Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts

Monday, April 27, 2009

Follow the apocalypse in real-time


Google Maps has the 2009 H1N1 Swine Flu map, which is updated in near real-time.


I guess it's too late to seal the border with Mexico. Horse. Barn. Door.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

R.I.P.: The American Health Care System. Died: this week.


The Democrats' War on Poverty is nearly 50 years old, yet we're told there's too much poverty despite trillions in wealth transfers of every type.

The Democrats have run the education system for nearly 100 years -- with monopolies like the NEA and the AFT teacher's unions, yet we consistently hear that education is broken and that schools need more money.

Government was responsible for securing the southern border since the era of LBJ and have intentionally failed; this has led to the presence of as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the country thanks to Johnson's policies including "chain migration".

Democrats were responsible for implementing Medicare and Medicaid, which along with Social Security, are in ruins with approximately $55 trillion in debt. That's nearly a half million dollars for every household in America.

I could go down a long list of things the government said it would do, but hasn't done. Because the Statist Democrats are liars.

And now the Statist Democrats are launching the most massive attack on the American people in the history of government.

They promise health care for everyone, but they will not -- and they can't possibly -- deliver it.

While our health care system is certainly imperfect -- because all humans are imperfect, including doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies -- they are more perfect, more competent, more informed, more capable than all of the bureaucrats to whom they'll be forced to report: a bureaucracy that will make all decisions about your health care.

And it is easy to confirm the havoc that socialized medicine will wreak on American society. All you need to do is to look at how Democrats are trying to ram home socialized medicine: they're doing it as fast as possible with as little debate as possible, using a loophole to slip it through without amendments or consideration.

Democrats claim it will be more cost-effective and efficient. That's bulls***. The man who's had the least experience at running anything is going to unleash the most massive federal leviathan in history.

This has been the dream of the Statist Democrats since FDR: to force each and every one of you, whether you like it or not, into a strait-jacket form of health care. It controls you; the actual being, the person.

Nameless, faceless bureaucrats substituting their decisions for those of your doctor.

Deciding whether you will have an operation or not. Whether you will have an MRI or not. Whether you will receive a life-saving, life-extending drug or not.

And we know this, because this is what occurs in Canada and Britain and other centralized bureaucracies, where you simply can not have access to advanced health care, period.

Where will the new drugs come from, since we produce half of them? Where will the new medical technologies come from, since we invent roughly three-fourths of them?

Who will run the hospitals and what will they look like when the government unions run them?

Who will be responsive in a massive federal bureaucracy, where no one takes responsibility for anything, and yet they're all-powerful decision-makers for your family's well-being?

Where will Barack Obama be in ten years, when the rest of us are struggling with a massive, out-of-control, federalized medical system that doesn't give a damn about individuals and is busy rationing?

He will be retired as a very young man; a very wealthy young man, who will have imposed his Marxist ideology upon this society and then walked away from it.

The politicians don't last. But their policies live forever.

And in every successive election cycle, the Statist Democrats will use the health care system to bludgeon their opponents. They will use health care as a weapon, rewarding you by offering more benefits for your votes and punishing you with less benefits if you dare to vote against them.

So much power for a faceless set of bureaucrats who can't possibly have the best interests of your family in mind. And yet they're going to take those decisions away from you and your doctor. And they've been lying every day to justify what they're doing.

They've been lying about the number of people without health care. They've been lying about whether the public is satisfied with health care. They've been lying about every aspect of health care.

They unleashed the slip-and-fall lawyers on the medical system, causing untold higher costs for medical practitioners. They've attacked the health care system relentlessly, driving up costs just like they've attacked the energy industry and the automakers.

And even when they have complete monopolistic control of a system, like the educational system in America, they want more control. It's never enough. They want more money, more regulations. More. They need to "invest". They need to raise taxes. They need to repress. They need to compel.

Because the Statist cannot make the imperfect perfect, even though he says he can. The Statist is more imperfect than anyone else.

I ask you to consider something: what kind of persons can Obama and the Democrat leadership be, to think they can do these things when history tells them they can not?

