Does health insurance satisfy Investors or Customers (patients)?
I just cannot imagine Canadian politics ever getting as entertaining, nor as ugly, as US governance. Have you caught any of these town hall meetings on health care? I would have never believed people would get so covertly hoodwinked in believing free medical services sponsored by democratic administrations are an infringement of liberty and freedom.
The hostility reminds me of my experiences in Union halls filled with angry workers at negotiation time, revving up their emotions to strike an employer, who has been brutally denigrating their work lives and workplaces.......when its for free health care, in terms of the benefits for all Americans in renewing the value of all the money that is appropriated within the insurance industries interests.
I heard an sample of an media clip on a US radio, with a supposedly Canadian terminally ill patient pleading she had to wait 6 months for ANY MEDICAL ATTENTION. As a Canadian, I have never waited 6 months for any medical attention including the removal of my tonsils when I was 6. The most infamous statement was made last week by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who declared that the President's health care plan would set up a "death panel" to determine whether or not to euthanize her son with Down Syndrome. Can she honestly imply, let alone believe, that is the practices of medicare systems in Britain or Canada?? What an idiot.
The insurance companies are pulling out all the stops to discourage free health care. The people on talk radio and the "news" like Fox (man what a twisted spin they provide) who broadcast in an endless loop, "It's not your fault, it's not your fault, it's this person or that person, immigrants, gays, socialists and activists, attack them." Throw into the mix the natural progression of personal problems like divorce or illness, toss in the shitty education most of the general public have, and everyone is shaking like a leaf. Their interests are not served, obviously, to report on all the American citizens that have moved to Canada or Britain or France to enlist state sponsored health care .
The issue was philosophized in a mainstream uncensored US blog called The Rude Pundit (http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/). I read a colourful observation that seemed to frame the frantic meetings. It went like this:
"Let's give a little credit here: people are showing up to yell and rant at town hall meetings mostly of their own volition. No one's paying them or anything to do it. They don't really have anything to say, but they're venting. It's public masturbation. We just gotta make sure it doesn't get to rape. And let's give credit to the ever-Machiavellian Republicans, who have taken advantage of this anger like hate-fucking frat boys on spring break. So much of this anger is misdirected; it should be on the Bush administration, but the people expressing it don't have the self-awareness to see that and they couldn't do it anyways; it'd be like smacking their fathers."
PBS broadcast Bill Moyer's Journal (pictured right) that reported the Health Insurance Corporations were budgeting a million dollars a day (see the interview with retired Executive VP Wendell Potter: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/healthcare/index.html#links2 ) to pump corporate friendly media networks (who wouldn't be friendly to tap into that kind of cash). PBS also had a clip of all the Health Insurance CEOs answer a US Senate Committee on whether they would order their companies to cease and desist refusing clients medical coverage under their corporate policies for immoral reasons. Every CEO refused. It would scare investors away. Their business model was to satisfy the investor at the expense of the client customer. Think about that, even the US citizens covered by health insurance, have their carriers pouring through all the medical coverage submissions filtering all the applications with any and all principles that allow them to disqualify clients that have been paying premiums for decades. If you're selling a product that you then STEAL back when the purchaser uses it, you are not a capitalist you are a thief. That's not insurance.
A million dollars a day for publicity spins would go a long way in health care in those insurance companies. "The U.S. also ranks highest in total cost of care, but according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, ranks last among industrialized countries "in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care." In a recent FRONTLINE report comparing the health care systems of five other capitalist democracies, "Sick Around the World," WASHINGTON POST reporter T.R. Reid notes that, "The World Health Organization says the U.S. health care system rates 37th in the world in terms of quality and fairness. All the other rich countries do better than we do, and yet they spend a heck of a lot less."
In 2008, Reverend Desmond Tutu once asked his interviewer, Ted Koppell, if the US administration could ever apologize to the American people for invading Iraq over a lie, and stop being a society that cannot provide all its citizens with decent and effective health care.
I'll be in touch.
