Monday, July 09, 2007

Krugman on Health Care

and by tThis is not really a surprise that I would agree with Paul Krugman, but he makes the exact same point, with the same three examples, in the same order, about "Sicko" appealing to our moral outrage over the broken down health care system (Select):

"That’s what we learn from the overwhelming response to Michael Moore’s “Sicko.” Health care reformers should, by all means, address the anxieties of middle-class Americans, their growing and justified fear of finding themselves uninsured or having their insurers deny coverage when they need it most. But reformers shouldn’t focus only on self-interest. They should also appeal to Americans’ sense of decency and humanity.

What outrages people who see “Sicko” is the sheer cruelty and injustice of the American health care system — sick people who can’t pay their hospital bills literally dumped on the sidewalk, a child who dies because an emergency room that isn’t a participant in her mother’s health plan won’t treat her, hard-working Americans driven into humiliating poverty by medical bills.

...
This isn’t one of those cases where we face painful tradeoffs — here, doing the right thing is also cost-efficient. Universal health care would save thousands of American lives each year, while actually saving money.

So this is a test. The only things standing in the way of universal health care are the fear-mongering and influence-buying of interest groups. If we can’t overcome those forces here, there’s not much hope for America’s future."


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Krugman...oh no.

Anonymous said...

Well I feel that it is a the way people react to universal health care. People in the countires with government health care do not have to take it if they do not like it they can opt out and buy their own insurance. In most other first world countries and some not so first world countries the health and well being of population is a public good for the benefit of the population. Education is public good as well. It is better for society to have a better educated public. These ideas do not permeate throughout the American experience. Being strapped with health insurance, child care and student loans puts people in the position of being owned by the banks in debts that are nearly hopeless.

Anonymous said...

djw, Very good observations. If you haven't, find out more about debt based money system, globalization, third world debt and debt boomerang (what Generation debt is experiencing). I recently posted several links.

More and more people should learn about debt based money that we use and its distructive consequences.

Show a dollar bill to your friends and ask "What's this?"

How many people can answer "It's someone's debt." Probably very close to no one. That's how unaware most people are about the root cause of our financial problems.

Show your friend a dollar bill and ask "What's this?" Explain that it is "Someone's debt." Point to the pyramid in the back and "it's a pyramid scheme."

Anonymous said...

One more thing. Be cautious. Any money system, like a gold standard, can be and will eventually be just as bad as debt money system so long as it is a private monopoly.

Monopoly is bad. It's that simple.

Some suspect that the money masters who monopolize the money system is moving toward a monopoly of gold standard.

Anonymous said...

By the way, it's a pyramid scheme because to earn money you have to put others in debt. And we are all in it. We'be been used. Also learn about debt slavery.