70 Comments

I thought when I got to this blog I would be reading about how to get the message out about the myths surrounding health care reform but I was really surprised that we got so many people on here that sounds like the people that are shouting and screaming across our country at Town Hall meetings. I also thought this blog was to give idea on passing information on about health care reform and sharing this information. I have one idea that I think is a good way to get out the facts about health care reform. Print all the facts you can get and when you go anywhere, pass them along to everybody. Go to your members in Congress and give them the print up of the facts because some of them don’t know the facts. if you can find a place that will let you put up a poster, get your print made into a poster and put it up.

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Scott Atlas is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and a professor of radiology and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School. He wrote an acticle entitled, “Here’s a Second Opinion”, which lists 10 reasons why America’s health care system is in better condition that you might suppose. Here are his facts that he writes about:
1. Americans have better survival rates that Europeans for common cancers. LISTEN UP MOMS!!! Breast cancer mortality is 52% HIGHER in Germany than in the US and 88% HIGHER in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604% HIGHER in the UK and 457% HIGHER in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40% HIGHER.
2. Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. BREAST CANCER mortality in Canada is 9% HIGHER than the US; prostate cancer is 184% HIGHER, and colorectal cancer among men is about 10% HIGHER.
3. Americans have better access to treatment for chronic disease than patients in other developed countries. 56% of Americans who could benefit from statin drugs for high cholesterol, diabetes, and heart disease are taking them. Statins are the gold standard of care for cholesterol control. By comparison, only 36% of the Dutch, 29% of the Swiss, 26% of the Germans, 23% of Britons, and 17% of Italians receive them.
4. Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians.
– 89% of American women have had a mamogram compared to 72% Canadian women.
– 96% American women have had a Pap smear compared to 90% Canadian.
– 54% American men have had a PSA test compared to 16% Canadian.
– 30% Americans have had a colonoscopy compared to 5% Canadian.
5. Lower-income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. 11.7% American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health compared to 5.8% Canadians. While white, young Canadians with below-median incomes are 20% more likely than lower-income Americans to describe their health as “fair to poor”.
6. Americans spend less time waiting for care than patients in Canada and the UK. Canadian and British patients wait twice as long – sometimes more than a year – to see a specialist, have an elective surgery such as hip replacement, or get radiation treatment for cancer. Right now, 827,429 people are waiting for some type of procedure in Canada. In the UK, nearly 1.8 million people are waiting for a hospital admission or outpatient treatment.
7. People in countries with more government control of health care are highly dissatisfied and believe reform is needed. More than 70% of German, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and British say their health care system needs either “fundamental change” or “complete rebuilding”.
8. Americans are more satisfied with the care they receive than Canadians. 51.3% of Americans are very satisfied with their health care services compared to 41.5% of Canadians. A lower proportion of Americans are dissatisfied (6.8%) than Canadians (8.5%)
9. Americans have better access to important new technologies such as medical imaging than do patients in Canada or Britain. The US has 34 CT scanners per million Americans compared to 12 in Canada and 8 in Britain. 27 MRI machines per million in the US compared to 6 in Canada and Britain. An overwhelming majority of leading American physicians identify CT and MRIs as the most important medical innovations for improving patient care during the previous decade. The alternatives to these innovations are exploratory surgical procedures.
10. Americans are responsible for the vast majority of all health care innovations. The top 5 US hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other developed country. Since the mid 1970s, the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology has gone to US residents more often than recipients from all other countries combined. In only 5 of the past 34 years did a scientist living in the US not win or share in the prize. Most important recent medical innovations were developed in the US.

So why the demand to hurry and dismantle this “BROKEN HEALTHCARE SYSTEM”????? As moms we need to be concerned for our health, and the health of our spouses and children. We choose where to live based on the quality of the schools where our kids will attend. We should be as critical and determined to evaluate and support our current healthcare system in the US because of the quality of care that we have taken for granted, but is always available for our kids and families. There are problems, but the system continues to improve the health for the majority of Americans.