The hostility reminds me of my experiences in Union halls filled with angry workers at negotiation time, revving up their emotions to strike an employer, who has been brutally denigrating their work lives and workplaces.......when its for free health care, in terms of the benefits for all Americans in renewing the value of all the money that is appropriated within the insurance industries interests.
I heard an sample of an media clip on a US radio, with a supposedly Canadian terminally ill patient pleading she had to wait 6 months for ANY MEDICAL ATTENTION. As a Canadian, I have never waited 6 months for any medical attention including the removal of my tonsils when I was 6. The most infamous statement was made last week by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who declared that the President's health care plan would set up a "death panel" to determine whether or not to euthanize her son with Down Syndrome. Can she honestly imply, let alone believe, that is the practices of medicare systems in Britain or Canada?? What an idiot.
The insurance companies are pulling out all the stops to discourage free health care. The people on talk radio and the "news" like Fox (man what a twisted spin they provide) who broadcast in an endless loop, "It's not your fault, it's not your fault, it's this person or that person, immigrants, gays, socialists and activists, attack them." Throw into the mix the natural progression of personal problems like divorce or illness, toss in the shitty education most of the general public have, and everyone is shaking like a leaf. Their interests are not served, obviously, to report on all the American citizens that have moved to Canada or Britain or France to enlist state sponsored health care .
The issue was philosophized in a mainstream uncensored US blog called The Rude Pundit (http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/). I read a colourful observation that seemed to frame the frantic meetings. It went like this:
"Let's give a little credit here: people are showing up to yell and rant at town hall meetings mostly of their own volition. No one's paying them or anything to do it. They don't really have anything to say, but they're venting. It's public masturbation. We just gotta make sure it doesn't get to rape. And let's give credit to the ever-Machiavellian Republicans, who have taken advantage of this anger like hate-fucking frat boys on spring break. So much of this anger is misdirected; it should be on the Bush administration, but the people expressing it don't have the self-awareness to see that and they couldn't do it anyways; it'd be like smacking their fathers."
PBS broadcast Bill Moyer's Journal (pictured right) that reported the Health Insurance Corporations were budgeting a million dollars a day (see the interview with retired Executive VP Wendell Potter: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/healthcare/index.html#links2 ) to pump corporate friendly media networks (who wouldn't be friendly to tap into that kind of cash). PBS also had a clip of all the Health Insurance CEOs answer a US Senate Committee on whether they would order their companies to cease and desist refusing clients medical coverage under their corporate policies for immoral reasons. Every CEO refused. It would scare investors away. Their business model was to satisfy the investor at the expense of the client customer. Think about that, even the US citizens covered by health insurance, have their carriers pouring through all the medical coverage submissions filtering all the applications with any and all principles that allow them to disqualify clients that have been paying premiums for decades. If you're selling a product that you then STEAL back when the purchaser uses it, you are not a capitalist you are a thief. That's not insurance.
A million dollars a day for publicity spins would go a long way in health care in those insurance companies. "The U.S. also ranks highest in total cost of care, but according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, ranks last among industrialized countries "in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care." In a recent FRONTLINE report comparing the health care systems of five other capitalist democracies, "Sick Around the World," WASHINGTON POST reporter T.R. Reid notes that, "The World Health Organization says the U.S. health care system rates 37th in the world in terms of quality and fairness. All the other rich countries do better than we do, and yet they spend a heck of a lot less."
In 2008, Reverend Desmond Tutu once asked his interviewer, Ted Koppell, if the US administration could ever apologize to the American people for invading Iraq over a lie, and stop being a society that cannot provide all its citizens with decent and effective health care.
I'll be in touch.
Comments
Of course, I just assume that big business is in bed with our government and that they love to spin tales. One of the best ways they do this is through our AMA, of course. I have a doctor friend who loves to tell stories of dead and dying Canadians (due to their horrible system)!
Anyway, thank you for the (sane) perspective.
I loved your blog and a hardy Canadian thank you for leaving a comment at CLP. Welcome back anytime, eh!