I was out of the house for most of the day, and came home the next morning to find my cat at the back door, wheezing, gagging, foaming at the mouth, and clearly in a great deal of physical distress. He had been perfectly healthy the day before, so my first thought was that he had suffered some sort of catastrophic injury or poisoning in my absence.
I tried to examine him as best I could, despite his protestations, and noticed a small piece of grass sticking out of his nose. Several claw wounds later I grabbed the grass and yanked, ending up with a seven-inch blade between my fingers, and a suddenly symptom-free cat in my bloodied arms. I’m guessing my cat must have been eating grass when he somehow sneezed or coughed up the blade, lodging it in his nose and throat.
God knows how many hours my cat suffered from this painful and debilitating, yet easily remedied mishap? And it got me thinking. How many hundreds of thousands of Americans were suffering at that very moment from some easily treated illness or injury, simply because they lacked the money to pay for medical care? How much debilitating pain was shooting through their brains? How many moans and cries were ignored? How many tears were shed?
If our debate over universal healthcare was informed as much by empathy as it is by economics, I wonder how quickly it would inevitably devolve into the usual ideological battle over the relative efficiencies of the market?
I want our health care debate to be both empathetic and rooted in economic reality. Right now, it’s neither.
And this is why we don’t let our cats outside…
Goldy
Next time Tsonokwa (our cat) is ill, can I call you?
As I suggested Lee, it might be nice if the debate was informed by empathy as much as it is by economics. And roaming outside is the essence of catness. (And besides, I’m not sure how my cat is going to catch the rats in my garden, if he’s locked in the house.)
“If our debate over universal healthcare was informed as much by empathy as it is by economics, I wonder how quickly it would inevitably devolve into the usual ideological battle over the relative efficiencies of the market?”
Well, it is, but a lot of folks aren’t paying attention. As to your query, the answer is “very fast” since free market shibboleths are the only thing the defenders of our current broken system can hang on to. Other than that, they got nothing.
Good lord. I first read that as saying you pulled a 7-inch blade from your cat, after which he bled out in your arms.
I guess that’s what only 3 hours of sleep will do to a person.
Glad your kitty is OK. My kitty died two weeks ago – that really hot day we had really did him in. :-(
@3
Yeah, you got me, I can’t defend our indoor cat policy. Our one cat really, really, wants to go outside because we used to take him out on a leash. Now he just stares out the window all day. But the one time he escaped, he got into a mad rumble with the neighbor’s cat and we had to take him to the vet.
Lee has a point and maybe it’s not a good thing to have your cat roam free outside. Where the heck do you live ? Rats outside ? 7 inch blades of grass …have you actually considered how wide this sucker must have been ? Interesting cat you have too.
But considering the healthcare issue you are bringing up…here are some more thoughts.
There are two parts of healthcare, on the one side you have the actual taking care of diseases, injuries, illnesses. On the other hand, you have prevention.
While there needs to be a coverage for part one, people also need to take responsibility for their own actions. Smokers come to mind, people who frequent the Micky Ds and Burgerkings, people who just sit on their beehinds all day and not doing anything other than getting…shall I say overweight.
You having been out all day and coming home the next morning (wouldn’ that be out all night too ? ) might have been able to prevent the suffering your cat went through. That’s prevention, you took care of the 7 inch blade…that’s healthcare. Now assume you actually had to go to the vet and pay money for it…an easy step of prevention (being home earlier, not letting your cat outside, etc) could have prevented high costs and make those funds available for others…etc etc.
So as long as people don’t take responsibilities for their actions, you will always try to catch up or society will have to pay for things which could have been prevented.
Dutch:
You make spot on points regarding personal accountability which I do not disagree with you.
However, what about the persons who do eat properly, don’t smoke, never drink excessively, and yet develop diabetes or high blood pressure, but cannot afford the high cost of health insurance?
The dilemma becomes precisely the same regardless of how each individual got there.
A single payer health care system is the wisest choice for basic health care and preventative medicine, with an option to purchase premium services if you choose to do so.
This way, people can get the best of both worlds if they can afford it.
This “for profit” health care system we have is broken and we are showing the first signs of not being the leader in medicine any longer. Besides, cutting edge medicine is not as crucial as preventative and basic health care.
re 7: So, you’re saying that Dick Cheney should quit using the taxpayers dime to patch up his damaged body that he got from doing all those things you just mentioned?