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Anonymous Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 9:51 am

@Chris,
Dear Chris, I appreciate again your respectful tone and the ariticle you referred me too. But here is what is interesting. The author of the article you posted by Dr. Healy is a Libertarian in favor of universal health care reform. Go to http://www.ihavenet.com/Uwe-Reinhardt-Plain-Talk-on-Healthcare-Reform.html. It is an interview of Dr. Healy by Dr. Uwe. I would posit that if they very Dr. you put your faith in that has studied this issue extensively and is an insider, you might have to re-look as some of your arguements. Sincerely, Laura McNamara

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 10:54 am

@Chris,
Another Drs. opinion ….
But what’s missing, tragically, is a diagnosis of the real, far more fundamental problem, which is that what’s even worse than its stratospheric cost is the fact that American health care doesn’t fulfill its prime directive — it does not help people become or stay healthy. It’s not a health care system at all; it’s a disease management system, and making the current system cheaper and more accessible will just spread the dysfunction more broadly.

It’s impossible to make our drug-intensive, technology-centric, and corrupt system affordable. Consider that Americans spent $8.4 billion on medicine in 1950, vs. an astonishing 2.3 trillion in 2007. That’s $30,000 annually for a family of four. The bloated structure of endless, marginal-return tests; patent-protected drugs and “heroic” surgical interventions for virtually every health problem simply can’t be made much cheaper due to its very nature. Costs can only be shifted in various unpalatable ways.

So, a far more salient question that must be addressed is: Are we getting good health for our trillions? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding, “No.” The U.S. ranked near the very bottom of the top 40 nations — below Columbia, Chile, Costa Rica and Dominica — in a rating of health systems by the World Health Organization in 2000. In short, we pay about twice as much per capita for our health care as does the rest of the developed world, and we have almost nothing to show for it.

I’m not against high-tech medicine. It has a secure place in the diagnosis and treatment of serious disease. But our health care professionals are currently using it for everything, and the cost is going to break us.

In the future, this kind of medicine must be limited to those cases in which it is clearly indicated: trauma, acute and critical conditions, disease involving vital organs, etc. It should be viewed as a specialized form of medicine, perhaps offered only in major centers serving large populations.

Most cases of disease should be managed in other, more affordable ways. Functional, cost-effective health care must be based on a new kind of medicine that relies on the human organism’s innate capacity for self-regulation and healing. It would use inexpensive, low-tech interventions for the management of the commonest forms of disease. It would be a system that puts the health back into health care. And it would also happen to be far less expensive than what we have now.

If we can make the correct diagnosis, the healing can begin. If we can’t, both our personal health and our economy are doomed.

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Chris Reply:
August 16th, 2009 at 3:01 am

@Laura McNamara,
Laura, you are right about the lack of preventative care that is missing in this nation. I am a healthcare professional working with the Medicaid program in my state and can tell you that our state spends millions of dollars trying to reach out to our members to have them vaccinated and receive other preventative care services. We even incentivize our members with gift cards and free transportation to the clinics and back; especially in the area of prenatal visits with our pregnant moms. You would think that simple things like providing flu vaccines for everyone to receive should be a cakewalk, but it is hard to get people to do the right thing without holding a gun to their head. However, there are many who abuse the system as well. In prescription drug spending, our state spends almost 50% of the program’s pharmacy budget just on narcotic pain medications and mental health drugs. On top of that, our state data shows that patients on blood pressure medication, heart medication, cholesterol reducing medication, antidepressants, diabetes medication, and seizure medications are adherant to their prescription regimens only 60% of the time. Our disease treatment success as a nation could be even higher if members took their medications as prescribed. On another issue, a recent study estimates that nearly 1/3 of the American people are taking antidepressants. I am afraid that we are becoming a nation that is obese, soft, and in some cases irresponsible. Many people treat healthcare the same way they shop for groceries; if they like it, they consume it. With all the faults in our healthcare system, however, if you are ever diagnosed with a chronic or life-threatening disease, you could not be in a better country than the US for treatment. And from what I have experienced, the consistency in the quality and technology of our system is better throughout the country, from rural to urban areas of our nation. I have taken several medical mission trips to Central America and can tell you that in almost all the nations there, much of the rural healthcare that exists only comes from American healthcare workers volunteering and paying their way to these countries just to help people in the rural villages.

