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Wall Street Journal Reports On Health Care Rationing By US Insurers
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First World Nations And Health Care, Health Care Rationing, Health Care Reform, Mainstream Media, Media Coverage Health Care Reform, Wall Street Journal,
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Right wing health reform opponents would have you believe that Obama's health plan or single payer health care will bring rationing to health care. They suggest that the big, bad Obama plan and the nasty Democrats want to institute health care rationing that will kill granny.
The truth is health care rationing is a usual and customary part of the current health insurance system in the US. Don't believe me, how about one of Rupert Murdoch's publications?
In an article, Mind, as Well as Body, published Monday, August 24th, the Wall Street Journal reported:
"Employers and insurers can choose which disorders to cover, just as they generally do for physical ailments. Experts say that they expect companies to cover schizophrenia, substance-use disorders and other major illnesses, but that some may choose not to cover autism, attention-deficit disorder and some others.
Insurers also are likely to cover only care that is deemed "medically necessary," just as they do for surgeries and other medical procedures."
Is there any way that this can be characterized as something other than health care rationing -- not providing services for certain diagnoses? Of course this isn't a front page or even front section article. It's on page R4.
Funny though, how the truth seeps through. I wonder if the writer of the article, Jane Zhang, will be reprimanded for breaking the wall of disinformation that right has been building.
The truth is that every health care system engages in rationing. Most first world nations provide a minimal "floor" so all people get basic care that is quite extensive. They may not offer expensive dialysis to some over 90. But they at least provide antibiotics and diagnostics to all. Most first world nations see the USA's failure to provide any care at all to tens of millions of its citizens as the height of barbarity. I see it that way but also as incredibly stupid in terms of international trade competition. It astonishes me that the WSJ doesn't routinely discuss the adverse affects of the parasitic health insurance company welfare system we have in the US upon our ability to compete in a world where every other first world nation takes the burden of health care costs off of employers.
It does NOT surprise me that the mainstream media has failed so miserably to accurately put the American health care system's dismal performance and outrageous cost into an international context. It doesn't surprise me because the media have been bought or cowed by a $2.5 trillion dollar industry that has bought the media's protection.
Follow Rob Kall on Twitter: www.twitter.com/robkall
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If you are concerned about receiving "real" health care reform in this country, please take the time to watch a video on our current system. The video was created by Oregon physicians who are advocating for the single-payer option. The video is very informative and helped me to gain a better understanding of various aspect of health care, as we know now it.
https://ww
These Oregon physicians are in the process of organizing a caravan designed to inform the public about the benefits of the single-payer option. At last count they will be stopping in approximately 23 states, on their way to demonstrate in Washington. They need volunteers and our support. Please spread the word.
OOPS! left bill o'reilly's name out when I said "if she can stand him" in my other post. Sorry.
Ms. Zhang should be invited to speak on every television show in the nation, from Hardball to (if she can stand him) the Today Show, Lehrer News, Bill Moyers, and 60 Minutes. This simple bit of truth should be spoken of plainly and often.
Arianna, get in touch with President Obama, you have the position to do so. The President needs to end (or at least tone down) his policy of not ruffling feathers. There are some feathers that not only need to be ruffled, they need to be yanked out. The repubs are blocking health care reform or as it should truthfully be called, insurance reform, because they don't want to lose the huge sums of money they get handed by those insurance companies.
Neither the repub party nor the insurance companies cares a jot about the working classes, whether they live or die except insofar as it may affect their bottom line.
Senator Kennedy and President Obama worked with the poor and realized that the majority of the population does NOT make millions yearly, nor even 6-figure salaries. Health care is unaffordable for most people. Several years ago I was covered by an employer-shared plan that I was unable to use because I couldn't afford the co-pay.
The truth about health care rationing must be brought front and center and discussed in detail. This country needs to come out of the dark ages and provide single-payer health care for ALL.
Having lived 23 years in the US and returned to Europe,allow me to say that most Americans do not know the difference of the Health Systems on the two sides of the Atlantic. In my 87 years I have good and bad experiences on either side but that is not the issue.When I was diagnosed with a lifethreatening cancer I was grateful that a European Social Security Health System waived my copayment and paid 100 % to regain my health.Tha
The overemphasizing of the cost of Health Care indicates the fear of profeteering or freeloading,There is not such a thing as a free lunch,nor a free Health Care Systems..
Everything in life has to be paid for, but I resent when when money is made out of my misery.The
WSJ - DUMB IT DOWN MR PRESIDENT
TOO LATE
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