Maybe he should take some personal responsibility for his own health problems instead of wasting our tax dollars on a life he clearly doesn’t value much.
“So as long as people don’t take responsibilities for their actions………..”
Like the Bush maladministration? Yes, yes, yes. We’ve heard all this poop about ‘personal responsibility’ before. It’s a standard wingnut talking point if you’re talking about race, sex, ‘morals’, or class. It seeps into every conversation on any topic with conservatives. What this whole line of thought overlooks is class and power relationships and the varying abilities of folks to exhibit ‘responsible’ actions in the milieu as defined by these parameters.
But what really gripes my ass is the perpetual assumption that the person making this argument is ipso facto ‘responsible’ (“See, look at me”, they say), and therefore they conclude (with overbearing pomposity) that their individual case applies to all.
But if plumbers and janitor’s were able to get as much money per hour as corporate CEO’s, why these same people would scream bloody murder and insist that the government ‘do something’. In other words, the free market is great if the rules tilt the playing field in your favor. Well, du’oh? Who the fuck didn’t know that!
Let’s get real here. If everybody was young, rich, attractive, and healthy, who would clean the toilets?
Goldy,
I am sorry to hear your cat has taken to snorting grass. I suggest it needs to find a more knowledgable dealer, or better yet, an effective treatment program.
:)
Speaking of government health care. Cheney gets it. A new Medtronic box in his chest. I guess I am next.
I have this in common with War Monger Dick….I have a Medtronic Gem III Internal Cardio Defibrillator, just as he does. Mine was implanted August 10, 2001. So going by his battery life, I am about due. On to the point….
Without my wifes wonderful health insurance I would be paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $90K for this device which can act as a pacemaker (I don’t use that part) and defibrillator. (Defibrillator…..A device that is used to shock the heart into a normal sinus rhythm. It acts the same way as the paddles you see the “doctors” use on Grey’s Anatomy when they yell, very dramatically “CLEAR”.) Fortunately I have never been shocked.
I have often wondered what would happen if we did not have insurance. The doctor told me that no matter what, I would have gotten the device. I wish I had more faith in that statement.
To many people suffer and die, needlessly, for want of insurance. The time has come for universal health care. The insurance companies can jack up auto rates to make up for the lost profit. (Simple statement for purposes of making a point, and very sarcastic to boot).
What are we waiting for?
@ 11:
See that’s the problem right there. You’d think Goldy would’ve trained his cat to “SMOKE” grass instead of snorting it.
I agree, economics makes it harder to get a free lunch, so we should ignore it. But more importantly, I want our health care debate to be more informed by empathy than by physics and biology. Let’s start by repealing the law of gravity so people can jump out of airplanes without getting hurt. Next, we can outlaw cancer!
The image of this thread that will remain embedded in my mind is of Goldy withdrawing a seven incl long blade from his cat’s nose.
As for the preventionista … sorry but prevention does NOT decrease health care costs, it INCREASES them. The reason is very simple. The longer we live the more likelihood we will become ill and need care. The two biggest health care costs are the costs of terminal illness and the cost of chronic meds many folks take as they get older. Drug companies LOVE an increasing life span.
The real place there is financial benefit from prevention is in pediatric care. A kid with polio or diptheria is expensive. Similarly, the anti abortion crowd needs to be aware of the incurred costs of long term support for disabled kids.
Now, as for single payer vet. care. I am all for it. Why should Goldy’s cat get all this personal care while Tsonokwa suffers? It seems to me we horses ass acolytes should demand that Goldy offer ministrations to all of our cats too!
@ 14:
Yeah, what you said!
While we’re at it let’s ignore science and pretend the Earth is flat — again, the Bible is correct and the planet is only 6,000 years old, and, uh, oh yeah, how’s you’re law suit with KCRE going? Roger Rabbit asked.
PS: you’re blog and it’s unpatriotic and uninformed posters are pathetic and your core values are very similar to bin Ladens and Hitler’s.
correction at 16:
the PS should be “your” blog . . .
Stefan
A good place for the right to start would be accepting that we do nOT have a free market system now.
A second base to tag is the traditional devotion of the right to opportunity. As healthcare costs have risen they have created a huge disparity in the opportunities available to Americans of different means and are having a huge distorting effect the US labor market’s ability to make free choices.
How is it that the right seemingly has NO ideas about how to create a free market reform in healthcare other than sticking the present system to the poor and increasing our classist system?