What kind of a mind refuses to look at the evidence? What kind of person would refuse to look at Britain and Canada? Or engage in arm-twisting secretly, behind the scenes? And use brownshirts like ACORN and the SEIU to intimidate organizations and legislators alike?

They're going to rush socialized medicine through the system, without any debate or transparency... and it's going to be a complete disaster on multiple levels.

Call the so-called conservative Blue Dog Democrats now. Make your voice heard. Help us stop this rush to disaster.


Based upon: Mark Levin 4/24/09.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Democrats dismantling the legal system, piece by piece


Would it be okay for you to break into an empty home because you needed a place to stay?

Would it be acceptable for you to invade a family's home because they had a spare bedroom and could be looking for a live-in nanny?

Or would it be reasonable to crash a party at the Playboy mansion because Hef had plenty of extra food, free drinks and lots of gorgeous females hanging around?

And would it be fair to sneak into the local YMCA to lift weights because you didn't want the hassle of signing up and paying membership fees?

Would it be justifiable to sneak onto a large corporate campus and steal food, office supplies and computers?

No?

So why do Democrats believe in open borders, allowing millions of non-citizens to illegally enter the country without sanction, while American taxpayers fund their health care, food, living expenses and other social services?

Put simply, when it comes to Democrats, laws do not matter.

In fact, the entire legal system -- like the Constitution -- is "living and breathing" (i.e., malleable) when it benefits Democrats; they endlessly claw for more power, more influence and more personal rewards.

At this very moment, Democrats are rushing socialized medicine through Congress without debate, without vaunted "transparency", without an impact analysis and without a word of protest from the mainstream media.

And the Democrats' new socialized medicine plan includes free health care for illegal aliens.

We must fight these bums tooth and nail. And me must throw them all out in 2010. Every last Democrat must go. And you hack "Blue Dogs"? You're first on the list.


True Tales of Canadian Health Care


Anonymous writes (partially redacted to protect the author's identity):

I am an American living and working in [Canadian City]. Please do not use my name, but I am a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Consulate here... working in the... visas section. I could get in big trouble professionally for telling you this.

...I had numerous opportunities to work on cases in which Canadians were attempting to emigrate to the U.S. primarily for medical procedures. In one case, a U.S. citizen father was petitioning for his [Canadian adult] son to join him in [state]...

...His son had a non-Hodgkins lymphoma, and was unable to obtain the necessary treatments in Canada. In the U.S., two physicians had examined him and basically concluded that, because the disease had not spread above his neck, that he could be saved. In Canada, this young man was under a death sentence. Once I was satisfied that his medical costs would not be borne by U.S. taxpayers, I got him his visa and (hopefully) another chance at life.

* * * * * * * * *

[There was another] case of a young Canadian mother, in tears, who had recently given birth to a child with cerebral palsy. Her husband, a U.S. citizen working in Canada, was able to transmit U.S. citizenship to his infant son and he was petitioning for his wife so that the family could move to Chicago. Why? So the boy could get the treatment that he needed in the U.S., which was superior to that in Canada.

* * * * * * * * *

[We all] had several cases of nurses, doctors, and [X-ray] technicians who emigrated to the U.S. for professional reasons. Sometimes it was for the opportunity to earn more money (one doctor, earning about $85K annually Canadian, had a job offer at a clinic in Buffalo for $300K U.S.). For others, it was a chance to to do what they were trained to do - in the U.S., [an X-ray] technician has the equipment and facilities to ply his trade, whereas in Canada the opportunities to do so are quite limited.

* * * * * * * * *

I realize that this is all anecdotal and not statistically based, but in my experience the only Canadians who are satisfied with the system here are people who are healthy. I do not mean that in a snide attempt to be funny, I am serious - it is a good program for young healthy couples with one or two children who need vaccinations and routine appointments.

However, if you get sick, this is not the place to be.

Lastly, a comment - U.S. health care is a good value for the money. Would you rather have 2009 health care at 2009 prices, in the U.S., or 1970 health care at 1970 prices? The answer is obvious, and even our own Congress knows it. I am pretty sure that Ted Kennedy would not choose to have his brain cancer treated anywhere but the U.S., and the same is true for John Kerry's prostate cancer.

