Broken Health Care: What It Really Costs Us

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



Broken Health Care: What It Really Costs Us
By Sara Robinson

June 24, 2009 - 10:45am ET

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Sometimes, when you're up to your chin in alligators, it's hard to focus on the fact that there's a big, broad, alligator-free world waiting somewhere out there, beyond the edge of the swamp.

In this case, it's hard for most Americans to even imagine that nobody in the rest of the developed world lives this way. We've been living inside the restrictions and making the trade-offs required to hang onto our all-important health care coverage for so long that we don't even realize that we're cutting those deals, or what we're giving up, or how thoroughly those choices have come to dominate and limit our lives.

If you're an American under 40, you can't remember a time that the health care system didn't work this way—or that keeping coverage wasn't a dominant factor in making your life choices. If you're older than that, the memory of another, happier era beyond the swamp is dim, and fading fast.

This was one of the things that struck me hardest when I arrived in Canada five years ago. The swamp-blindness was so dark and deep that it took a while to adjust to a world without alligators. It's almost impossible to describe to folks back home how different life is when health insurance simply doesn't factor at all into how you choose to live your life. There's almost no language for it. Rather than even attempt it, I sometimes just ask my American friends and relatives to open up their imaginations, and answer the question for themselves:

•How would your life be different if you never had to worry about getting, keeping, or affording health care again?
•What other choices might you have made?
•Where else would you be right now?
•How would it change your plans for the future? ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/node/39300

[nuxvomica]

1. Terrific article

There's some angles I hadn't thought about before. We need to convince Democratic members of Congress that moving to a Canadian-style system is not just a good idea but also one that will reap electoral benefits for them for years to come. This issue is a total game-changer politically.

[quidam56]

2. We need a cure for health care in America

As a former health care giver, I am sad to see what has become of health care in America. Clearly Profit Care comes ahead of Patient Care. We must have public option, so what if it puts the greedy bastards out of business. www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=62

[ConcernedCanuk]

3. USA is the most "powerful" nation in the World - militarily

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Us Canuks chose to spend much of our GDP on health-care

USA spends it on wars

go figure