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Fighting to the death for health care
Published: 29 September, 2009, 15:25
Edited: 02 October, 2009, 07:00
President Barack Obama has once again called for progress on his health care reforms, but protests and debate have resumed.
Should there be a massive health care overhaul? It seems no one can agree, including those in charge.
On the one hand, there’s reform supporter Howard Dean – former leader of the Democratic Party and once potential opponent to George W. Bush for the presidency:
“The moral answer is very easy. We are the only industrialized democracy on the face of the earth that does not have universal health care. That is foolish.”
On the other hand, there’s outspoken congressman Ron Paul – a leader in the liberty movement and strong critic of the new bill:
“There’s morality involved. They have the moral high ground because they use immoral tactics. People who think they can get free stuff from the government, they’re kidding themselves.”
But apart from morals, there’s also the issue of cost.
“There’s no way the government can expand their role in medical care and accomplish it without having a bigger deficit,” Ron Paul is convinced. “I think that’s illegal under the constitution, I think it’s theft. That’s an authoritarian approach. They don’t believe in individual rights, they don’t believe in freedom, they don’t understand the market.”
Howard Dean is cautious and carefully chooses words to voice his stance:
“It’s not like we’re gonna spend all this money that we don’t have, it’s a transfer from other people that are spending it to the Federal government.”
Dean is sure he will win – “because the American people want it.”
However, many American people would say just the opposite. And as politicians debate day in, day out about what health care reform really means, the issue seems to be dividing the country. Some even say it’s only a matter of time until people get truly sick of all this health talk and start taking action on their own.
29.09.2009, 11:52
2 comments
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As an american citizen I think our current healthcare system is a disgrace.I know I live here and I have worked hard all my life only to find the insurance companies taking a much greater percentage of my hard earned pay while cutting my benefits.They have all kinds of alleged reasons for raising my cost.They claim that their costs to operate have risen so they must pass the increases to the consumers.Maybe Im mistaken but didnt the american taxpayer just bail them out? Billions of taxpayer dollars and they want to raise our costs even higher.Go to any large american city and look at who resides in the most opulent skyscrapers. Insurance companies!I believe those very same companies are behind the anti health plan proponents.And unfortunately for the american taxpayer they will probably succeed in buying enough politicians to sway congress.The likely end result will be higher costs for the poor working man and more money in the corporate wallets.Im not going to bother getting my hopes up I have seen this type of political bullshit happen too many times.
As a citizen of the US I can tell you that this debate is far from over, we desperatly need a health care system but with the existing system we have covering everyone is insane, immpossible and irresponsible. Our doctors get paid buy the procedure and make unlimited profits and insurance co. get huge premiums from the docs for malpractice, the hospitals charge outragious fees for care, and our drugs are the most expensive in the world. So there you have it, all these special interests grooming their stooges in congress to keep the pork flowing, they would all become rich on our for profit health care system with the taxpayers footing the bill and the Fed running up the deficit so they could charge us even more interest on our own money!!! Thats why you see seemingly normal people protesting against something so important. We are supposed to be a free capital country, how about a little competition in the health care industry, a new organization of non profit health care givers emphasizing wellnes and health. Let the old system gradually die off and then you could cover everyone at a reasonable price. What a dreamer huh? like that could ever happen in greedland where the dollar rules all!! I"m afraid that all this will come to a bad end, the power cartel that runs this govt. the press, wall street, pharma, etc, is fueled by the privately owned [and answerable to no one but themselves] Fed Reserve. Untill we get rid of this truely evil institition the we have no hope. In the usa money is power and they have it all under their control. GOD HELP US!
To offer an opposing viewpoint from the US, I'd say that the reason we've got the most advanced medical technology is because the gov't doesn't have as much control over our system as it does in others. There are some issues with the current system - if you become diagnosed with a long-term health issue, you must stay with the same insurance company or risk it being labeled as a "pre-exising condition" and therefore not subject to being insured. Some people fall through on these technicalities, but it's a small minority, and there's no reason to completely re-write a system under massive gov't control to address problems that may be resolved by minor adjustments.