Friday, April 10, 2009

The Do-It-Yerself Democrats


WGN describes the citizenry of Chicago reveling in decades of outstanding Democratic leadership.

Do you have gaping potholes on your street and feel the city is not fixing them quickly enough? How about patching them yourself?

That's what a group of residents on Chicago's West Side did Wednesday. Members of the South Austin Coalition bought eight bags of a pavement mix for about $100 and used shovels, rakes and a 250-pound push roller to fill 15 holes on the 4800 block of West Van Buren Street.

"The city's not doing it, so residents need to take the matter into their own hands," said Elce Redmond, an organizer with the coalition.

The group's members hope their efforts will shame the city into repairing neighborhood side streets and inspire other residents to band together and patch their own blocks. They also hope residents will create a citywide Pothole Repair Day...

...Leaders of the South Austin Coalition said they chose this residential street after a block meeting. They acknowledged the potholes were average size. The holes were not as bad as say the seemingly bottomless pits that scar Lake Shore Drive or those protested by community groups this week along Garfield Boulevard in the Englewood neighborhood.

Englewood, of course, is the downtrodden neighborhood represented by State Senator Barack Obama from 1997 to 2004.

Shockingly, it doesn't seem to have improved much since Obama's reign.

The pothole situation in Englewood has citizens up in arms. Just a few days ago, two dozen protesters demonstrated against the city's refusal to repair the streets.

Some held signs that read, "We need more city services" and "Mayor Daley, fix our potholes". Others sold cookies to raise money for pothole repairs.

* * * * * * * * *

James Taranto suggests "getting your hands on a copy of Stewart Cowley's 1981 book, Do-It-Yourself Brain Surgery & Other Home Skills.

It may come in handy when the Chicago Democrats take over health care."


Hat tip: Ben.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The curious case of 200 nearly identical MSM headlines


The following headlines have appeared in newspapers within the last 24 hours. This is not an inclusive list.

Third of Illinoisans went without health insurance in last 2 years: Sun-Times
Report: 2.5M in Michigan lacked health insurance: Chicago Tribune
Study: 29% of Ohioans have gone without health insurance: BizJournals
Report: More NJ residents lacking health insurance: Forbes
Study: Many Kansans are uninsured: BizJournals
Report tallies uninsured in Hawaii: KPUA AM 670
Study: 1 in 3 Alabamians have no insurance: BizJournals
1 out of 4 NH residents lacked health insurance within last two years: WBZ
1 out of 3 Coloradans lacked insurance in past two years: Denver Post
Nearly 1 in 3 Idahoans lack health insurance, study says: Idaho Statesman
One in four nonelderly Minnesotans has been without health insurance, study shows: Twin Cities
1 in 3 are uninsured in Georgia, study says: Augusta Chronicle
1.3 million Louisiana residents uninsured: Independent
Millions in N.C. lack health plan: Winston-Salem Journal
Uninsured are mostly working: Sun-Herald
Nearly one-third of Wyoming residents went without health insurance in past two years: Wyoming Tribune
Report finds health insurance lacking in W.Va.: Charleston Gazette
Nearly 1/3 Of Kentuckians Uninsured Says Report: WFPL Radio
REPORT: 254K Rhode Islanders Uninsured at Some Point from 2007-2008: ABC 6

There are more. I just stopped listing them because I grew weary -- so weary -- of the physical labor associated with cutting and pasting.

All of the stories were marketed by a liberal "advocacy group" called Families USA .

According to Discover the Networks, Families USA is a member of the "Progressive States Network", which works closely with (you guessed it) ACORN and the SEIU. These ultra-partisan groups have truly one agenda: big government.

During his presidential campaign, then-Senator Obama spoke to a conference of Family USA activists and promised, "I am absolutely determined that by the end of the first term of the next president, we should have universal health care in this country."

Data from the Census Bureau debunks the lie continually promoted by the mainstream media of the legendary 47 million uninsured Americans:

• 9.5 million people are illegal aliens
• 8.3 million uninsured people are those who make between $50,000 and $74,999 per year and choose not to purchase insurance
• 8.7 million uninsured people are those who make over $75,000 a year and choose not to purchase insurance

This leaves approximately 20 million uninsured; less than 7% of the population. Why do some people choose not to purchase insurance? 60 percent reported being in "excellent health or very good health" and purposefully decided not to buy insurance.

