I really cannot wait until this man is no longer a Senator. He is a charlatan.

Another market fundamentalist applies ‘market principles’ to health care.
This approach works for buying cars, clothes, and shoes.
It does not work for health care. Never has; never will.

Dear Jane,

Gregg is an abject idiot (as was that shrieking harpy you debated on Shuster)! As that ad stated “We’re bringing Canadian health care to the United States!” We should be so lucky!

All those who throw out scare stories about “socialized medicine” or “government medicine” are speaking from their anal opening! I have had occasion to personally experience both Canadian and European “socialized” medicine. Compared to the completely dysfunctional private “insurance” model we have, it was heaven! The care was top notch, every bit as good as anything we have in our private model. Certainly, I did not get a private room with all the bells and whistles (and who on private insurance does?), but the level of competency and care was every bit as good as is available anywhere in the U.S.

As you (and Michael Moore) have pointed out, the medical system in Cuba far outdistances ours, by orders of magnitude. Being disabled and uninsured, I have no health care at all, the emergency room being available when I get to the stage of “I have fallen and can’t get up!”. With a multiplicity of severe ailments I am declining daily and expect, in due course, to terminate from them. But, of course, should Americans ever get a universal single payer system instead of my death it would be the death of the health insurance industry. And, of course, that would be by far the greater tragedy!

Underfunding seems to always be the preferred method of these a**hats to make sure that even if something like universal health care does pass, it is not effective.

“See, we treated 10,000 people but because of lack of resources 50,000 were not treated therefore universal coverage does not work at all.”

Cuba’s doctors are among its top commodities.

So how does a woman with no insurance get screening tests? Down at the Home Depot after the purchase of a window?

D. Kuccinich questioning a critic of the Canadian system. The smugness and arrogance of this conservative shill is stunning but hardly surprising.

http://crooksandliars.com/

Market: a system of rationing scarce goods on the basis of demand.

Demand: the need or want plus the purchasing power.

If you want everyone to be healthy, markets are the wrong way to do it.

A better link to the Kuccinich smack down.

http://crooksandliars.com/loga…..els-doctor

What will it take for our elected representatives to do what is right and necessary? Terminal patients burning themselves on the steps of the Capitol?

One thing about that study, that of course people like Gregg will ignore, is that it only includes people diagnosed between 1990 and 1994, and were followed up with until 1999. Not exactly current information.

Gregg is worse than a charlatan he is a vile evil man, my Congress creature, a rich man’s son that thinks he walks on water. He kept the down payment a woman had made on one of his properties after she had been diagnosed with cancer and had to withdraw from the purchase agreement. No decent person would have done that. He is (and his brother) building like crazy at Pease Air Base, using government funds. He has no principles, a dreadful, dreadful man.

The problem with comparing data between different countries is that they are not the same. See this comment about the EUROCARE project.

I think it would be far more interesting and meaningful to compare data by state in the U.S. and by race and socioeconomic status, in each state. Yo, Nate!

It so crazy, we have rationing now for crying out loud.

Mornin’ Jane and Firedogs,

Cuba’s doctors are among its top commodities

read a piece just this week about a WHO Intern getting sick while on assignment in Venezuela. Being a working poor American, it took him days to get sick enough to seek medical attention

he walked to a public clinic

was seen and diagnosed with pneumonia by a Cuban doctor – (who kept apologizing to him for the length of time it took to get his ex ray developed btw – a whole 20 min)

in applying the WHO assessment formula, his post treatment score topped out in their 95%+ range. he could not say enough about the quality of her care and the autonomy she had in providing it

this wouldn’t have been a story worth an essay for this young man – except while convalescing and out of touch with his family, a same age, uninsured cousin died of pneumonia back home (IN) for lack of care

Wow!

He is more than a problem, he is taking bribes and is a criminal. I wonder what his state will want to do with him when they find out? I wonder how many constituents are going to find it hard living with their elected representatives. With no representation, there may be some anger there.

AAuughh. The Blue dogs are trying to hold things up. But at least I didn’t see anything in their letter that said they would not back a public option. They just don’t want Medicare levels of funding, which is fair when compared to insurance levels and ridiculous compared to the no-insurance bill that the non-insured get stuck with.

Why is there insistance on finding funding sources? There was none of that for the bank bailout, either of the wars, or any of the other high dollar actions Congress has OK’d recently.

Dudd has already claimed that he will not run for re-election to the senate (his seat is up in ‘10).

So I guess he has the dreaded “lame duck disease”

Schweet! Gratzer is such a putz.

And aren’t we glad he wasn’t able to weasel his way into Obama’s admin??? I was surprised since O seemed so to want him whatever the cost to the country.
I guess that census thingy put some people off.

That’s a fantastic story. Where did you read it?

The study did it break it down by race, and seventeen regions. Unsurprisingly, whites had a much higher survival rate than blacks.

Exactly.

Judd Gregg was Obama’s pick to be Secretary Of Commerce after Bill Richardson withdrew. It was more of that bipartisanship thing. Gregg then in turn withdrew.

it was a link on one of the WHO’s pages –

regrettably, I was there to get stats for another piece and didn’t note or bookmark it.