Here are some simple fixes that it seems to me the right and the left could agree on:
1. health care ought not to be the responsibility of one’s employer.
2. the individual should be free to buy healthcare in an open market, not one that is monopolized by a few HMOs.
3. numbers of providers should be determined by market forces, not immigration quotas.
4. To the extent possible, all Americans should have equal opportunity. Any cost that prevents kids form going to school or switching jobs needs to be curtailed.
OK?
I see that Stefan has compared apples with spark plugs.
I want our health care to be FORMED by COMPASSION and ECONOMICS. The insurance companies with their sweetheart deals are driving up the cost for Americans who pay cash while saving themselves millions of dollars.
My last insurance statement showed an office visit for $140, a provider discount of $80 for a total benefit of $45 (I pay a $15 co-pay). Provider discount? Why can’t cash paying patients get this “provider” discount?
Just askin’.
Hey Stefan, found any fraudulent voters lately? How is your lawsuit coming along? Wife still paying the bills?
re 14: Just because you are comfortable with the situation as it is in no way proves that a social convention is comparable to a law of physics.
We live with a health system created by people and it can be changed by people — even with foot-dragging meddlers like yourself in the way.
@14
Stefan, only you could compare getting treatment for life-threatening illnesses to a “free lunch”. Thank you as always for bringing laughter to my day.
Lee, starvation is a life-threatening condition too. So why don’t we have universal food insurance?
re 22: If there’s enough food to go around, why not (and there is)? Unless you, like Tom DeLay, want to keep people desperate enough to clean your toilets.
The idea that there are discoverable laws of economics, as put forward here by Stefan, is very familiar … this is the same idea that underlie Soviet Communism, so called scientific economics.
The problem for conservatives, is that they are no more interested in the objective economic data than they are in global warming.
To compare the US healthcare mess to a free market is just nuts. Maybe for a few percent of the US population, such a market exists but most folks take what their workplace offers. The workplace, at the same time has no economic incentive to improve care … merely to cut costs AND even the employer has to deal with a monopolistic system that blocks directs access to the care providers.
Makes you wonder…
who are the REAL conservatives in this battle?
re 22: Do you think health care and food should be kept in artificial shortage to achieve some social agenda that you have in mind?
Your day is done. Go.
re 22: “Mistakes were made.” George W. Bush (the master of uhhhhhhhh uuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnhh uuhhhhhhhhhh uuuunderstatement)
I would love to still be around when GWB comes smack up against a health problem that neither God nor Man nor Money can do anything about. Ha! Ha! Just like the dancing in the streets when Fallwell kicked it. That’s how you’ll be remembered, Stefan — as an intransigent, selfish shitheel that the world is better off without.
Maybe you all should move to Canada where everything is free for health care. Oh I forgot they have to come here if they have a real problem. Now feel free to move to France or England the care is much better, but the folks seem to die more offend when they are hospitalized for any illness. Well they are not perfect but maybe we can do a better job if we ran the medical systems here in the Republic of Seattle. Hell what’s the problem this State is ran by a bunch of Socialist Democrats they can make it happen anytime they want. Let’s put Roger in charge, and will Lucy determine who will get the proper health care. Now this service will be only available for the illegal immigrants and rich government lawyers.
Klake
Brilliant analysis ans use of bold.
Maybe we should just outsource the whole thing>
Why does the liberal Kaiser Family Family Foundation disagree with most Libtards?
“So what is the true extent of the uninsured “crisis?” The Kaiser Family Foundation, a liberal non-profit frequently quoted by the media, puts the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for current government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 13.9 million and 8.2 million. That is a much smaller figure than the media report.”
http://www.businessandmedia.or.....53509.aspx
YLB AKA Cluelessman – Don’t read it Right Wing Propoganda!
@14: Thank you for the snarky contribution, Stevo. What’s really funny is the apparent fact that your cult actually does believe in economic free lunches (cf. ‘Laffer Curve’).
The irony is damnned near suffocating.
@27: If only stupidity was a pre-existing condition…..
Was that grass imported from China? That may be your problem.
re 27: Thanks for not saying “gubmint”!!! I really hate that. Reminds me some old cracker racist in a Tennessee Williams play.
@3 How do you know he’s eating rats, and not songbirds? Do you supervise your cat when he’s loose outside, Goldy?
@5 If you need a new kitty, I’ve got a couple hanging around here that would appreciate a more loving home than I’m willing to give them.