Further, 45% of the uninsured will have insurance within the next four months according to the Congressional Budget Office. Many are transitioning between jobs and purchase health insurance through their employers.

So what is the true extent of the "health care crisis" continually marketed by the big government leftists? The Kaiser Family Foundation, a liberal non-profit frequently quoted by the media, puts the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for current government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 13.9 million and 8.2 million. That is a much smaller figure than the media report and is also subject to "the 45% rule", wherein that percentage will transition to new jobs within a four-month time-frame.

The mainstream media's willingness to act as an unthinking public relations arm for a tiny minority of left-wing radicals is truly despicable. But it's not unexpected for an industry destined, in large part, for the black hole of bankruptcy.

* * * * * * * * *

Update: A tipster who wishes to remain anonymous writes:

...I was struck by the promotion of this material by Families USA. When I was involved with [group] a few years ago, we checked out Families USA and found that they had almost no individual contributors to their non-profit organization. We obtained their 990 from IRS and found that we were totally funded by Big Labor and served as a "front group" in every sense of the term...

...Unlike the Heritage Foundation [for example], that proudly talks about grass roots financial support from 300,000 Americans, Families has no such support. All they get is a fat check from Big Labor.

ACORN, the SEIU and Chicago politics. What a wonderful web they weave, America.

Update II: Ace cuts to the heart of the matter.

Isn't it odd that the moment a hardcore liberal group sends out a study to the media, 200 headlines blossom?

I'm not sure that happens when Heritage or the AEI sends out a study.

I sorta think it doesn't.

Update III: JR points out that 60 Minutes -- which, as part of CBS, is nothing more than a discredited public relations arm of the Democrat Party -- aired a related story a few days ago. On 5 April, it featured "Bad Economy Leaves Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance In Dire Straits".

In October, just before election day, CBS Sunday Morning aired its own Obama infomercial. Entitled "Perils of American Health Care", it recited all of the Democrat talking points: from "47 million uninsured Americans" to "20,000 die annually because they don't get care."

And in December, the CBS Evening News tried its hand hawking the same, tired leftist propaganda. "Don't drop universal health care" included the missive Dear Barack - Now Is The Perfect Time To Splurge On Universal Health Care.

Quoting all of the discredited statistics ("the U.S. is 75th in health care" or some such tripe marketed by the U.N.), CBS treats its viewers like hypnotized schoolchildren. Come to think of it, that describes most Democrats I know.

Funny how no one thinks to ask why patients aren't jetting to the UK or Canada when they require serious medical attention.

Update IV: Wow. Chris Muir of Day by Day:


While I do declare, Charlotte... I think I'm blushin'. What an honor!

Update V: Writing at Red State, EPU ties the entire story together in beautiful fashion. It's a must-read.



Related: The Mary Jo Kopechne Universal Health Care Program.
Linked by: Instapundit, Mark Steyn at NRO's Corner, Gateway Pundit, Ed Driscoll: "Flood the Zone!", Lucianne, Patterico, Protein Wisdom, Jawa Report, Fox Nation, Bob McCarty, Jules Crittenden, Red State, Sister Toldjah, Cold Fury, Old Controller, Wikistan, Improved Clinch, Sundries Shack, Pirate Cove, Environmental Republican, USS Neverdock, Random Jottings, Memeorandum, Blue Crab Boulevard, Creative Minority Report, AGAHB, Grand Rants and Paul Ibrahim. Thanks!


Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Gee, I can't wait for Obamacare and Socialized Medicine


Check out some of the recent headlines from the U.K. and its "National Health Service" (NHS). This is the type of system that Obama and the Statists intend to implement. Feel better yet?

