Thursday, July 23, 2009

Shoes and the US Health Care System

If you live in the US, and have been hearing rumblings about single-payer health care, "socialized" health care, or how terrible it would be to have a Canadian-style health care system:

don't believe a word of it.

I've lived in a few countries, including the US and Canada. Whatever you hear, Canada is a great country to live in. And one of the greatest things about Canada is universal, socialized health care.

I know there are stories of long wait times, and there's a grain of truth to some of those. But in my experience I have never had to wait very long to see a doctor. I had a broken finger fixed in an hour. I got surgery to fix a hernia in about a week and a half. I know that for certain other things, people may wait longer. But I don't know anyone who hasn't gotten the care and treatment they needed. For free.

Furthermore, work is being done in Canada to reduce wait times in areas where they may be longer, using innovative research in queuing theory and techniques learned from countries around the world, with positive results.

Now I hope you'll all listen up: Even if you added up all the waiting lists here, it still would not come remotely close to 25 million Americans who are under insured and can't get treatment at all.

The US is one of the only developed countries without universal, socialized health care. A lot of people who live and travel in other countries think the US is way behind the rest of the modern world in this regard, and they look down on Americans because of it. People need to get out from under the BS that the corporate health care and insurance companies are shoveling out, realize that corporatism is the problem - not the solution - and get on with building a system that works for everybody. Not just for people who have financial means or a good benefits package.
"Another name for a 'single-payer system' would be: healthcare as a human right, not a commodity to be purchased. Many humans have this right. They just aren't Americans." - David Swanson
I learned a while back that you can tell a lot about a man by looking at his shoes. It may not be the most obvious place to look, but a man's shoes can reveal a lot about his character. And although it may not be the most obvious place to look, you can also tell a lot about a society by the way they treat their ailing poor.

The US has a long way to go in the shoe department.

Call the following six members of Congress and ask them to vote yes for single-payer health care (H.R. 676).

Lean YesDiana DeGette CO01 202-225-4431
Jane Harman CA36 202-225-8220
Christopher Murphy CT05 202-225-4476
Frank Pallone NJ06 202-225-4671 @FrankPallone
Bobby Rush IL01 202-225-4372
Peter Welch VT00 202-225-4115

Won't Say / "Not Enought Votes"
Rick Boucher VA09 202-225-3861
Bruce Braley IA01 202-225-2911
G.K. Butterfield NC01 202-225-3101
Lois Capps CA23 202-225-3601
Kathy Castor FL11 202-225-3376
John Dingell MI15 202-225-4071
Charles Gonzalez TX20 202-225-3236
Gene Green TX29 202-225-1688
Jay Inslee WA01 202-225-6311
@RepInsleeNews
Doris Matsui CA05 202-225-7163
Jerry McNerney CA11 202-225-1947
John Sarbanes MD03 202-225-4016
Bart Stupak MI01 202-225-4735
Betty Sutton OH13 202-225-3401
Henry Waxman (Chair) CA30 202-225-3976

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