|
Brain -> RE: Health Care: A Better Idea (8/15/2009 2:36:56 AM)
|
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/277644
Britons Say Health Program Critics 'Jaw-Droppingly Untruthful'
Posted Aug 14, 2009 by ■ Carol Forsloff
David Owen
Anti Socialized Medicine rally in Fort Collins, CO
As critics of Obama’s health care program have reported all sorts of things about the British and Canadian systems of health care, some question the veracity of their complaints. American television quotes people from Canada as waiting a long time for care, then having to go to the United States because the Canadian system is so poor. The same criticism is leveled on Britain’s program as well.
The Washington Post points out that Hamish Meldrum, the chairman of the British Medical Association, remarked about how dismayed he has been by what he calls "jaw-droppingly untruthful attacks" by some American critics.
One of the rumors and untruths most surprising to Meldrum and other Brits was the remark made by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) about Edward Kennedy and treatment for his brain tumor. Grassley said were Kennedy, age 77, in the United Kingdom, he wouldn’t receive treatment for his cancer because he is too old.
Some Canadians out of Toronto have responded vigorously to television advertisements about Canada’s health care program in which a woman discusses the fact she wouldn’t be given treatment for a condition in any timely way and would have to go to the United States for care.
A recent television news program recently showed interviews of different Canadians about the United States debate over health care and claims that Canada’s program is insufficient and America’s better. Virtually all agreed that Canada’s program might have a few problems, but for the most part provided good care and gave services better and just as timely without the heavy burden of cost as in the United States.
Here is the response of one of those interviewed with respect to those Canadians being shown on United States television summarized by The Real News:
“SYLVAIN MEYROUS: I think it's totally shocking. It's not—doesn't reflect reality. I think, from what I gather, most Canadians are very happy with their medical system. As a new Canadian myself, I am very satisfied with the system. And I lived in the US before, and I had medical problems there, and I can appreciate the difference. It doesn't even compare.”
While people of Canada and Great Britain respond to America’s claims about the inferior quality of their systems compared to those of the United States, people in the United States wonder about people like Sarah Palin, who brings her child Trigg into the discussion on her Facebook page:
“The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”
One writer who uses the term “Anonymous Liberal” for postings, provides the illuminating reminder that insurance companies already don’t cover individuals with Down Syndrome, because they have pre-existing conditions.
The debate about health care continues in the United States, as more and more people examine claims made by the opposition and wonder, as do the Britons, Canadians and people in the United States, how is it possible to make claims that counter the facts and have so many people repeat them as true all over the country?
And how will that impact the lives of people who need health care and look for a change given the untruthfulness of claims that might confuse and make people angry?
|
|
|
|
