Oct. 6th, 2007

primroseburrows: (DC)
An idea whose time has long past come:

H.R. 676: The United States National Health Insurance Act ('Expanded & Improved Medicare For All' Bill)

The US is the ONLY developed nation in the world without a national health care system. Why is this? Silly question. The insurance companies don't want their incomes to shrink, and I honestly think that the head honchos don't give a rat's ass whether Americans get medical care. National health systems aren't perfect, but every one I've read about is light-years past the US system. The insurance companies need to get out of Dodge liek, twenty years ago.

The knee-jerk response to single-payer national medicare is OMG SOCIALISM! Well, hmm. Federally, we already have the U.S. Postal service, national highway system, National Parks system, and Social Security, to name a few. Police departments, fire departments, libraries, schools, public transportation are mostly run by the states. Imagine that, all those government-run institutions and we're still not a socialist country. And anyway, single-payer system isn't socialized medicine. They're two different things.

And then there are the statistical data, and when we look at them, things aren't looking so good.

NY Times editorial on healthcare in the United States vs. other countries )

So yeah, go Google the stats and see for yourself.

And dudes. STOP USING CANADA AS THE GENERIC DEFINITION OF A SINGLE-PAYER SYSTEM.

Contrary to popular belief I don't spy for them live there, but from what I've read and heard from people who DO it's a decent system (a side-by-side comparison with the US puts them ahead on a bunch of issues) with good points and bad like everyone else, but Canada is NOT the only first world country with a national health system. It's the inverse: We're the only country without one. So stop picking on Canada, it's not neighbourly. MisterRogers would surely disapprove.


I'll be writing my Representative regarding H.R. 676. I don't need to ask for his support for the bill, he's already given it. I do want to thank him, though. The more I learn about Patrick Kennedy, the more I like him. I'll be sure to tell him that in the letter. :) And those of you guys who live in the U.S. and think the bill is a good idea, please, please, write your own Representative and ask her/him to support it. Oh, and sign the Petition.

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primroseburrows

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