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Some shit rag called the Investor's Business Daily put themselves on the front page all around the English-speaking world when they suggested that physicist Stephen Hawking probably would have died had he been from the UK, since socialized medicine is, as they write, an exercise in rationing:
That above link, though, has been sanitized by this little introductory tidbit: Editor's Note: This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.
Oopsie-daisy. Turns out that iconic Hawking accent is simply due to the fact that his voice synthesizer was built here in the States. Oh, no one was happy about the mistake -- especially Prof. Hawking. "I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS," Hawking told The Guardian. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
So with that little dust-up so very fresh in the news, how does our own home-grown media treat the same disease that all but felled the Professor? Why, they avoid the issue altogether. Here we have a local woman whose friends have to put together a non-profit foundation and arrange fund raising activities to help "pay for medical treatment and support."
That's right. People have to raise money themselves or rely on the charity of their family and/or friends if they want to get adequate medical treatment. And what of people who refuse to -- or more likely, simply cannot, due to their relatively unknown status -- whore themselves to the alter of public sympathy? Why, I suppose they can suffer and/or just fucking die.
And, despite the very timely nature of the story's airing, nowhere in the local commercial media do we see even a mention of Prof. Hawking's more civilized medical care brought to him thanks to the more ethical and enlightened policies of his home country. Nope, the coverage is all "rah-rah, let's help Melissa with her bills by eating and drinking" while pointedly ignoring the obvious solution, bringing the US out of the Dirty Dark Ages.
Without good reporting, without the good, accurate and useful information we need to make informed decisions as individuals and as a country, we find ourselves continually fucked harder and deeper and longer. It makes me down-right stabbity angry.
Addendum, September 1, 2009: Though slightly off-topic from the rant, I like this video.
The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through rationing, and the health consequences thereof are legendary. The stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether read like a horror movie script.
That above link, though, has been sanitized by this little introductory tidbit: Editor's Note: This version corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.
Oopsie-daisy. Turns out that iconic Hawking accent is simply due to the fact that his voice synthesizer was built here in the States. Oh, no one was happy about the mistake -- especially Prof. Hawking. "I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS," Hawking told The Guardian. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
So with that little dust-up so very fresh in the news, how does our own home-grown media treat the same disease that all but felled the Professor? Why, they avoid the issue altogether. Here we have a local woman whose friends have to put together a non-profit foundation and arrange fund raising activities to help "pay for medical treatment and support."
That's right. People have to raise money themselves or rely on the charity of their family and/or friends if they want to get adequate medical treatment. And what of people who refuse to -- or more likely, simply cannot, due to their relatively unknown status -- whore themselves to the alter of public sympathy? Why, I suppose they can suffer and/or just fucking die.
And, despite the very timely nature of the story's airing, nowhere in the local commercial media do we see even a mention of Prof. Hawking's more civilized medical care brought to him thanks to the more ethical and enlightened policies of his home country. Nope, the coverage is all "rah-rah, let's help Melissa with her bills by eating and drinking" while pointedly ignoring the obvious solution, bringing the US out of the Dirty Dark Ages.
Without good reporting, without the good, accurate and useful information we need to make informed decisions as individuals and as a country, we find ourselves continually fucked harder and deeper and longer. It makes me down-right stabbity angry.
Addendum, September 1, 2009: Though slightly off-topic from the rant, I like this video.