NHS 'failings' over elderly falls: 3/25/2009 [BBC]
Learning disabled 'failed by NHS': 3/24/2009 [BBC]
Cancer survivor confronts the health secretary on 62-day wait: 3/21/2009 [The Scotsman]

Culture of targets prevents nurses from tending to patients: Patients Association, 3/21/2009 [Telegraph UK]
Children being failed by health system, says head of watchdog: Sarah Boseley, 3/21/2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
Our cancer shame: Survival rates still lag behind EU despite spending billions: 3/20/2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]

Failing hospital 'caused deaths': 3/17/2009 [BBC]
Health gap drive 'wasted money': 3/14/2009 [BBC]
Longer GP opening hours branded wasteful 'PR exercise' by doctors: 3/13/2009 [The Scotsman]

"Political meddling" threatens general practice, warns GP leader: 3/13/2009 [Management in Practice (UK)]
Children at risk through lack of training for doctors and nurses, report warns: 3/13/2009 [Telegraph UK]
Chocolate should be taxed to control obesity epidemic, doctors are told: 3/13/2009 [Telegraph UK]

1,000 wait for a dentist after just one NHS practice opens: 3/10/2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
Study proves the folly of NHS Alzheimer's drug ban: 3/7/2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
NHS charges to rise in England: 3/5/2009 [BBC]

Disabled children wait up to two years for wheelchairs: 3/4/2009 [Guardian Unlimited]
NHS under fire over waiting times: 2/25/2009 [The Scotsman]
Specialist nurses 'vastly overworked': 2/20/2009 [Harwich & Manningtree Standard]

Hundreds of operations cancelled at Lothian hospitals: 2/19/2009 [The Scotsman]
Stop asking for antibiotics to cure coughs and colds, Government tells patients: 2/17/2009 [Daily Mail(UK)]
Stroke services are 'UK's worst' : 2/17/2009 [BBC]

Hospitals curb caesarean births: 2/15/2009 [The Times]
Only five out of 51 hospital trusts pass hygiene test, say inspectors: 11/24/2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
Top doctors slam NHS drug rationing: 8/24/2008 [The Times]

Heart patients dying due to poor hospital care, says report: Sarah Boseley, June 8/2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
NHS dentistry loses almost a million patients after new dentists' contract: David Rose, 6/6/2008 [The Times]
Private healthcare managers could be sent to turn round failing NHS hospitals: 6/4/2008 [The Times]

Cancer patients ‘betrayed’ by NHS: Sarah-Kate Templeton, 6/1/2008 [The Times]
NHS scandal: dying cancer victim was forced to pay: Sarah-Kate Templeton, June 1/2008 [The Times]
Pensioner, 76, forced to pull out own teeth after 12 NHS dentists refuse to treat her: 3/26/2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]

Dental patients face care lottery: 3/26/2008 [Metro(UK)]
Lung patients 'condemned to death as NHS withdraws their too expensive drugs': 3/24/2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]
Women in labour turned away by maternity units: 3/21/2008 [Guardian Unlimited]

Health inequality has got worse under Labour, says government report: 3/13/2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
Angry GPs reluctantly accept plan for weekend and evening surgeries: John Carvel, 3/7/2008 [Guardian Unlimited]
NHS chiefs tell grandmother, 61, she's 'too old' for £5,000 life-saving heart surgery: 2/28/2008 [Daily Mail(UK)]

Patient 'removed' from waiting list to meet target: 1/31/2008 [The Scotsman]
NHS patients told to treat themselves: James Kirkup, 1/4/2008 [Telegraph UK]
NHS is 'failing patients' despite record funding: 10/4/2007 [Telegraph UK]

NHS rationing rife, say doctors: 9/24/2007 [BBC]
One in eight patients waiting over a year for treatment, admits minister: 6/8/2007 [Guardian Unlimited]
Audit Office asked to investigate record £500m NHS underspend: John Carvel, 5/30/2007 [Guardian Unlimited]

The drugs the NHS won't give you: 5/11/2007 [Telegraph UK]
UK lagging behind on cancer drug access, study finds: 5/10/2007 [Guardian Unlimited]
One in six trusts is still putting patients on mixed-sex wards: Daniel Martin, 5/10/2007 [Daily Mail(UK)]

Specialist stroke care 'lottery': 5/9/2007 [BBC News]
Smokers and the obese banned from UK hospitals: 5/2/2007 [Healthcare News]
Cancer patients told life-prolonging treatment is too expensive for NHS: Lyndsay Moss, 2/13/2007 [The Scotsman]

