Public Opinion of Healthcare Plan: 41%

Take a clue, congress.

When 56% of your constituents oppose something, while only 41% support it, you'd better give that something the ax, or your jobs are toast. Just sayin'.

Public Healthcare? The Doctors Say NO

President Obama's rhetoric often anchors itself on meaningless rhetoric and twisted half-truths. But now there's one talking point he can't make any more – that most doctors favor government-run healthcare.

According to the New York Times:

the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.

Not being a doctor, I'm very unversed in the intricacies of medicine, economics and politics, but the A.M.A.'s position makes logical sense:

“The A.M.A. does not believe that creating a public health insurance option for non-disabled individuals under age 65 is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs. The introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers, which currently provide coverage for nearly 70 percent of Americans.”If private insurers are pushed out of the market, the group said, “the corresponding surge in public plan participation would likely lead to an explosion of costs that would need to be absorbed by taxpayers.”

It will be interesting to see if Obama's gift of salesmanship can overpower the nation's most powerful and respected voice in medicine. It will be tragic if it can.

Another Socialized Medicine Success Story

Do we really want socialized medicine? Really? You might want to get the opinion of Britain's Leslie Fletcher, who is being denied a drug – routinely given to others – to save her sight because she lives in the wrong area.

Economically, the cost of treating the bleeding under her eye is much less than the cost of putting her on disability – which is what will happen if she goes blind.

A National Health Service spokesman responded:

“Our Individual Case Panel makes decisions about whether to fund treatments for conditions which fall outside guidance issued by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and are therefore not routinely commissioned by the NHS.”

Behold the power of stupidity of socialized healthcare by committee. By all means, let's follow Britain's example.

Yay for Universal Healthcare: Scratched by a Rat = Death

Here's a fun story from Britain's Daily Express reporting on how a woman got scratched by a rat, contracting a disease in the process, resulting in her death six days later.

But here's my favorite part:

Mrs Colburn heard the rat screaming in her back garden in Brighton and immediately went out to try to rescue it. She developed flu-like symptoms and Mr Colburn called their GP.

Two days later he rang the doctor again after her skin turned yellow.

A statement read to the court said: “When the doctor arrived she was cold and clammy and jaundiced. He called 999 immediately.”

So it looks like in England, if you get sick you call your doctor, who presumably says, "Tell me if it gets any better in a couple days." When it doesn't, the doc calls 911 for you so you can be rushed to the hospital, there to die. What a great medical system! Can we have some socialized medicine, too? Please?