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I have a 15 year old son (straight A’s) looking at choosing a career. His mother has 33 years experience as an RN. A medical Doctor was a logical choice, I have discouraged him from this field due to an extra 8 years of schooling with 400K in dept all for government controlled wages. Additionally the tort risk are unbearable. We will need to outsource massive numbers of doctors from Pakistan, India, Nigeria just as the socialized European countries do now. VOTE to remove government from all health care control, Insurance companies are heroes not villains. Personal medical savings accounts would control the incentive to waste and could be administered by insurance companies. Save 100′s of millions of our grandchildren from suffering and early death. Keep capitalism, not communism! Hasn’t worked anywhere on the planet and caused massive suffering. Many Democrats sincerely believe that our DNA is better then all of the other countries that have Communist health Care. Some how, Communist-Progressives hope our government will be successful when no government program in any country has ever been successful.
Don’t expect credibly from me by calling me a name, tell us real solutions that aren’t based on CHANGE blindness. Some solutions that cost no Tax $s:

• We need to deal with the 100 of millions in Medicare /Medicaid fraud that only the government can afford to continue. Insurance Companies could not afford such fraud and would stop most if they could control Medicare. Get the complacent Government employees out of health control
• We desperately need tort reform to reduce doctors unimaginable insurance premiums and stop the expensive defensive medicine most need to practice.
• Allow smaller business to band together to bargain for better premiums as the large companies do.
• Allow 100% individual tax deductions for health care expenses and medical savings accounts for those that don’t get sick.
• Allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. Any form of Government health care is monopolistic and deadly.

Obama will be history’s biggest mass (unintentional) killer if this bill passes. So sad that they will be our American children and grandchildren. We have the best medical system because of capitalism. Saves lives, support it at all cost. David Fletcher Small Aviation business owner, not in the insurance business.

I find it interesting that one of our greatest founding fathers, Thomas Paine, called it correctly in his time when he said “But to expend millions for the sake of getting a few vile acts repealed, and routing the present ministry only, is unworthy the charge, and is using posterity (that’s our children’s and grandchildren’s future) with the utmost cruelty; because it is leaving them the great work to do, and a debt upon their backs, from which they derive no advantage. Such a thought is unworthy of a man of honor, and is the true characteristic of a narrow heart and peddling politician.”

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

@David Fletcher,
What are the insurance companies afraid of? If they are so great at what they do, then why are they so afraid of a public option? If they can do it better, then they will have the lions share of the market. As my friend David said, if you want, you can buy Brinks too, but for those that can’t afford it, the Police are a 911 call away. Sadly, we dont’ have the best medical care in the world by all indicators. Here is just one. We come in 33rd.
Rank Country or territory Infant mortality rate
(deaths/1,000 live births) Under-five mortality rate
(deaths/1,000 live births)
1 Iceland 2.9 3.9
2 Singapore 3.0 4.1
3 Japan 3.2 4.2
4 Sweden 3.2 4.0
5 Norway 3.3 4.4
6 Hong Kong 3.7 4.7
7 Finland 3.7 4.7
8 Czech Republic 3.8 4.8
9 Switzerland 4.1 5.1
10 South Korea 4.1 4.8
11 Belgium 4.2 5.3
12 France 4.2 5.2
13 Spain 4.2 5.3
14 Germany 4.3 5.4
15 Denmark 4.4 5.8
16 Austria 4.4 5.4
17 Australia 4.4 5.6
18 Luxembourg 4.5 6.6
19 Netherlands 4.7 5.9
20 Israel 4.7 5.7
21 Slovenia 4.8 6.4
22 United Kingdom 4.8 6.0
23 Canada 4.8 5.9
24 Ireland 4.9 6.2
25 Italy 5.0 6.1
26 Portugal 5.0 6.6
27 New Zealand 5.0 6.4
28 Cuba 5.1 6.5
29 Channel Islands ( Jersey and Guernsey) 5.2 6.2
30 Brunei 5.5 6.7
31 Cyprus 5.9 6.9
32 New Caledonia 6.1 8.7
33 United States 6.3 7.8

You are just wrong on all counts. We have the 33rd worst in Infant death rates, we don’t live as long, we are fatter, and report being less happy in longitudenal studies. Those are the facts. You know, Science.