UK health service "harms 10 percent of patients": 7/7/2006 [Reuters]
5,000 elderly 'killed each year' by lack of care beds: 6/26/2006 [Telegraph UK]
Pay for nurses and surgeons doubles NHS overspend: 4/23/2006 [Telegraph UK]

The money addicts: it's your cash they are gambling with: 4/23/2006 [Telegraph UK]
NHS chiefs get luxury car deals: 4/9/2006 [The Times]
Secret NHS plan to ration patient care: 4/7/2006 [The Times]

British Healthcare To Be Rationed: 4/7/2006 [UPI]
British body rejects EPO drugs for cancer patients: 3/17/2006 [Reuters]
National Health Service - Grappling with Deficits: 3/9/2006 [Economist.com]

Hundreds wait to register as another dentist quits the NHS: 9/23/2005 [The Herald (Scotland)]
Life-saving cancer drugs 'kept from NHS patients by red tape': 9/20/2005 [The Times]
NHS slides into the red despite record increases in health care spending: 9/20/2005 [Telegraph UK]

Alzheimer's sufferers hit by further delay in NHS approval for vital drugs: 9/18/2005 [Telegraph UK]
We all pay a price for our 'free' NHS: John Smith, 8/19/2005 [The Scotsman]
2,000 British doctors out of work: 8/14/2005 [The Washington Times]

UK health 'unsustainable': 8/14/2005 [Finance24]
NHS faces rising bill for negligence claims: 8/8/2005 [Financial Times]
British boy to go to India for operation: 8/5/2005 [United Press International]

NHS failed to stop doctor raping scores of women: 7/31/2005 [The Times]
Top crimewriter funds drugs for cancer victim refused by NHS: 7/8/2005 [Telegraph UK]
Report says NHS is mired in huge debts: David Simms, 6/25/2005 [ABC Money (UK)]

U.K. set to restrict smoking: 6/21/2005 [The Associated Press]
NHS ‘fund bias’ against men cost 2,500 lives a year: 6/19/2005 [The Times]
Doubts on funding NHS 'monuments': Nicholas Timmins, 6/10/2005 [Financial Times]

17 million reasons why we must improve hospital meals: 6/7/2005 [Cambridge Evening News]
Figures show more patients waiting for operations: 6/3/2005 [Guardian UK]
Scarcity of NHS dental treatment is revealed: Celia Hall, 5/19/2005 [telegraph.co.uk]

Why NHS Opposes 'Treatment by Demand' for the Dying: 5/18/2005 [Scotsman]
800 queue for NHS dentists: 5/5/2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
Hundreds more heroin addicts to be given a fix on the NHS: Nic Fleming, 4/25/2005 [telegraph.co.uk]

British health service facing nurse exodus: 4/25/2005 [United Press International]
About 400 patients a year in Scotland succumb to MRSA: 4/25/2005 [Scotsman]
NHS debts soar to over £1bn: Karyn Miller, 4/24/2005 [telegraph.co.uk]

British taxpayers foot $26.5 million bill for abortion tourists: 4/18/2005 [Catholic World News]
U.K. Liberal Democrats Would Raise Taxes to Pay for Health Care: Reed Landberg, 4/14/2005 [Bloomberg]
Number of NHS Bureaucrats 'Rising Faster Than Health Staff': 3/22/2005 [Scotsman]

'£500m hole' in hospital budgets: 3/21/2005 [telegraph.co.uk]
1,000 Scots desert NHS every week: 3/5/2005 [Scotsman]
British NHS facing financial crisis: 3/3/2005 [Washington Times]

NHS drugs regulator to withdraw approval of Alzheimer's treatment: Nicholas Timmins, 3/2/2005 [FT.com]
NHS waiting list rises: 2/11/2005 [Guardian UK]
Tumour patients hit by NHS shortages: 2/6/2005 [Guardian UK]

NHS financial crises set to outlast winter: 2/4/2005 [Yorkshire Post]
NHS 24 'priority' callers wait four hours for advice: 1/14/2005 [Evening Times (UK)]
'No strategy' on NHS waiting time: 1/14/2005 [BBC]