By the way: Did you know that ‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford was actually from Virginia? Ba-dump-bump!!!
True Fact!
If Goldy has 7-inch grass in his yard, maybe we should have a DL at his place, and everybody brings lawn mowers and weed whackers.
31:
Most major insurance providers do have some sort of coverage for mental-health issues, though Wingnut Syndrome may not be covered. Shark Boy, you are such an idiot I find it amazing that you can breathe and hate at the same time. One word for you, son…..
IRRELEVANT.
That’s your future, Shark Boy. Deal with it.
@7 “There are two parts of healthcare, on the one side you have the actual taking care of diseases, injuries, illnesses. On the other hand, you have prevention.”
Wrong, there are THREE parts to health care: Treatment, prevention, and insurance companies skimming 25% off the toop without adding any value.
top
@7 “While there needs to be a coverage for part one, people also need to take responsibility for their own actions. Smokers come to mind, people who frequent the Micky Ds and Burgerkings, people who just sit on their beehinds all day and not doing anything other than getting…shall I say overweight.”
This diabribe is the Mother of All Red Herrings. Even if no one smoked, drank, or was overweight, we’d still have a health care crisis in this country.
Just for starters, how many people have cancer (which is very expensive to treat) because of the dirty environment that Republicans impose on us?
@14 What’s your point? How’s your lawsuit doing?
I wonder if one of our rightwing economics experts could explain how a rational market mechanism is supposed to function when medical providers not only don’t tell you their prices but don’t even tell you what you’re buying when they wheel you into the admitting room.
44: Kind of like lawyers ($$$$) right Pellethead?
An insurance company’s legal obligation to maximize profits for its shareholders is in direct conflict with your interest in getting the health care you need. We will never have an efficacious health care system until we eliminate the insurance companies from the health care delivery system.
@44 What’s that got to do with anything? Legal judgments amount to less than 1% of health care costs.
On the other hand, the insurance industry is scared shitless of a new Washington law that authorizes courts to award treble damages for denying claims in bad faith.
Of course, this law wouldn’t be a concern to the industry if they were dealing with policyholders in good faith, would it?
@14 I’m sure that Stefan is quite satisfied with the system that exists. But not everyone is married to a six-figure corporate lawyer, so his model has limited applicability to the population at large.
@22
Lee, starvation is a life-threatening condition too. So why don’t we have universal food insurance?
We do, it’s called the Food Stamp Program.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/
@22 “So why don’t we have universal food insurance?”
We do. It’s called “food stamps.” Republicans are against it. They think hunger builds character.*
* Character: A willingness, born of desperation, to work for cheap wages; a term often employed by cheap labor conservatives to justify their inhuman economic dogmas.
Let’s face it, the driving theory behind for-profit health care is to make you pay as much as possible while giving you as little health care as possible.
Nearly 20% of U.S. GDP goes for health care and a quarter of that is wasted on insurance companies whose only function is to deny claims.
Roger the Rarebit Attorney
1. Legal System
Actually the octs are far higher than 1%, You need to add to that the costs incurred by folks trying to avoid legal suits. You also need to figure in the costs of admn that are added because of legal issues. HIPPA alone is probably costing us a few %.
2. Cancer
For better or worse, most ndata suggest that the only effect of decreasing environmental exposures is to change which cancer folks get or perhaps how old you are when you get screwed. At best, all that ahppens is you live longer and cost society more.
To echo the shark, there ain’t no free lunch.
Even the 1/3 that goes to admin is not all that free. The biggest issue is medical inflation and that is less an admin issue than a result of the increasing value in our society of skilled labor and the efficacy of pills. That admikn, BTW, contains huge numbers of attorneys. I am not sure just what part of my body they help. may be the wallet.
@27 And here’s Flaky klake spewing his wingnut bullshit again:
“Oh I forgot they have to come here if they have a real problem.”
Let’s see, Canada has what, a population of about 33 million people? And how many of them actually seek health care in the U.S.? I don’t actually know, but before you can even speculate about an answer to that question, you first have to ask yourself how many Canadians can AFFORD U.S. health care — at retail prices, yet, because you can bet the number of Canadians who have U.S. health insurance (other than those living and working in the U.S.) is exceedingly small.
Here’s what serious researchers* say:
“[T]he number of Canadians … coming across the border seeking health care appears to be … infinitesimal when compared with the amount of care provided by their own system.”