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Chris Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 12:23 am

@Laura McNamara,

I am not discrediting the ratings that you have listed, but if you compare the US to other countries using their reported rates, then you should be aware that you are being misleading to our readers. I would encourage all readers to a US News and World Report article (http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/060924/2healy.htm) that addresses the fact that a lot of infant mortality statistics are very misleading and are obtained from individual governments. There is no medical standard used by all nations for calculating these statistics, plus there is no organizational oversight to ensure that governments do not report fraudelent information either. The article cites that the U.S. is one of only a few countries that record all infant mortalities in their statistics. Most countries exclude deaths from high risk pregnancies and exclude deaths when the baby dies immediately after child birth (the US counts these deaths in their statistics, most of Europe does not). Countries play the same game with mortality rates. The lack of exercise and poor eating habits also contribute to our nations infant mortality numbers in the U.S. The healthcare system will tell you that exercising, eating right, reducing stress, refrain from smoking, limiting drinking, and refraining from taking drugs SIGNIFICANTLY increases your chances of a healthy baby. Unfortunately, many American moms choose to make poor choices that end up hurting their child. This is where we at MomsRising.org need to be about instead of comparing apples to oranges in statistics that are uncomparable and make no point at all.

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 9:59 am

@Chris,
Thank you for the article you posted. What is interesting, is the very Dr. who wrote this article on Infant Mortality rates, supports health care reform. http://www.ihavenet.com/Uwe-Reinhardt-Plain-Talk-on-Healthcare-Reform.html. It is an interview of Dr. Healy by Dr. Uwe. I would submit for you consideration if the very sources you trust (Dr. Healy is an avowed Libertarian yet believes Health care reform is needed) you might want to re-examine your position. Sincerly, Laura McNamara

Maryann Westfall Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 12:59 am

@Laura McNamara, The government cannot effectively manage health care anymore than it can effectively manage your retirement savings (that would be Social Security). Instead, we need health INSURANCE reform. For example, currently we cannot buy insurance outside of our state of residence; our insurance is not portable (but our phone numbers are, how twisted is that?); profit is valued over health and life because of investor interest. All this can and should be changed to make the already-excellent health care options accessible to everyone. This is not done by the government providing an additional option (which would eventually become mandatory — read the bill). Rather, it can be done by government supporting legislation that directly addresses the specific problems of the insurance industry. I hope you have an opportunity to consider the real problem (insurance, the only industry in the world whose success is in NOT giving the consumer what they need/want in exchange for their money) and step away from the momentum built around the perceived problem (health care, of which the U.S.’ is world class) which is intended to promote a socialist agenda. P.S. Many of the health problems that you point out are a result of poor behavioral choices, not an inadequate health care system.

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Chris Reply:
August 18th, 2009 at 11:24 pm

@Laura McNamara,
Hey Laura! Thanks for the feedback. Yes, Dr Healy supports healthcare reform as I think many of us do. She is an awesome person who presents another perspective of what we could look towards in reforming our health care system. Essentially, she believes that insurance companies should face vigorous competition from one another through an open, national insurance exchange where everyone can buy his or her policies in any state from any insurer. This level of competition should drive costs down and the quality of service up.

She wants insurers to make their money by offering the best health plans at the best price to people young and old. That’s serving their customers—whom she’d prefer to call patients. She just posted a new article on the US News and World Report site (http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/2009/08/17/health-reform-fattens-big-insurance-and-taxes-the-young.html)

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 9:53 am

@David Fletcher,
It is a shame you discouraged you son from doing something he showed an interest in. Some people are not only driven by the bottom line. Oh Wait! Yes! Insurance companies!!

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 13th, 2009 at 11:02 am

@David Fletcher,
You discouraged your son from doing something he had an interest in because of the bottom line? You mean you encourage him to think of his bottom line before his spiritual health? Who else thinks like that… Oh yes! Insurance companies!

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Hello ferocious ladies! I am happy to see those who care for our children speaking up for health care reform. For the past 18 months, I have worked for a health insurance company — and I’ve seen things I wouldn’t spray paint on a freeway underpass. It’s like bad behavior central over here. But they gambled with the wrong people, they will lose, and they finally know it. The future will be better than the wildly expensive past. Believe it. We DO have everything to gain!

