn’t a country club, its people’s lives. The problem with health care is that most people with coverage think they belong to the country club, until they try to collect. Then they realize that they weren’t really a member. A co-worker had a situation with her godson. The father was a cop, the mother a teacher. Both had insurance. Their son had childhood leukemia. However most of the treatments that their child required to get through the cancer was not covered by either insurance. Both parents work full time, both public service jobs that are supposed to have good benefits. They had to foreclose on their house to get him treated and had a fund raiser which raised an additional 90k dollars through some of her husbands wealthy wall street friends. Most people don’t have friends that can raise that kind of money. Now let me ask you this, if you had cancer, or someone you loved had cancer, would you rather have the person who was deciding whether or not you were going to be covered for your treatment to be a free market capitalist working for a private company whose main goal was to make a profit, or a government bureaucrat?
baminc@voicedup.com:
Philosophically I tend to agree with Hanan’s viewpoints, but have not made up my mind one way or the other as far as single payer. There are some strong ideas on health-care reform that should seriously be considered,however my initial stance is that we cannot afford it as a nation at this time. With this administration I see much of what we have already had in Washington via the previous ones. I am not on board with his war efforts and feel he’s been sketchy with the fed audit bill.m One can not start overhauling things when you have to buckle down your balance sheet. The reason taxes constantly increase is due to the constant deficits ran up by all the government agencies and programs. For instance lets take UPS. The mail gets there, but as there is better technology shouldn’t prices go down? Isn’t it getting easier to deliver letters? “real” price changes occur when there is more competition, not less. If health-care is so important in terms of rising cost, why not allow people to have coverage from businesses across state lines? There are morality laws from state to state that call for mandatory types of coverage, adjusting the price accordingly. If we received coverage from Nevada, all the other providers are greatly disadvantaged. They would have to scale down and streamline themselves to stay competitive. The consumer always wins in this scenario. Obama seemed as if he was going to do right by his constituency, but his actions dictate otherwise. It looks as if he’s similar to the latest GM car, full of promises, but ultimately an inferior product by an inferior company. He’s the last of a thankfully dying breed. He is a puppet with great name recognition. He is by all respects a sleeker, more exciting,and more charismatic version of the previous president. But ultimately, he is just a tool for the special interest agenda. Nothing against him, its the position. The previous generation fell asleep at the wheel. People, especially younger generations are getting fed up and are starting to expect more of their appointed officials. The topics Hannon discusses are considered radical in his country, yet in parliament, he is the only one who can oppose Brown simply on principal. When he does however, he makes a straight case and usually leaves Brown speechless and dumbfounded. To me this is less about health care and more about the role of government. The road to socialized medicine is very tricky. I seriously consider the warning for going this path. As Hannon stated, once you go government, there is almost no way of going back, hence I am not eager for this to happen. This is how guys like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich converse and try to get things discussed. They are maligned by our government and media as being “crazy”. This makes me so angry which is why I can no longer just accept that Obama and company knows what’s best. I take more offense that you seem in favor of the president/govt agenda than if you actually were a socialist. Again, its not because he is a democrat, its more along the lines of “new face, same product.”
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More competition should bring prices down as well as service…….
The government ought to start doing the proper thing. A fantastic start is taking their noses out of the medicine and health business. They can not really manage the work load which they have now. How are they likely to make this any more beneficial?
I do agree, the government should not be involved in all matters