"Comparison right now. Last ten years - a million more Americans are alive than otherwise would be if they had a Canadian health care system," Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said Thursday on "America's Morning News."
Sen. Jim DeMint wrote a great op/ed in the Washington Examiner a few months ago on the dangers of national health care.
In Great Britain last year, a 24-year old woman named Katie Hilliard was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The disease has since spread to her lungs and lymph nodes. In October, she took time off from her course of chemo and radiation therapy to marry her fiancée because, in her words, “We didn’t know how ill I would get.”
The family of Claire Everett does know. She died in September, of the same disease, with her parents, husband, and two-year old son by her side. She was 23.
Both could have been diagnosed early and possibly saved by a routine screening test. But the British National Health Service does not allow women under the age of 25 to receive that test.
These kinds of stories are commonplace in nations with government-controlled health care, with good reason. As the miracle workers in the global medical research field develop treatments to keep us alive and healthy much longer than ever before, the costs of health care inevitably rise. Government health services looking to cut costs usually choose to ration coverage.
In Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, and elsewhere, government bureaucrats decide which patients may receive which treatments based on how beneficial the treatment will be – beneficial to the government, that is, not the patient.
The process by which government health departments decide who gets what is called “Comparative Effectiveness Research” (CER). And you might be surprised to know there was more than $1 billion allocated for CER in the so-called economic stimulus bill passed last month by Congress.
This is complete BS put out by conservatives who'd like to squash a single payor healthcare system! The recommendation for Pap smears and follow up treatment is the same here as in Canada and Great Britain. Start them at 18 yrs or when first becoming sexually active. Wait too long and you're in trouble.No government bureaucrats tell you which doctor to see or where to go anymore than the INSURANCE COMPANIES tell you which doctors are PREFERRED ON YOUR PLAN here in the USA. Services are already rationed here: can't pay the premiums, deductibles, copays, get laid off, be self-employed, GET CERVICAL CANCER BEFORE YOUR 90 DAY PROBATIONAL PERIOD AT A NEW JOB IN A DOCTOR'S OFFICE and you pay the $25,000.00 out of your own pocket. I should know. People wake up to reality!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your situation - but temporary ins. is a good idea when between jobs or during a probationary period. We pay for individual health insurance, so I do feel your pain. We've been paying it for over 20 years. Our health insurance premiums are our biggest expense. That being said, I know that having the wasteful morons in our government run the health care system is NOT the answer. What does it say when the people who are trying to push this plan off on us are not willing to go on the same plan? They plan to keep their cushy health care plans - while the rest of us wait in line for our rationed care!
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