* When I say “serious researchers,” I’m referring to Prof. Steven Katz of the University of Michigan’s departments of Medicine and Health Policy and Management; Profs. Morris Barer and Robert Evans, and research associate Karen Cardiff, of the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Health Services and Policy Research; and Dallas-based health care consultant Marina Pascali.
Oh yeah, one more thing — the above quote was published in a peer-reviewed professional journal, to wit:
http://content.healthaffairs.o.....ll/21/3/19
Shove THAT up your ass, klake. Better yet, lick a cute bunny cottontail! For a good time, call 1-900-LICK-ROG.**
** Your phone bill will be charged $19.95 per minute, plus undisclosed hidden charges! All proceeds go directly to the Help Roger Rabbit Live Like A Republican Fund.
In case you missed it, here’s what a group of university-based researchers who — unlike klake — know what they’re talking about say:
“[T]he number of Canadians … coming across the border seeking health care appears to be … infinitesimal when compared with the amount of care provided by their own system.”
Another wingnut lie is exploded like a terrorist bomb.
Am I saying Canadians are happy with their health care? No. Am I saying we should adopt their system? No. But, for all its faults, Canadians could have a worse system than theirs — for example, ours.
@27 If you put me in charge, I’ll immediately cover everyone, and give policyholders a 7% rate cut. Here’s how:
Redirect the 25% of health care dollars going to the insurance companies to (a) covering the 17% of Americans who don’t have health insurance, (b) cutting rates by 7%, and (c) by reducing overhead from 25% to 1% by turning over administration to the Medicare program.
@30 Well, you gotta give Stefan credit for dreaming up an incredibly cost-effective system of election administration: Only people with passports get to vote.
@54 “You need to add to that the costs incurred by folks trying to avoid legal suits.”
Recreational medical testing is a voluntary activity. Lawyers aren’t responsible for that. It’s incredibly hard to sue a doctor or hospital. First of all, these suits are very expensive, so the average lawyer can’t afford to bring them (much less afford to lose one), and the specialty firms that do handle them rely on rigorous case screening to limit the financial risks. Second, you can’t get a favorable verdict unless the doctor or hospital was NEGLIGENT. Third, in order to prove negligence, you need expert witnesses (i.e., doctors) willing and able to establish that the accused doctor or hospital departed from accepted medical practice. I could go on, but suffice to say that claims/beliefs/allegations that lawsuits are wrecking the health care system are shibboleths. Blaming lawyers for the high cost of health care is like blaming Clinton for Bush’s lies.
“For better or worse, most ndata suggest that the only effect of decreasing environmental exposures is to change which cancer folks get or perhaps how old you are when you get screwed. At best, all that ahppens is you live longer and cost society more.”
I don’t claim to be a cancer expert, but I’m pretty sure that all the toxic chemicals in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the dirt in which we grow our food ain’t good for us.
In addition, you exhibit close to zero knowledge of the causes of medical inflation. Try these on for size:
1) Aging population
2) New (and more expensive) medical technologies
3) Longer lifespans
4) Formerly untreatable illnesses are now treatable
5) Vast expansion of medical bureaucracy and increased complexity of claims determination and payment processes
I repeat, the impact of lawsuits and lawyers on medical costs is barely perceptible. That’s a fact. $2 million CAT scanners and $500,000 transplants, not lawyers, is what makes health care unaffordable.
@54 Also, if we eliminate the right of patients to sue negligent doctors and hospitals, who will pay for the economic losses caused by the negligence? And is that fair to patients? Wouldn’t that encourage doctors and hospitals to be less careful? Why should injured consumers of medical care be discriminated against by the courts, compared to other consumers?
The rightwing dogma that medical lawsuits are being abused and doctors and hospitals are innocent victims of predatory lawyers is bullshit. Pure, unmitigated bullshit. A frivolous malpractice claim wouldn’t survive the first motion for summary judgment. Medical negligence cases are so expensive to litigate that law firms simply can’t afford to invest their resources in anything except solid, provable cases involving substantial injury.
“Why should injured consumers of medical care be discriminated against by the courts, compared to other consumers?”
Obviously they should not be…but it would clear the justice system to expand the #1 cause of crowded court dockets: corporations and businessmen suing each other….mostly breach of contract (code for not performing or paying up as agreed), patent infringement, and copyrights. We the people pay thru the nose for this charade…yet that never stops these cretinous scofflaws from repeatedly asking us to lower their taxes ’cause they are (so they say) ‘producers’.