Output figures show NHS decline: John Carvel, 10/19/2004 [Guardian UK]
Heart patients die on waiting lists: 10/18/2004 [Manchester Online]
£25bn overspend feared for NHS computer network: 10/12/2004 [telegraph.co.uk]

Gaps in care cost £7bn, says charity: 10/4/2004 [Guardian UK]
NHS excluding poor people, UK: 9/15/2004 [Medical News Today]
Smokers 'should not get NHS care': 9/6/2004 [BBC News]

Waiting list row blights Brighton: 9/4/2004 [Guardian UK]
Patients are denied the last rites under data protection law: 7/25/2004 [telegraph.co.uk]
Shortage of dentists to double by 2011: 7/24/2004 [Guardian UK]

Britain's stiff upper lip gives way to a snarl: Sarah Lyall, 7/18/2004 [The New York Times]
Hospital Overcrowding A Cause of Superbug Infections: John von Radowitz, 7/1/2004 [Scotsman.com]
Hospital Crisis: Fallen Angels: Lindsay Mcgarvie, 5/23/2004 [Glasgow Sunday Mail]

Via: LibertyPage.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The Ontario Project


I'm looking for readers in upstate New York: Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Utica, Erie, Oswego and surrounding areas.

The requirements:
  • A camera or camera-phone
  • The ability to visit the parking lot of a hospital or urgent-care facility
  • Mathematical skills: you must be able to count to ten
I'm looking for the approximate number of Ontario license plates in American health care facilities near the Canadian border.

Given the vaunted, "free" Canadian health care system, my questions are: how many Canadians are visiting American medical facilities? Of every ten license plates you see, how many are from Ontario?

My contention is that quite a few Canadians are trying to escape the queues (waits) for routine tests like MRIs, CAT scans and the like. Or they seek specialized treatment that is unavailable in Canada.

Here's how you can help: Visit the parking lot of an upstate New York medical facility. Estimate the percentage of Ontario license plates. Take a snapshot or two of Ontario plates in the parking lot (I'll obscure the actual plate number). Then email me with sample counts and pictures. You can also post a link or request on message boards you frequent, or just email this request to your friends.

For those who respond, I'll provide credit and thanks by name in a summary post (unless directed to remove the name).

The deadline: one week from today.

Any help you can offer is appreciated.


Update: Kim Priestap of Wizbang writes "People are now beginning to ask if [Natasha Richardson's] death could have been prevented with a medical helicopter system, which Quebec does not have."



Friday, March 20, 2009

The Sickness


Consider, if you will, the priorities of Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Pelosi-Obama-Reid Democrats:

In Pelosi's world, Illegal Aliens must be granted free health care and voting rights.


Families making up to $100,000 annually are given free health care through the 2009 Obama SCHIP program, even if they have private health care insurance.


But our Wounded Warriors? They should be forced to use private health insurance for their grievous injuries.


The modern Democrat Party, controlled by George Soros, is infected with a sickness.

And they don't -- that's right, I said it -- they don't support the troops. In fact, Democrats hate the troops.

And Barack Obama proved it with his outrageous proposal to charge veterans for their own health care while preparing to offer citizenship and free health care for illegal immigrants. And I don't care if he retracted his demands. It's the thought that counts.


Linked by: Fausta. THanks! Picture credits: Flap's, ZenHabits, Weasel Zippers, respectively.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Stem-cell hero


Bob McCarty spotted this caption of a White House photo that depicts Barack Obama signing a directive which allows federal funding of stem-cell research.


The closeup:

As McCarty observes:

Though I find it less troubling than the president’s continuing assault on the unborn, the file name (hero_stemcell_main2.jpg) under which someone at the White House saved the photo of the signing ceremony this afternoon is disturbingly creepy.

Not as creepy as the song Bruce Springsteen will sing at one of the White House's Wednesday night bashes. The song will be called He's a stem-cell hero, sung to the tune of He's a rhinestone cowboy.



Sunday, March 08, 2009

The MJK Universal Health Care Plan


He was a brash and affable young man. The good looking scion of a rich and powerful family. It was a mid-summer party, held in a startlingly beautiful mansion by the sea. And it was one of the hot tickets of the social season.

