Health & Fitness – Let's consider a hypothetical cardiac patient: Male, 67 years old, high-stress job, and a history of serious heart problems, about to change jobs. He's had 4 major heart attacks. He's had a quadruple bypass. He would be uninsurable for having a preexisting condition. But this case isn't hypothetical: The patient is Dick Cheney.
Cheney is NOT a regular American-- he is the Vice President of the United States. His health affects the well being of this country, therefore it should be of a high quality.
Sure everybody should have the same care-- if it were a perfect world. We'd all be ivy league educated and we'd all drive Lamborghinis.
Welcome to real life where it isn't perfect, but it's the best in the world. We get what we can afford-- whatever it is and that's always been the American way!
"Cheney is NOT a regular American-- he is the Vice President of the United States."
The VP of the US is a regular American. Previous to being VP he was just as much of a regular American as he is today. As for getting what we can afford, that hasn't been the American way for quite some time and certainly isn't the way of this administration, taking out loans against our grandchildren to push their agenda.
What it comes down to is are we a collective nation of individuals, or we individuals under the rule of a nation with no duty to care for our fellow countrymen and women.
Actually, health care in the United States is NOT "the best in the world".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the...
he World Health Organization in 2000 ranked the U.S. health care system first in both responsiveness and expenditure, but 37th in overall performance and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study). The WHO study has been criticized both for its methodology and for a lack of correlation with user satisfaction ratings.
The CIA World Factbook ranked the United States 41st in the world for lowest infant mortality rate and 45th for highest total life expectancy. A recent study found that between 1997 and 2003, preventable deaths declined more slowly in the United States than in 18 other industrialized nations.
The U.S. is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system.
Cheney should not be treated any differently for health care than anyone else in this country. I don't care WHO he is - it is elitism to make the excuse that he is "more important".
Here is a news bulletin for you - NO one is INDISPENSABLE.
Cheney is dishonest and is a crook, but I don't wish him any ill will - but if something happened to him right now that incapacitated him and kept him from "carrying out his duties", the country would actually continue to run without him.
Every American should NOT have to "be ivy league educated and drive Lamborghinis" in order to 'qualify for health care'.
In other words, being able to get health care should NOT be based on class or income level.
Maybe if you were one of the 47 million people in this country that had NO health insurance and could not afford to get medical care, you might be a little more concerned.
As it is, your compassion for your fellow citizens is pretty underwhelming.
We're ranked first in responsiveness. That's important. Slow response means no survival at all.
Secondly, it isn't elitism to provide only the #2 man running the country with top healthcare as part of his civil service contract.
Thirdly, EVERYBODY has healthcare. You may scoff at the emergency room, but it's there if anybody should need it.
Fourthly, the system isn't perfect. There should be a price list that says how much a specific procedure should cost. But the care shouldn't be provided by the gov't. The same gov't that brought us Social Security that won't be there when I retire but yet, I gotta pay into it for the rest of my working life. Medicare and Medicaid -- also going bankrupt, the TSA and Homeland Security.
Keeping the gov't off health care will do us much better.
My compassion is keeping it out of the hands of a faceless buracracy.
Responsiveness is mainly for emergencies - 911 calls and emergency rooms.
That doesn't account for non-emergency healthcare or access to it.
Only people that work for the government are supposed to get "top" healthcare? And that is not elitism??
Ask Cheney how much he pays in health insurance premiums.
YOU are paying for that emergency room care where people go when they have no money to pay for medical care. You pay for it in higher insurance premiums and higher costs for doctors visits and hospital visits and medical tests.
Insurance premiums - for those that have healthcare insurance - have risen around 83% in the last 7 years.
There is ALREADY a "faceless bureaucracy" - it is the healthcare insurance industry.
There IS a price list that says how much a specific procedure should cost. Just ask any HMO - they have it all worked out: How much a doctor visit should cost, how much a test should cost, whether or not they PAY for a test, how much a hospital visit costs, etc.
They also have a list of how long an insured client can miss work for just about every type of ailment or surgery or emergency. And if you try to get more 'time off' due to any complications from those ailments or surgeries, you almost always get turned down. The pencil-pushers at the insurance offices tell the doctors what they can and can't do, what they will and won't pay for, and whether or not an insured person can miss any work and how much.
Social Security won't be there when you retire because the government - BOTH parties - won't keep their hands OUT of that fund! They keep "borrowing" from it to feed other government black holes of spending.
So the problem with Social Security is not that it doesn't work, it is that our politicians won't LET it work and leave ALONE all the money that goes into it to fund it.
Medicare is for senior citizens. My mother has had some serious health problems the last several months. If it were not for Medicare, for which she DOES pay premiums - and a supplemental insurance she also pays for - she would not have been able to get the care she needed because there is no way she could have afforded it.
I guess we should just let all of our senior citizens fend for themselves when it comes to health care? You will be old someday - think about it ...
What makes you think politicians won't keep their hands out of the till with healthcare?? As for Medicare, I just told you, I will be fending for myself in old age whether I like it or not! But don't worry, as an old school American, I'll find a way and thrive-- without the government's help.
Leave well enough alone!
"Leave well enough alone" ... interesting choice of words.
I'm sure you will do your best to take care of yourself, even be able to 'thrive' on a fixed income when you are too old or disabled to work.
I guess for you, as long as YOU are ok, there is no concern for whether or not anyone else is 'ok'.
There is nothing else to say to you on this subject since you have no 'community' concern and you will not care about anyone but yourself ....
Since when did Government equate "Charitiable Organization ala United Way" for you??
The government does a horrible job at it.
You live in a dream world where you want Mommy Government to take care of you from the womb to the tomb.
You're completely missing the entire reasoning behind the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Hey Bubba, take it easy on Locky. He's a pure regressive, and in pureregressiveworld, a.k.a., rightwingworld, greed is good, very, very good. It's every person for themselves, unless, of course, one happens to be well connected, like the Bushes or the Cheneys, for example. In Locky's world, the ethic is, "I got mine, all the rest of you, go f**k yourselves. It's amazing how guys like Locky are so naive about how much of the rest of the world lives. "EVERYBODY has healthcare. You may scoff at the emergency room, but it's there if anybody should need it." This joker probably has sufficient health care benefits so that the ER isn't his first and only access to medical treatment. This enables him to "blow off" the life experiences of millions of others less fortunate than he, health care wise. It's exactly like the chickenhawks who prosecute the Iraqi war. They're all for war, death and destruction, so long as someone else is doing the fighting and dying.
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Dick Cheney can have the choice of doctors. He can go to any hospital. He can have excellent standard of care. And he's alive today because of it. And there are a lot of people who aren't.
Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the CNA. Under her leadership, the union launched an ad campaign that's designed to shock: It claims that if Cheney were just a regular American, he'd probably be dead by now.
What the nurses are saying is, there shouldn't be a double standard. There should be an excellence in care that applies to all people. We, as the public, pay for Dick Cheney's care. Why is the government not providing the same type of care to all Americans?
Now there is a damn good question. Simple answer would be that they don't give a chit about anyone but themselves but it must be something less caustic otherwise every American would have the same care.