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All TrueBen Morrish (7,936) ![]() ![]() Ben Morrish ![]() http://alltruism.blogspot.com US Healthcare Reform vote: A Healthy Outcome But Not A Healthy MajorityPosted Sunday, November 08, 2009 (54 minutes ago.) Viewed 1 times. In yesterday's historic vote in the House Of Representatives backed a healthcare bill, moving the US one step closer to a reformed healthcare system. This is great news, and brings the US closer to a fairer, better regulated and more accessible healthcare system. However, the vote was close....extremely close in fact. The bill needed 218 votes to get a majority.... it got 220. 3 few votes and it would have failed. This is a concern, as it means almost half of the Representatives think the current US healthcare system is better than the proposed reformed version. Let's have a quick look at the current system: Despite the vast amounts of money spent on healthcare in the US, its healthcare under-performs massively.... many countries that spend half the amount the US does have healthcare systems that significantly outperform that of the US. The World Health Organization rated the US healthcare system 1st in expenditure, but only 37th in performance. This clearly indicates that right now, the US people - taxpayers and insurance payers - are getting ripped off. A recent Harvard study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, indicated that approximately 44,800 people in the US die every year due to lack of health insurance cover. That's a LOT of people killed by the system's failure to ensure everyone is covered. The National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine points out that the US is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure universal coverage". For a country that has long lead the world in so many areas, this is surely an embarassing state of affairs. Let's think again about the 44,800 people who die EVERY year due to lack of health insurance cover. That's a lot of people. It's 10 times more deaths every year than there were during the entire course of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Republicans have a significantly higher proportion of people who claim to be "pro Life", yet just one Republican representative voted in favour of the reforms that could save a lot of these 44,800 lives every year. One Republican representative, Candice Miller, said "We are going to have a complete government takeover of our healthcare system faster than you can say 'this is making me sick'". This statement, in my opinion, encapsulates a lot of the irrationality shown by many opponents of healthcare reform (as does the now legendary quote about Stephen Hawking and the NHS). Government takeover of the healthcare system is presented as a bad thing. But think about it.... if it isn't controlled by the government, it is controlled by non-elected private (self) interests... by companies whose first goal is to make money. Non-profit companies are widespread in terms of hospitals, but not in the health insurance market. Small wonder that Americans are currently paying over the odds for a sup-par healthcare system! The government is elected by the people, so why on Earth shouldn't the people, through their elected government, have control of their healthcare system? How is leaving that control largely in the hands of private, profit-driven companies preferable? I'm very glad the House of Representatives backed the bill. The proposed reforms may not be perfect, but they can't be much further away from perfect than the current system, which is frankly terrible - supremely expensive but massively underperforming. The proposed changes would bring the US system a step closer to the systems in countries who spend less on healthcare but get better performance and have much wider access to healthcare. More "socialised" healthcare systems work, and work better and more efficiently than the current mess of conflicting private interests in the US system (there's evidence from numerous countries demonstrating this), yet "socialised" is a dirty word to many in the US. For the sake of the American people, I hope the healthcare reforms get through the Senate and can start making a difference and saving lives as soon as possible. Permalink Comments (0) The Twittering: Social Networking EvolvedPosted Tuesday, October 06, 2009 (32 days 17 hours ago.) Viewed 63 times. My history of social networking is fairly uneventful, I've never
really got into it in a big way, but I've enjoyed dabbling with it. In a way, it was as if all of us who Follow him where in there with him. Although not literally of course as 750,000+ people in a lift together for several hours would no doubt be somewhat unpleasant, even with Mr Fry present to provide his well-loved witty banter. If you haven't already, come out and play with the Twitterers! Permalink Comments (6) iHate The Use Of The Lower Case "i" As A Prefix For EverythingPosted Sunday, October 04, 2009 (34 days 22 hours ago.) Viewed 2,372 times. Today, the iPhone is probably the most talked about gadget in the world. "iDon't Believe It!"
As if that wasn't iPlenty, the iLife software package consists of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and... wait for it.... iWeb. Oh, and it also includes GarageBand, which somehow missed out on getting an "i". But that is "the exception that proves the rule*". Almost all of these applications, apart from iWeb, have little or nothing to do with the Internet. The "i" prefixes are seemingly utterly meaningless, just a branding-executive's fetish. The iPlague has spread outside of Apple's product line-up though, with the BBC having branded its online TV service / application "iPlayer". Google have an offering called iGoogle. There's even an iCoke website! iCan't take it any more, iJust want branding people to start using a bit more iMagination (and no, you can't just have the "i" stand for imagination!) and get off the iPrefix bandwagon. Please? * actually this phrase in its modern usage is nonsensical, so apologies for using it! Originally it made sense as "proves" was used in the sense of "puts to the test", and in the case of exceptions, "tested to breaking point". Permalink Comments (13) |
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