We have not completely neglected those 47 million as you suggest.
What's interesting in this thread is that there is no mention of our Medicaid program which is funded by both the State and Federal government and is designed for the needy, especially children. Uncle Sam foots about 60% with the states picking up the rest of the tab. As of 2005, nearly 50 million people were receiving their medical care from Medicaid at a cost to the government of nearly $300 billion dollars!
Your points (Melbourne MICA) as to our health care system, at least in the beginning of this thread were eloquent and somewhat thought provoking and showed some intelligence. However, your last post concluded with a simplistic analogy that you perceive Americans as some sort of commie fearing morons that just can't seem to comprehend what's in our best interest especially if it works for other countries such as Australia or Canada.
Your country has absolutely nothing to gain if we do or do not adopt a Universal health program. What's it to you where we rank on the flawed WHO rankings? Yes, we may be 37th, but even with your Universal health care, Australia ranks 32nd. Not exactly a sweeping revelation in numbers is it? And we have nearly 16 times the population you have!
Yes, you are correct that our health care system suffers. Is Universal health the sweeping answer or even part of the answer? I doubt it giving the poor health habits we Americans have eaten, smoked and drank ourselves into and that includes the poor and rich alike.
Our economy is teetering on upheaval and everyone wants a bail out. Obama made his first press conference today with the entire subject on the economy. As I said in a earlier post, Universal health care is well off the radar for the foreseeable future. There just is no money in our coffers to pay for such a program.
I take your point and agree that my closing remarks were simplistic. It was not my intention to flag wave and in so doing rub peoples patriotic sensibilities the wrong way - that's the last thing any of us need at this point in time. The truth be told health care is a massive problem everywhere including in my own country.
If I may defend at least a couple of my remarks however.
When I referenced the WHO rankings I hyperlinked the Who site and a couple of others that mentioned the rankings, But I also referenced some web pages critical of the methodology used. One was even suggesting the ranking was a biased socialist leaning analysis done by the chairwoman of the committee doing the report. Thus I was trying to avoid a bias on my part.
Our WHO ranking leaves much to be desired without a doubt and is heavily influenced by the shameful health statistics associated with our indigenous population. Their current life expectancy is 17yrs less than the Australian average. It's our national disgrace and has been for decades. We're working on it but finding real solutions elusive.
I know for a fact that Americans are not "commy fearing morons". The US has produced masterly works of political analysis, some fearless critics of policy offered from both political camps and from individuals who spoke out (particularly during the hottest period of the Iraq war) against the tide of public mood and the kind of fear-mongering for which the Bush/Cheney administration has now passed into folklore.
Krugman, Chomsky, Woodward, Friedman (Thomas and George) - some right wing some left just to name a few. (Krugman is a staunch supporter of free market economics for example).
There are many great voices of moderation within the political parties themselves and within main street America.
For any affront I caused by making injudicious remarks on this front I apologise.
Yet there remains disquiet that the McCain camp felt there was mileage to be had from their perception that there remained an undercurrent of public sentiment about anything "socialist" by attaching this highly symbolic tag to Obamas policies especially when he was mooting the idea of universal health care.
I am certain that the perceptions of the American people are far more sophisticated than the republicans understood and the result of the election seemed to express this.
There's no doubt Bush and co. drove political commentary and policy to the far right making it all the more incongruous and ironic that he ended his term of office "socializing" a fair sized chunk of the banking sector.
Your country has absolutely nothing to gain if we do or do not adopt a Universal health program. What's it to you where we rank on the flawed WHO rankings? Yes, we may be 37th, but even with your Universal health care, Australia ranks 32nd. Not exactly a sweeping revelation in numbers is it? And we have nearly 16 times the population you have!
On this quote however I will beg to differ and not perhaps in the way you might be expecting.
The rest of the world has everything to gain by successful health care reform in the US. However insipid and corny this remark may sound, the US
IS the beacon of the western democracies. None of us can afford to have your nation anything less than number one in pretty much everything - especially health care.
Your size, your wealth, your prodigious abundance of talent, your technological innovativeness, your innate ability to see past the obvious to lateral solutions for problems, the openness of your society, your extraordinary ability to embrace,to harbour and to coalesce both conservative ideology and liberal thought into the same breath,........and on and on.
You could run out of ways to describe why we all look to you in the US to be a champion. When you fail, we do too.
Obama was perceptive enough to recognise that he was talking to all of us in Grant Park. I sat glued to the screen for five hours right from the first count.
I was terrified at the prospect of him losing as much as I admire John McCain personally.
When he strode onto the stage to a cacophony of human voices that would drown out a football crowd or the detonation of an atomic bomb all present knew we were witnessing a transcendent moment in world history as much because we needed it to be than because it was for him being there.
By the time he had finished his acceptance speech you could see a pot pouri of American society all smiling, all crying, all embracing each other like lifelong friends.
It was a moment to savour for an eternity.
America is about to embark on a new journey of self discovery as only you Americans can. You will embrace change, you will step past dogma, past partisanship and you will wake to a new era that we will all follow because you did it in the way that only America can.
When health care comes into focus as it must, probably in a couple of years, your players will right a new programme of health care innovation that will become the template for others to follow. I believe it will include some level of universal coverage but with a twist. The twist we in other countries who use such systems with only moderate success hadn't thought of yet.
And when you do, we will be watching, listening and definately paying attention. Under Obama, perhaps for the first time in long time you will also be listening to others as well. It will be new coalition - a coalition of the ready, willing and able. Yes We Can.
"The reason I have seen farther than some is because I stood on the shoulders of giants".
MM