Health, Money and Fear

[elizabethfaraone]

I have only used medical practitioners when I have really needed them. I have sometimes rejected certain treatments, when I have determined that they are unsafe and/or ineffective. I have never felt as though I am entitled to always have a doctor taking care of me. I am my own doctor, quite frankly, and I believe I have usually made the best decisions regarding my health. I also don't believe efforts should be wasted on me when there are people suffering and are not getting needed medical care.

[elizabethfaraone]

In 1982, when my mother returned to her work as a full time registered nurse in a hospital, she told me that medical care would deteriorate if insurance companies continued to determine what doctors were encouraged/permitted to do with their patients. She also understood the problems of under-staffing hospitals in an effort to save money and she always insisted that her floor be properly staffed with nursing, accusing them of creating unsafe nursing situations.

[phochfeld]

Hey Jason,

Thanks so much for putting HMF on YouTube. I put it on blip.tv a couple of years ago, but only put the chapters on YouTube because of file size limits, which apparently you have overcome.  Strong work, Pal, whoever you are!!!!

paul hochfeld

[garbageavoids2]

Hey Jason,

Thanks so much for putting HMF on YouTube. I put it on blip.tv a couple of years ago, but only put the chapters on YouTube because of file size limits, which apparently you have overcome. Strong work, Pal, whoever you are!!!!

paul hochfeld

[bodryn]

This is quite a comprehensive and impressive video, done by people who should know a lot about the system.

[urbanverificationist]

Theres far too little price transparency in the medical technology market. Without an open marketplace of prices and services, its difficult for hospitals and clinics to know whether theres a better deal elsewhere, and manufacturers can keep costs high. More significantly, medical technologies still tend to rely on an expert class to actually deploy the technology. GPS may have turned us all into amateur navigators, but CT scans havent turned us into hobbyist radiologists

[gtrcello]

thedrp21 - Look, it's real simple, health care and education are not, and most importantly SHOULD NOT, be capitalistic endeavors. There's a basic conflict of interest when you're concerned about your bottom line while administering care or teaching children. A competition-driven approach to either health care or education is just backasswards thinking. Enough already! A blind adherence to "free market" mentality is damaging simply because it's based on a myth. It's an encouraging story we tell.

[JDSackman]

That is really the ideological heart of this debate. Is it every man for himself, or all we all in this together? My Mother (the child of anarchist revolutionaries) taught me that "No Man is an island, entire of itself, each is part of the whole . . . any person's death (or ill health) diminishes me, for I am involved in Humanity."

[thedrp21]

What is lost in the whole health care discussion is the fact that it is NOT anybody else's responsibility to ensure YOUR health! The whole concept of a RIGHT to health care is an absolute joke. Your health is your own business and you, as an individual, need to concern yourself only with YOUR health, not mine! It is unjust and illegitimate for any government to force someone to pay for somebody else's health care and that is the bottom line on the whole health care discussion.

[JDSackman]

I disagree. "No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any... man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

John Donne, Meditation XVIRead More

[TheSpankymonkey]

"What is lost in the whole health care discussion is the fact that it is NOT anybody else's responsibility to ensure YOUR health!" - The irony stinks so bad for a country that claims to be founded on christian values. Where is the love thy neighbour now eh ;-)

[thedrp21]

I look to love my neighbor based on my own free will, not because some government forces me to do so.

[TheSpankymonkey]

Then take that free will of yours and suport it. It's that simple. Do you not think that the people behind this actually have free will too? You seem to think that the whole decision to sort this comes from only a few people. In reality, you are in the minority, you are just making the most pathetic amount of noise over it. You know you should really revisit your thoughts on this. You simply can't have your existing system, you can't afforf it. Time to start payingt your bills Mr.

[thedrp21]

Under a just and legitimate government there are very few things a group of people, no matter the size, may coerce individuals to comply with. Health care is absolutely not one of them, thus all the resistence. Our form of government is not based on majority rule, it is based on protection of the individual citizen's liberty. Only a government abiding by this principle is just and legitimate. The big question is how you, and others like you, think you have the right to tell others what to do.

[TheSpankymonkey]

thedrp21 - "Health care is absolutely not one of them, thus all the resistence." Nonsense, the resistance being shown is simply using this reform as an opportunity to gripe. You can't afford what you have, you never will be able to, it's bankrupting your country so it's not like you can even hold onto the system you have. There can be no greater liberty than the right to live, so before you start quoting liberty soundbites at everyone start thinking about that. Time to come out of the dark age.

[thedrp21]

Ah, so now we get to the heart of the matter. You folks, the communists/socialists/statists­, do not like the fact that we have a system that is about the free market, personal responsibility and individual liberty (the only just and legitimate form of government). You have taken your attack on liberty too far, i.e. health care, and the people are responding. You statists had best think about the consequences of your actions; we will not stand for this.

[TheSpankymonkey]

"You have taken your attack on liberty too far, i.e. health care, and the people are responding." - But you are not responding are you, you are sat on youtube talking crap. The whole lot of you are completely impotent and worthless. Health reform will be made, not because of your opinion, but because it has to. Simple, you might as well climb back in your hole, nothing you say will make a difference in the same way the village doesn't ever listen to it's idiot.

[TheSpankymonkey]

"Ah, so now we get to the heart of the matter." - No, actually we don't. There can be no greater liberty than the right to live. So using that as a starting point of reference, anything you have to say on the matter of liberty is absolutely mute. Go find a new argument, the one you have is boring/ridiculous/ranting/luna­cy.

[thedrp21]

The problem is either you are ignorant, i.e. do not understand how the system works and do not understand political philosophy, or you want to control people simply for the power. Those of us who love this country and what it stands for, no longer are willing to let you use the ignorance excuse. It is time for you to fire up the brain cells and examine some history. The statist approach has been shown to fail EVERY time it is tried, only individual freedom yields results.

[TheSpankymonkey]

"The problem is either you are ignorant, i.e. do not understand how the system works and do not understand political philosophy, or you want to control people simply for the power." - Sadly not true. The problem is you didn't spend long enough at school, stop blaming other people for that small fact.

[mizonglohong]

I wish people would watch this!!!!! AND LISTEN!!!!! This is why I am fighting for health care!

[Rixar13]

No More Deny, Delay, Defend and Distract.

[marytnurse]

i'm appalled that people still don't get it that the insurance industry has bought and paid for the government and the message. thank you for an excellent and balanced look at the health care BUSINESS and how bad it is for our country!

[alleykat1968]

Excellent Production, Thank You!!

[willy1986tralara]

you are true man!

here in spain we´ve got a public health care system... lucky!

[gymnasten123]

As we has got here in sweden too.. very lucky