Last time, I posted an opinion piece from the NY Times about dissatisfaction in the medical profession. I thought I'd pursue the medical thread a bit more today. As I type, Sen. Cruz from Texas is performing political theater in a "non-filibuster" filibuster to push defunding Obamacare. The broader issue is the role of our government in our lives, and to hear Tea Party advocates and their cronies tell it, universal health care is an unwarranted intrusion by the government. I guess I would be more sympathetic to that argument if the people making it weren't so often the same people against gay marriage (it's ok for the government to tell you who you can or can't marry, but not ok for the government to make sure everyone has access to health care).
The narrower issue is universal health care, and here's the thing I don't understand: why is it possible for most industrialized countries to provide universal health care to their citizens at a fraction of the cost of what we pay? This includes a number of countries which are less "socialistic" than we are. The other question is this: is proper health care a universal human right? How does that fit in with our stated motto of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"? Can one pursue happiness when one is ill and can't get proper care? I recommend watching "Sick around the World" to get some alternative views on this. We've got to do better, and political theater doesn't help in the least.
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