She was a former teacher, blonde and engaging. Not yet 30, she had held a series of administrative, clerical and communication jobs for his family.

They were attracted to one another immediately. Perhaps it was the setting, the sound of buoys gently clanking and the far-off lights of mysterious vessels bobbing far a-sea.

They had met before, but this time each had the other's undivided attention. They were drinking gin and tonics, the ocean breeze lifting their hair as they sat on the veranda, apart from the rest of the party, while laughing at each other's silly stories.

It was a beautiful evening and their conversation lifted her spirits. Soon they were both anxious to go. She climbed into his GM-made vehicle, a late-model sedan with a massive, growling engine.

He had poured two "go glasses" to accompany them on their short trip, each filled to the brim with more gin than tonic.

Soon they were wending their way to the other side of the island, a difficult journey because of narrow roads and poor lighting, now made more difficult by a failed headlight.

A small bridge, just wide enough for one car, lay ahead. She realized, with a horror that rose instantly like a buoy within her heart, that they were headed off the side of the bridge. She screamed as the tires squealed, but it was too late to stop.

Rushing through Universal Health Care


President Barack Obama suggests that the cure for our economic crisis is a universal health care program, which would provide free care to all individuals using models similar to those developed in the UK and Canada.

In January, a staffer for Rep. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) suggested that any universal health care bill could be named for Senator Ted Kennedy, who is suffering from a very serious form of brain cancer.

And while our thoughts and prayers go out to Sen. Kennedy in this difficult time for he and his family, it is worth contemplating some of the news from around the globe related to socialized medicine.

Kennedy did not visit the UK or Canada for treatment


Consider that Senator Kennedy utilized the private health care system here in the United State to receive the finest cancer care in the world. He did not visit the UK or Canada.

"British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today." (Cancer survival rates worst in western Europe: Telegraph (UK) 2007)

Assuming he were a normal citizen, Kennedy's odds at successful treatment of his cancer would be much lower in the UK than in the US. And in Canada, rationing of health care has become the norm.

"Aside from the problems inherent in all monopolies, the fact that health services are free leads to familiar economic consequences. Basic economics tells us that if a commodity is offered at zero price, demand will increase, supply will drop, and a shortage will develop...

...As demand rises and expensive technology is introduced, health costs soar. But with taxes already at a breaking point, government has little recourse but to try to hold down costs. In Quebec, hospitals have been facing budget cuts both in operating expenses and in capital expenditures. Hospital equipment is often outdated, and the number of general hospital beds dropped by 21 per cent from 1972 to 1980.

[And s]ince labor is the main component of health costs, incomes of health workers and professionals have been brought under tight government controls..." (Socialized Medicine: The Canadian Experience: The Advocates (Canada))

The results are in: our current experiments with socialized medicine have failed


President Obama has neglected to advise us of the results of our most recent set of experiments with socialized medicine.

• There are a countless number of horror stories related to care provided by the Veterans Administration.

• There is a projected $36 trillion shortfall in funding for Medicare and Medicaid.

• California's Medi-Cal program is an unmitigated disaster, burning a $14 billion hole in a state with a nearly $50 billion overall budget shortfall.

How can anyone, in good conscience, possibly suggest this country is ready for socialized medicine? It has failed cancer patients and children in the UK. It has condemned patients to long and sometimes fatal waits for routine tests in Canada (e.g., "Excessive wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies are a major problem in the Canadian healthcare system." Healthcare Policy, Canada, 2009).

And our own experiments have proven to be utter and complete catastrophes.

We should insist the bill is named for Mary Jo Kopechne


Rather than name the bill for Kennedy, I submit that it be named for Mary Jo Kopechne. Kopechne's life -- which many have forgotten -- was cut short well before her prime by a politician who paid no substantial price for the incident that ended her life.

And given the incredible damage politicans have already levied upon citizens through socialized medicine, it would, I think, be a fitting title.

We must fight socialized medicine. It lies on the path to tyranny.

* * *

"Medicine is the keystone in the arch of socialism." -- V. I. Lenin