The Public Healthcare Option

[browngirl]

I haven't discussed politics here much lately. But I realized that I needed to write this down for my own sense of honor if for no other reason, as a reminder to spend some time working towards what I believe is right. From thnidu: No one should die because they cannot afford health care. No one should go broke because they get sick, and no one should be tied to a job because of a pre-existing condition. [If you agree, please post this to your journal.]

From tigerbright: Here is a link to a video by Robert Reich (Labor Secretary for Clinton, currently a professor at UC-Berkeley) that explains some of the current controversy.

In the interests of evenhandedness, here is madfilkentist's countermeme. If this post of mine has annoyed you so far, this link is the one you may agree with.

For myself, I did add brackets around the last line of the meme I posted because I dislike coercively worded memes. However, I agreed with the rest, so I have posted it. I'm leaving comments on, though I probably shouldn't, but I don't think I can be convinced that there is no problem with over 45 million Americans lacking health insurance, and my statement of that is intended as information, not a dare.

Comments

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I mostly agree with that meme, though I don't tend to participate in them (because I don't like being ordered to do so! Thanks for snipping that part.)

We have started making some strides about pre-existing conditions with HIPAA, but it's far from perfect since it won't deal with long stretches of unemployment or if you had no insurance as a kind; I think it's that you have to have been covered in the previous 6 months. I'm glad to see at least a *little* improvement there, though it definitely work.

I actually agree with Gary's point that I can believe something philosophically and still not have a clue how to implement it. I think that health care is desperately broken and I don't actually know how to fix it. We need a plan that will cover people as they need treatment; I have insurance and I was still out 2K for one of my medications when they decided to deny my coverage. I have great sympathy for health insurance issues.

But since we run health care as an industry, the entities involved in it have to make money (or they won't continue to do so.) It's hard to figure out how to deal with that and still protect the basic needs of people.

Bah. I need a magic wand.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

[edited for pronoun clarification] A magic wand would be *so* nice. Bopping around, fixing things...

I actually agree with Gary's point that I can believe something philosophically and still not have a clue how to implement it.

I was thinking about this (you bring out my philosophical side, which is entirely appropriate) and how to verbalize my frustration. I run into the idea a lot (there's a discussion going on in media fandom right now about it) that 'just talk' or 'just wishing' is useless. And yeah, talk by itself isn't change ... it is, I think, the inception of change. The ideas exist, and then the actions, right? So I found myself imagining where I'd be if feminists in the '70s or suffragettes in the nineteen-teens or abolitionists in the 1850's or the Civil Rights movement in the middle of the last century had listened to "just wishing won't change anything" and let themselves be daunted from working to put wishes into action. And then I shuddered.

So that's why I posted this, and why I'm going to spend part of my weekend doing research and perhaps writing letters. I can't say that fixing the US healthcare system is anywhere as simple as a soundbite, but it's also not as simple as letting the status quo stand.

[98.livejournal.com]

I agree with the 'no one should die...' meme and do not take someone saying so as indication of belief that such perfection would come about. I take it as dissatisfaction that we are so far from it and belief that we can come closer with reasonable change.

Currently I have fairly good medical insurance through my employer. I have at times had wretched medical insurance through employers. I do not think this is something that should be so tied to one's job but buying decent medical insurance as an individual is prohibitive even the much encouraged high deductible to use with an HSA.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I take it as dissatisfaction that we are so far from it and belief that we can come closer with reasonable change.

*nod* That's definetely how I meant it.

I still remember when I suffered an accident that left me limping for a month because I was underemployed, uninsured and so refused to go to the hospital. And I was young and healthy and healed up fine, but still, what kind of a choice is that in this day and age?

[lomedet.livejournal.com]

I agree with you.

Heck, a major factor in my acquiring of another freaking citizenship (instead of just moving here on a long-term visa or something) was the existence here of reasonably-priced, non-employment-dependent, nationalized health care. It's not a perfect system, by any means, but it is better in a lot of ways than what exists in the States right now.

I am fortunate that my profession (the one which I'll be looking for work in, again, for fall 2010) is one in which most jobs come with insurance attached, but if that weren't true I don't know how I could come back.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*nod* Yeah. What can I even say, but, yes, this?

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

When public healthcare is referred to as an "option", that in itself depresses me as indicative of how far to the right of centre the space of debate has shifted.

(The phrase that belongs there is "fundamental human right". It's not optional.)

It's hard not read the countermeme as deeply disingenuous; public healthcare is a solved problem everywhere else in the West. (And come to think of it, in some parts of the West, so is terrorism. There is no more FLQ in Quebec, for example.)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

When public healthcare is referred to as an "option", that in itself depresses me as indicative of how far to the right of centre the space of debate has shifted.

So, so true. Whenever I hear President Obama called "socialist" or "far-left" it makes me snort, snarl, or both; the US as a whole has gotten so right-wing that he's quite far right just to be centrist here (and has to lean further rightwards because of the trends in power).

(And, well, let me just say I do not disagree with you on the countermeme, and leave it at that.)

[jenny_evergreen]

Somewhat interestingly, I find I can think of exceptions in the counter-meme and I can't in the first meme.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough. *grins at you*

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

About that countermeme: strange, but pretty much every other industrialized nation has figured this one out. I have a very good idea how it might be implemented. A couple of them in fact. It's not that hard.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

From your thoughts to the lawmakers' ears...

[karadin.livejournal.com]

I thought I would compare the ten countries in the world with the highest standard of living, with the countries that have nationalized health care, surprise, surprise

Iceland, - Nationalized Health Care
Norway, - Nationalized Health Care
Australia, - Nationalized Health Care
Canada, - Nationalized Health Care
Ireland, - Nationalized Health Care
Sweden, - Nationalized Health Care
Switzerland, - Nationalized Health Care
Japan, - Nationalized Health Care
Netherlands, - Nationalized Heath Care
France - Nationalized Health Care

Another interesting factoid:

Afghanistan and Iraq have a Nationalized Health Care system funded by US dollars.

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. May I link to this from Facebook?

[karadin.livejournal.com]

oh just copy paste if you want, I need no credit for it.