Is Gregg one of those “C” Steeters who believe that Christianity really meant all power to the already powerful? Let’s find out… This theory, which has apparently great coinage among so-called ‘conservative’ Republicans, might explain why they so shamelessly stand firm against helping the poor, the not so rich, and anyone not, like themselves, powerful men…

Was the article from late June by Caitlan McNulty?

The right to health care is guaranteed in the Venezuelan Constitution, which was written and ratified by the people in 1999. Through implementing a state-funded social program called Barrio Adentro, or inside the barrio, free comprehensive health care is available to all Venezuelans. Beginning in June 2003 through a trade pact with Cuba, Venezuela began to bring Cuban doctors, medical technology, and medications into rural and urban communities free of charge in exchange for low-cost oil. The 1.5 million dollar per year program expanded to provide a broad network of small neighborhood clinics, larger regional clinics, and hospitals which aim to serve the entire Venezuelan population. (1) Chavez has referred to this new health care system as the “democratization of health care” stating that “health care has become a fundamental social right and the state will assume the principal role in the construction of a participatory system for national public health.” (2) In Venezuela, not only is health care a right; it is recognized as an essential for true participatory democracy.

(…)

During my time in Venezuela, I developed a cough that went on for three weeks and progressively worsened. Finally, after I had become incredibly congested and developed a fever, I decided to attend a Barrio Adentro clinic. The closest one available was a Barrio Adentro II Centro de Diagonostico Integral (CDI) and I headed in without my medical records or calling to make an appointment. Immediately, I was ushered into a small room where Carmen, a friendly Cuban doctor, began questioning me about my symptoms. She listened to my lungs and walked me over to another examination room where, again without waiting, I had x-rays taken. Afterwards, the technician walked me to a chair and apologized profusely that I had to wait for the x-rays to be developed, promising that it would take no more than five minutes. Sure enough, five minutes later he returned with both x-rays developed. Carmen studied the x-rays and informed me that I had pneumonia, showing me the telltale shadows. She sent me away with my x-rays, three medications to treat my pneumonia, congestion, and fever, and made me promise to come back if my conditioned failed to improve or worsened within three days.
I walked out of the clinic with a diagnosis and treatment within twenty-five minutes of entering, without paying a dime. There was no wait, no paperwork, and no questions about my ability to pay, my nationality, or whether, as a foreigner, I was entitled to free comprehensive health care. There was no monetary value connected with my physical well-being; the care I received was not contingent upon my ability to pay. I was treated with dignity, respect, and compassion, my illness was cured and I was able to continue with my journey in Venezuela.

This past year, a family friend was not so lucky. At the age of 56, she was going back to school and was uninsured. She came down with what she thought was a severe case of the flu, and as her condition worsened she decided not to see a doctor because of the cost. She died at home in bed, losing her life to a system that did not respect her basic human right to survive. Her death is not an isolated incident.

I guess Judd needs to something to re-enter the good graces of the Goopers after having almost accepted a cabinet post in a Democratic administration.

Here, he is cherry-picking seemingly useful statistics (there are lies, damn lies and statistics) that support his political agenda. He is not arguing in good faith about rationally improving the delivery of and payment for health care in America.

The UK numbers are a function of government resources and priorities, not a function of the health services professionals’ standard of care. I’d also like to see some differential analysis regarding age and other reasons that might explain why the UK numbers are so much higher. But that kind of nuance, which is necessary to make the comparison meaningful, is irrelevant to Gregg.

I would argue the US survival rate is in spite of, not because of our current medical payments system (aka, wellness plus insurance or wealth). The US figures may well leave out those not diagnosed or who are unable to receive treatment. Like the long term unemployed, they don’t count.

We should be flooding his office with calls. I heard him say this and wondered what the truth was, clearly, he is incapable of telling the truth.

from #29: I would argue the US survival rate is in spite of, not because of our current medical payments system (aka, wellness plus insurance or wealth). The US figures may well leave out those not diagnosed or who are unable to receive treatment. Like the long term unemployed, they don’t count.

This gets into comparative methodologies, but this a very good and original guess at what explains the profound differences.

And maybe the US survival rate has a lot to do with the fact that the breast cancer community has established a phenomenal support system for itself. While this is not “Political” as the post and thread are, I invite folks to
go to http://www.breastcancer.org and watch a video of Kelly Corrigan, breast cancer survivor read a chapter from her book The Middle Place, entitled Transcending: Words on Women and Strength to encourage us to reach out and support one another, whatever the emotional burden or medical crisis we are in, just as the FDL community reaches out to one another and advocates for social, political and economic justice on many issues,

Blessings,

This is the kind of thing we need as Talking Points Jane Good Catch

Great catch any more recent Bush year numbers out there?

And our response could ALSO be….if this is true, then why are Americans not allowed to visit Cuba? Why are all companies not allowed to trade with Cuba? Why has America maintained a horrendous embargo that has hurt the lives of every Cuban citizen?

Thank, Jane. I was wondering what the truth was on that.

Unfortunately, the googling I did indicated that all of Europe trails the U.S. in cancer survival.

The problem with Judd Gregg and his ilk is that they are very well coached and well rehearsed and have no scruples.