Opinion: The wrong Rx

Opinion: The wrong Rx:

Despite all the time and effort lawmakers have spent trying to fix our health care system, it is still the costliest in the world.

-- The StPetersburg Times

I'm continually stunned by how pathetically bad the medical situation is in America: In addition to the chilling knowledge that they'll never get out of debt or own their own home, most of them don't have adequate medical coverage. If they have an accident, or even some idea that they need a regular check-up, they're financially fucked. I've already written about how half of American bankruptcy is due to medical bills and how they're essentially discriminating with a system like theirs so it's pointless to go on; just read the other stuff.

But now we're getting report after report telling us just how pathetic their system is. I remember reading a paper a few years back which suggested Americans pay 30% more for their medical non-care than other countries, and this still in the environment where they all expect less care for that extra money already. Now, though, apparently they're paying double for nearly nothing. That's awesome.

The sicky dark secret is that we're slowly being edged that way, month by month, by greedy doctors who want to have their slick medical system and also scads of cash at the same time -- not realizing how the two goals can potentially conflict. They think that a two-tiered system will work wonderfully here, completely ignoring the reality of those systems' effects on people in other countries which have moved to such a system: discrimination based on income, where those More Worthy of advanced procedures and equipment, by virtue of a larger paycheque, get beter service than the rest of us.

We're so pathetic we don't even vote out the fuckers who're doing this to us. We suck, and soon we'll all be like the dreaded slack-jawed, unhealthy and bankrupt Americans.