![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Jul. 16th, 2009
It really should be no secret that Americans need heath care. Millions of us don't have any heath care, and as a result our heath is lower than it should be and our quality of life is lower too. For some, life-spans are even cut short because they cannot afford to go to a doctor.
Some considerations:
Argument: Americans don't need heath care because their employers provide it.
This is an outright lie. Most employers no longer provide heath care, claiming it's "too expensive" (this while corporations get rich at the expense of their employees, but that's another arguement).
I've been working since I was 18, I'm now 40, and only one of my employers offered health care. ONE out fo dozens -- and that wasn't in the state in which I currently reside. And even that employer decided to switch from a PPO that covered everything I needed to an HMO that covered very little. Among other things, they decided I had to see their "in-network" doctor in Chicago -- when I lived in Milwaukee over 2 hours away. And this was to get my medication which I needed to live a productive heathly life. (Without it I can't work or would even be dead pretty darn quick).
Argument: National heath care means you can't pick yor own doctor.
Another lie.
In Canada, you can have heath care from say, the province of Ontario, and if you get sick or hurt in British Columbia your heath insurance is still valid.
If you are fortunate enough to have insurance in the US, now, it's extremely local -- you could be just the other side of the county line and get in an accident and your insurance won't pay. And forget getting any heath care, even emergency care while on vacation.
Additionally, all the national program needs to do is make it a requirement that all doctors take the national plan. That's what the UK does.
And in the US, as it stands now, you can't pick your own doctor. HMOs and even PPOs choose a doctor for you - if you protest or insist on seeing the doctor you've seen for years they either (a) refuse to cover your visits, (b) charge exorbiant out-of-network fees or otherwise force you to go to "their" doctors which "they" choose.
I'd rather have SOME insurance provided by the government than absolutely nothing like I have right now. Me and millions of other Americans.
National heath care isn't communisms like Conservatives insist (Communist governments deny their citizens rights, including the right to a heathly life-style by providing heath care) health care is a right not a privilege.
Another issue is we need to get drug companies OUT of the making health care decisions. The medications you take should be between you and your doctor. Your employer shouldn't have a right to know what you're taking. (If you are fortunate enough to have employer-sponsered heath care - your employer knows about all your medical conditions and the medications you take. Some employers have even fired people for taking birth control for example.) And we need to stop drug companies from using their clout to force doctors to perscribe one drug over another, even if the first drug works better for a particular patient.
Sorry to be so pissy, but I got in an argument at work yesterday with a stupid conservative and he kept bringing up all these lies and I, like an idiot, told him off at the top of my lungs. So, I'm probably going to get fired because I live in a stupid, conservative, small town -- where prejudice and ego-centricism rule and anyone who's smart is descriminated against.
--Olivia
Some considerations:
Argument: Americans don't need heath care because their employers provide it.
This is an outright lie. Most employers no longer provide heath care, claiming it's "too expensive" (this while corporations get rich at the expense of their employees, but that's another arguement).
I've been working since I was 18, I'm now 40, and only one of my employers offered health care. ONE out fo dozens -- and that wasn't in the state in which I currently reside. And even that employer decided to switch from a PPO that covered everything I needed to an HMO that covered very little. Among other things, they decided I had to see their "in-network" doctor in Chicago -- when I lived in Milwaukee over 2 hours away. And this was to get my medication which I needed to live a productive heathly life. (Without it I can't work or would even be dead pretty darn quick).
Argument: National heath care means you can't pick yor own doctor.
Another lie.
In Canada, you can have heath care from say, the province of Ontario, and if you get sick or hurt in British Columbia your heath insurance is still valid.
If you are fortunate enough to have insurance in the US, now, it's extremely local -- you could be just the other side of the county line and get in an accident and your insurance won't pay. And forget getting any heath care, even emergency care while on vacation.
Additionally, all the national program needs to do is make it a requirement that all doctors take the national plan. That's what the UK does.
And in the US, as it stands now, you can't pick your own doctor. HMOs and even PPOs choose a doctor for you - if you protest or insist on seeing the doctor you've seen for years they either (a) refuse to cover your visits, (b) charge exorbiant out-of-network fees or otherwise force you to go to "their" doctors which "they" choose.
I'd rather have SOME insurance provided by the government than absolutely nothing like I have right now. Me and millions of other Americans.
National heath care isn't communisms like Conservatives insist (Communist governments deny their citizens rights, including the right to a heathly life-style by providing heath care) health care is a right not a privilege.
Another issue is we need to get drug companies OUT of the making health care decisions. The medications you take should be between you and your doctor. Your employer shouldn't have a right to know what you're taking. (If you are fortunate enough to have employer-sponsered heath care - your employer knows about all your medical conditions and the medications you take. Some employers have even fired people for taking birth control for example.) And we need to stop drug companies from using their clout to force doctors to perscribe one drug over another, even if the first drug works better for a particular patient.
Sorry to be so pissy, but I got in an argument at work yesterday with a stupid conservative and he kept bringing up all these lies and I, like an idiot, told him off at the top of my lungs. So, I'm probably going to get fired because I live in a stupid, conservative, small town -- where prejudice and ego-centricism rule and anyone who's smart is descriminated against.
--Olivia
Hi all,
A bit calmer now than my last post. I just saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I liked it. Jim Broadbent was marvelous as Prof. Slughorn. It's great how many truly wonderful, older British actors are turning up in these movies. Helena Bottom-Carter (who first appeared in the previous film) really shines as the absolutely nuts Belatrix LaStrange.
More, with spoilers under the cut.
( HP 6 Spoilers )
Anyway great movie -- bring tissues!
--Olivia
A bit calmer now than my last post. I just saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and I liked it. Jim Broadbent was marvelous as Prof. Slughorn. It's great how many truly wonderful, older British actors are turning up in these movies. Helena Bottom-Carter (who first appeared in the previous film) really shines as the absolutely nuts Belatrix LaStrange.
More, with spoilers under the cut.
( HP 6 Spoilers )
Anyway great movie -- bring tissues!
--Olivia
