I came across this Crooks and Liars post via Memeorandum and quite nearly laughed out loud.
note this little exchange between Stephanopoulos and McCain over healthcare. Elizabeth Edwards has been a vocal critic of McCain’s proposed healthcare plan in that it basically doesn’t help those who need it the most. McCain’s response falls into the less than satisfactory category:
STEPHANOPOULOS: What’s wrong with government — what’s wrong with government-run health care?
MCCAIN: And we continue to have these debates — what’s wrong with it? Go to Canada. Go to England and you can find out what’s wrong with it. Governments don’t make the right decisions. Families make the right decisions.
STEPHANOPOULOS: One of the points Mrs. Edwards made in the Wall Street Journal, she said that your whole life, you had government health care. You were the son of a Naval officer, a Naval officer, now a member of Congress. And her point is, why shouldn’t every American be able to get the kind of health care that members of Congress get or members of the military get?
MCCAIN: It’s a cheap shot, but I did have a period of time where I didn’t have very good government health care. I had it from another government. (LAUGHTER) So, look, I know what it’s like in America not to have health care. We know that Americans are hurting there as well. We’ve got to make health care affordable and available. The difference, again, between myself and the Democrats, and with all due respect, Mrs. Edwards, I want the families to make the choices. They want the government to make the choices. That’s a fundamental difference, and we will continue to debate that issue.
What I found amusing is that I've, in fact, written that military-style health care is what you'll get with socialized medicine.
McCain isn't going to criticize the care he's received. That's partly because, as an active duty soldier, he would have received faster service than I, a lowly dependent, received. And as a senator, he receives better care than the average soldier because he is a senator.
The problem with Lizzie Edwards question is that it shows exactly how ignorant she is. She knows not of what she speaks. Stephanopoulos would be wise to ask Lizzie exactly where and when she received care from a military hospital and why she would assume that socialized medicine would look like the health care senators receive. Actually, we would all be subject to the long waits and hit-or-miss quality of service that dependents of military personnel receive. It's not the worst; my Frankenstein's scar only cost my parents $14 in 1971. But I still sport a Frankenstein's scar on my right elbow.
The silly woman at C&L who wrote the post goes on to try to favorably describe the British health care system:
While the UK’s program did have its drawbacks, the government has instituted policies to expand choice for the people and moreover, the government pays significantly less as a percentage of the GDP for healthcare than we do (8.3% vs. 15.3%) and it covers everyone.
It's hard to believe that Nicole Belle wrote this with a straight face. "Have its drawbacks?" Has she not heard about Britain's refusal to use the newest cancer drugs because of costs? Or patients being left in ambulances for hours, idling in hospital parking lots because the hospital cannot comply with government regulations that E.R. patients be treated within four hours of arrival? Or about the woman forced to birth her own baby in a NHS toilet because there were no midwives available?
This isn't even discussing the new trend in British vacationing: medical tourism.
It's hard to believe that Nicole and other liberals cannot accept that socialized medicine doesn't provide top tier health care for all people. Instead, it provides a bottom tier that everyone is required to adhere to.
|