rants and ramblings of utter randomness

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.