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Have the opponents to health care reform not realized that the time to change is now.

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This is not a socialist country, and that is what Obama wants, he wants to dictate, and dictatorship has no place in America.

It’s a lie when he says we will all be able to keep the insurance we have, if we want. Once this crappy insurance was in place, our employers would stop providing insurance, they will tell us to use the govt insurance free to them. This health care reform is probably the worst idea Obama has, oh wait—nope, all of his ideas are bad, every one of them.

This country will survive him, we are a strong country, and we will come back, twice as strong.

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

@Deb,
Unbrideled Capitilist regression is what got us in this crises. De-regulation etc. Socialism is paying taxes in exchange for eduation, the military, police, prisons, firemen, medicare, Social security, the CIA, the FBI, roads, the FDA, ambulances, the SEC, the judicial system, CPS….unless you want to give up all these services, you are a socialist already.

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Deb Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

@Laura McNamara,

You are so wrong, you obviously have no idea what socialism is…you better read up on it, and get on the correct side of this battle.
Just watch the news, and see how many Democrats have figured this president out, and are now Conservative Republicans. He’s losing ground fast, and I am so proud of we Republicans.

Moms and dads know how to handle a bully. It’s time to tell the extremists and corporate lobbyists that when it comes to our families’ health, we won’t be pushed around. This is so true, we Republicans need to tell the extremist’s just who should take care of this country, and it isn’t Democrats. Pay attention to Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh…they know the real truth.

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Laura McNamara Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

@Deb,
Sorry Deb, but you are the one that is uninformed and now I know why. Rush Limbaugh? Jeez. Talk about a bully! I know how to handle corporate bullies (insurance companies) too. Health care reform.

Deb Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

@Laura McNamara,

Nope, you are wrong, Rush knows. This will never end, I know I am right, and you think you are. It’s a sad world that would believe anything good can come from this health care reform…all it will do is make unemployment even higher, just like everything else your president has done. The govt should not own the car industry, that’s wrong. Him allowing people to turn their clunkers in, only to spend stimulus money on foreign cars, thats so wrong. Everything is wrong about this presidency. Besides the fact, I have never seen a president put his foot in his own mouth so many times in so few months.

Unbelievable how many people trust insurance companies to do the right thing! Like the banks! AIG! Countrywide! Enron!! For those that oppose Health reform, ask yourself, who wins? What entity has something to gain? Am I being manipulated? I trust the good taxpayers to do the right thing. I do, to all those that disagree with me on health care reform, I trust you all to do the right, compassionate thing over Blue Cross that won’t cover my husband or my friend’s 19 month old. I know, you would never ever deny coverage to those that need it.

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It amazing how the Republicans Insurance companies can invest so much money and lies to stop a tidal wave of Medical Care Reform.

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A Herd is not a government terminology, it is a scientific term used in the medical profession. Usually in the context of immuniztions etc. For example, am I healthier if the man next to me has TB? Another reason universal health care is less expensive in the long run. It is less expensive to treat diabetes or immunize, then deal with the consequences.

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My sister was self employed all of her life and recently died because she could not keep up her $750.00 per month insurance and could not get samples from a clinic on a regular basis. Because she owned a home she did not qualify for social services or medicaid even after she lost her business and was to ill to work.

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chris Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 2:39 pm

@Leticia, We’re sorry about your sister’s death, but confused as to how your sister’s inability to keep up her $750 per month health insurance was the cause of her death. I don’t understand the correlation. While I work in healthcare and with hospital systems, there are many people like your sister who are getting life-saving healthcare, regardless of their ability to pay. County, Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist hospitals and health centers throughout the country find amazing ways to provide high quality healthcare to people who are unable to pay for their care. Much of the money used to care for these cases comes from grants and foundations that are funded by gernerous and wealthy people, including profitable organizations who are giving back to our communities.

What you really want is the American people to pay for your sister’s healthcare through employer and income tax increases.

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Anonymous Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

@chris,
yes, that is what we want. All of us pay for roads, police services, ambulances, firemen, the military with taxes even when we never personally ever need the police or an ambulance or our house never burns down. We do it because we are a herd, and we all benefit when the heard is healthy. We lose when it is not.