@60 “Well, you gotta give Stefan credit for dreaming up an incredibly cost-effective system of election administration: Only people with passports get to vote.”
Proof of citizenship for voter registration was Rodney Tom’s idea, not mine.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/I.....8135202343
http://wizbangblog.com/content.....system.php
Here in the Detroit metro area we are only a short bridge or tunnel ride from Canada.
Today I took my father to the doc and what do you know? There were two Ontario plates in the parking lot of the medical building.
Apparently there are more Canadians here than Mr. Harkins, and for fairly obvious reasons too.
Nor is this the first time. I\’m no doctor, but I would guess that there are few medical problems that get better with a six-month wait. -15. Posted by Robert the Original | July 27, 2007 11:44 PM
Socialized medicine like communism hasn\’t worked anywhere in history simply because the democrats haven\’t been in charge of it. The only way to teach a child that a stove is hot is to let them touch it one time. When the dhimmi\’s die by the thousands due to lack of medical care at least 50% of them will wake up, too late. The other 50% will die (touched the stove more than once and didn\’t learn) in denial. -16. Posted by scrapiron | July 27, 2007 11:48 PM |
Where do our top Canadian politicians go for important health problems.
Hint: It ain\’t Toronto.
\’Nother Hint for Sicko fans: It ain\’t Cuba.
Final hint: it\’s the US of A. Big fucking surprise. Our asshole politicians restrict our rights to treatment then get first class service in your country.
I hope you dumbasses do vote for Hillary/Obama out of sheer anticipatory schadenfreude. Why should you yanks have a great system while I and my family get screwed? Yay Dems. Dems forever. They\’ll save your cancerous asses, oh yes they will. -17. Posted by BlacquesJacquesShellacques | July 28, 2007 12:01 AM |
headless lucy says:
By the way: Did you know that ‘Tennessee’ Ernie Ford was actually from Virginia? Ba-dump-bump!!!
True Fact!
• Deliberately off-topic comments (except in “open threads”), as well as pointless comments on these comments.
Klake @ 68
The topic is health care. We all need it. We all need to pay for it. It should be a right, not a privilege.
I see you are the new hall monitor. Maybe Goldy should give you a key to the toy closet and let you moderate.
ROFLMAO!!!
@61 Roger Rabbit
Saying it is so is not producing evidence.
Nothing in your post addresses my point. That point is that the real costs of legal challenges are far more than JUST the payouts or even just the payouts plus insurance costs.
Nor did I say that major e4ffect of lawyers is more testing. My guess is that the major cost id admin overhead.
The effect is not limited to malpractice either. HIPPA alone must cost billions of dollars to no apparent benefit to patients.
On your other issue, while itm is nice to imagine that wild humans live for ever w/o exposure to industril waste, it is simply not true. Cancer, heart disease, other diseases of aging may be modified in outcome becaus eof the environment, but evidence that this increases HCare costs does not exist.
Good for you helping your cat, but using the emotional image of your cat’s plight is not an argument. The fact remains that socialized medicine means longer waits than your cat endured. Your still selling the Sicko hogwash even as many on both sides have roundly debunked Moore’s lies.
Should we remove the overpriced insurance bureaucracy in healthcare? Yes. But replace it with another doomed Ponzi scheme like Medicare or SS? No. We need competition.
Progressive? If progress is more failed economic schemes, maybe so. Have the courage to admit that you are a socialist.
Darcy Burnedout, hung like a horses…ass scrawled the following Faux News talking point with a crayon:
The truth is, every civilized country on this planet has some form of what you call “socialized medicine.” And they are all healthier than we are. We have the best health care, sure, in the (third) world.
As for all of those Canadians who come here, that’s because they have long wait times for such things as hip replacements. If you need to, say, have multiple digits reattached, they do it pronto and you don’t get a bill.
Face it: The Canadians get more and better care for less money. The difference between the (reduced) care we get and the (greater) cost we pay has a name: Profit.
As for me, I’ve had enough of this country. I’m moving to Canada this fall. Adios, you rubes.
Goldy:
Your cat can have the “essence of catness” inside, tearing through your house at 90mph when she’s not asleep 18 hours a day as they are. The truth is, indoor-only cats live on average about 17 years, whereas outdoor cats live around five.
So Moonbat!s is it 45 Million uninsured or 13.2 Million? I believe Kaiser Family Foundation. In Hilary I Distrust!