Health care in America

OK, so in the United States if you are sick or injured, you have to pay to see a doctor. If you have insurance then you still have to pay, but in a different way. And the more you use the health care system, the more it will cost you. If you get sick one too many times, some insurance companies will no longer cover you.

So, what service is the insurance industry providing? They are making access to health care less accessible, and they are scaring people into not going to the doctor. And that's not even accounting for those without insurance. For those that have to pay themselves, one major medical event can easily ruin their life.

A few days ago I was eating lunch next to this guy at a cafeteria on the ASU campus. I mentioned that I was from Canada and he said: "the only thing I really know about Canada is how horrible that socialized medicine is."

I didn't know whether to laugh out load or just gently correct him. I chose the latter, but he just sat there with a blank look on his face as if I was speaking to him in Esperanto.

Whether it's a lifetime of propaganda, or just a simple lack of understanding, I find that over and over again most people here honestly think that their health care system is the best one there is.

In Canada I can walk into a hospital and get treated for anything and walk back out. They don't ask me to pay or send me a bill. There's no follow-up from an insurance company or a collection agency. There's no letter from the hospital saying that the insurance company hasn't paid yet. There is no re-adjustment of coverage.

All there is is a healthier individual.

I'm only singling Canada out because that's where I'm from, but the same holds true for nearly every non-American "industrialized" county (as well as many non-"industrialized" counties too!).

So now that you realize something needs to change, what can you do about it?

Beats me. I guess just try not to get sick.

My one pre-election political blog post...

Okay, the election is coming up in about 3 weeks and I'm living in John McCain's home state. I don't know John McCain personally, but I've read lots of things that he's said, and I've seen him a few times on TV. Barack Obama, I also don't know personally, although I did see him speak in Tempe, AZ a few months ago.

Both Candidates are severely lacking in several respects. I don't like the way Obama always acts so serious, and I don't like the way that McCain is so disrespectful of socialists. Not that I'm a socialist, but I do do subscribe to their newsletter (or at least I might if they had one).

Where was I?

Oh yeah, the election.

Well, I can't Vote in this election because I'm not an American. So all I can do is sit back and watch the drama unfold.

I find it amusing to admit that in 2000, I was a huge GWB supporter. I thought Gore was evil. By 2004 I was pretty much on the fence. By that time I knew that W was useless, but I had yet to be convinced that the opposite held true for Kerry.

Between 2004 and 2008 I became informed on the issues and trends that affect and shape politics. Now I understand that George Bush Jr is a lot worse than useless. If you know who Jack Abramoff or Ralph Reed are, you'll know what I mean. Also if you know why Carl Rove is a bad person, you'll know what I mean. Otherwise, you'll no-doubt either disagree with me, or not care.

Now I think that Al Gore would be a better president than Obama, Bush, McCain, or even Clinton for that matter. He'd be right up there with Harry Truman, who's one of my favorites. But he's not running.

Neither is Ron Paul. My 5-yr-old daughter has a Ron Paul shirt. He's a smart guy when it comes to policy and preaching to the choir, but he's useless as a self-promoter to the mainstream.

So that leaves us with, um... Oh yes, Barack Obama and John McCain. Well obviously I wouldn't vote for McCain (because I can't vote). And also because he is in favor of continuing to brutally destroy the cities and lives of millions of innocent people who look different than (white/christian) Americans.

Obama is not terribly experienced. He is young and idealistic and hasn't been completely bought by Washington lobbyists. For those reasons he probably won't be popular with other career politicians, but I'm sure that by his second term he will have become one of them.