A View From The Press Box

Count me as unimpressed with her article or her thinking.

She makes assertions that are just not true--such as the fact that there is no waiting period crisis for care in other countries.

Just one question for her: How many people come to the U.S. (even from France) for treatment, and why is this so?

She uses a term of art-- "elective procedures"--to try to distinguish. The fact is that the waiting period for things that we take for granted--MRIs, CAT scans, bypass surgery--is off the charts, even in wonderful France.

I also take exception to tossing around the number of uninsured. How many people are uninsured because they choose to be, or who are in-between jobs? It is a scare number.

Yes, the system is broken, but it is broken because the "market" has responded to federal law.

Why do you think that we have a system of HMOs and PPOs? It is exactly as was envisioned by Congress.

Instead of just being lazy and saying "single payer" with Medicare (HA!) as the model, maybe Jane can give it a little more thought.

I, too, am not impressed by Jane's arguments. Is Canada the only country with problems with universal care? Hardly.

Take a look at Great Britain. They, too, have national insurance, and while the population is promised good care, the quality is going down, the waiting times keep going up, and the availability of doctors willing to accept new patients keeps getting smaller.

How do I know this? Well, I happened to sit through several hours of arguments on the problems with health care while visiting Parliament during a stay in London a few years ago.

Now, similar things are going on in Massachusetts with its plan, too, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Let's keep the government out of our lives any time we can. They don't do such a great job on Social Security, the deficit, U.S. mail, etc.

We all know that the health care system is grossly overpriced, but when wealthy people from all over the world come here for health care, that says something!

Wow, and Jane gave this article thought and research?

Don't believe for a minute that uninsured people don't get care. Visit the California emergency rooms and you'll find gridlock of the uninsured, and a flurry of 1011 forms being handed out or CMS charity forms. Emergency or not, they know where to get care for free.

Many of the uninsured (read illegal for the most part here) already receive free emergency care for emergency and non-emergency issues, follow-up care, pre- and post-natal care, birthing, healthy child, etc.

Then we have the Medi-CAL freebies afforded to those who don't work and the rest of the give aways.

So, Jane, what we're looking at is the uninsured and underinsured working, supposedly middle-class, blue- and white-collar Americans who are getting the screws put to them by the system and nobody else.

Wait times for critical surgical procedures are horrendous in Ireland and other European countries. Been there and seen that and still see it on the daily news. Perhaps some countries have some handle on this, but most with socialized medicine do not.

Funny how people tend to blast the privatized health care system as villainous and want the government to build, fund and balloon a vast pork barreled bureaucracy, when they already know what happens when the government tries to run most anything.

Haven't you ever heard those words that strike fear in the hearts of all men? ... "We're from the government...and we're here to help!"

The anti-government movement finds all the faults--we'll stop having bake sales for heart transplant patients and stop profits to big insurance companies.

We'll also stop 25 percent of the bankrucpties due to medical bills and loss of coverage.

We'll have more public heath activities, so we won't be as sick.

We'll have no reason to guarantee big profits to big drug companies as cheaper drugs and better health becomes a national goal with real results!

I find this whole debate about national medical care an excercise in frustration.

First, most all of the national medical care programs across the world lack timely care, have a shortage of doctors, or are financially strapped and are constantly increasing their charges to the government just to stay open.

We are no exception to this problem--all you have to do is take a look at our own Medicare system to see how this type of program cannot survive on its own.

Most seniors, in order to get reasonable care, have to pay for a supplement insurance program. Try and expand that to everyone in the country.

I also hear people talk about how our citizens will stay well because of the ease of getting free medical care, so we would not have as many major health problems.

Have we forgotten about HMOs? They were started for this very reason, and most of them went under financially.

Today, many doctors limit the number of patients they will see on HMO programs because they cannot afford to treat the patients and pay for the malpractice insurance on the funds paid by HMOs. And HMOs cannot afford to pay more than they do, if they expect to stay in business.

The health care system may need to be improved, but any new solution is not necessarily a good solution. We have plenty of experience to guide us in these decisions. Let's use it.