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Anonymous Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

@, great, so now we are nothing more than cattle to our government.

Anonymous Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

@, and look how well kept our roads are. Bridges are falling into the Mississippi, potholes, and congestion. If the government becomes the funder of our healthcare, then we turn our healthcare over to our national budget, where it competes for roads, wars, and charter plans to shuttle our congress members back and forth on taxpayer-funded trips. All should be concerned that whoever is in power (Democrat or Republican) they will control our healthcare. Right now the Democrats control all branches. But the political pendulum swings and sometime soon, Republicans will be crafting the budgets of what will be spent in healthcare. Do we want this? Come on Americans, call you VA and ask them what happens when the cost of care exceeds their budgets? Patients suffer.

Laura McNamara Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

@chris,
You just proved my point. Health care should not only be for the rich. It should be for all. Like Police protection, or the military. The only way to ensure that is to get profit out of the picture and the ability to deny those for pre-existing conditions. However, I don’t think I am going to change your mind and I can assure you, after experiencing universal health care in both Canada and Spain, we have everything to gain (the ability to change jobs without worrying about whether our next employer has benefits) and nothing to lose except expensive premiums and the worry of not being able to cover your baby because of her health issues.

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chris Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 11:20 pm

@Laura McNamara, Police protection is fine, unless I want to protect my home and valuables. In that case I go to ADT or Brinks to secure my home with a home security system. Why? Because they are responsive and have to give you value for your money or else risk going out of business.

Your experience with the healthcare systems in Canada and Spain are not the norm, especially for those who suffer from chronic illness. Dr Scott Atlas is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and a professor of radiology and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical School. You need to read his recent article entitled “Here’s a Second Opinion”, published by the Hoover Institute and explains why America’s health care system is in better condition that you might suppose.

I hope we can have healthcare reform that helps everyone in our country. A national plan, however, is too much of a economic, social, and quuality burden for citizens to have to face. Medicare is bankrupting our nation, but it appears to be the poster child to everyone who supports a nationalized system. Even the president fails to face the tough questions and give us the truth in recent town halls he is hosting. The meeting in New Hampshire contained an 11 year-old girl who was the daughter of a big Obama supporter. This administration invited this girl and her supportive mother and provided her a question that she presented as a question to the President at the town hall meeting. How can we trust a government who is staging every aspect of this debate? The fact of the matter is that the American people have turned on our President and Congress on this issue because they have lost their trust and confidence in them.

Anonymous Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

@chris,
I would rather pay whatever small increase in taxes that everyone pays, then the $900.00 a month I pay for myself and my two children on a PPO. The reason my premiums are so high? I am paying for those that aren’t covered anyways. My husband has a pre-existing condition and works for himself and no one will cover him. No one. Not Blue Sheild, Blue Cross, Aetna nor Health Net. This is a good hard working man, that had an accident and now is forced to risk his family’s financial well being because no one will cover him.

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Anonymous Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 11:40 pm

@,
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your thoughtful cogent polite reply to my concerns. But my experience in Spain and Canada were very much the norm, I lived in Spain for 2 years and dated a Canadian for 4. In addition to my experiences, I have many friends in other European countries. If you were to try and take away the universal health care enjoyed by the English or the French, those countries would erupt in riots. For every Dr. you can find that might have an honest concern about health care reform there are educated, studied Drs from prestigious universities that have honest concerns about the current system. I fall in the latter camp. I simply do not trust a system that has consolidated to a point where there really are no options and the profit driven model encourages them to restrict care or raise premiums as their customers get sick. They are more beholden to Wall street then their own customers. There is no law to mandate employers insure their employees and those who have small business (like ourselves) are totally vulnerable. If you have been following my thread, I and my two children are insured (at $900.00 a month, that is $10,800 a year), yet if any one of us were to get sick, we could be dropped the following year without recourse or have our premiums go up even more. My husband can’t get insured (we have tried everywhere) because of a pre-existing condition. This is simply amoral. I respectfully agree to disagree and appreciate your tone in this conversation. Let us hope in some small way, we can be an example.

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