October 19, 2004
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MEDICAL CARE IN AMERICA
The Bush Administration has just announced that it is "working on ways to import flu vaccine from Canada". This is the latest verse in our on-going health care fiasco. Has anybody asked the question: Does Canada have a Health Care crisis? Why not?
There is a sort of myth or at least misunderstanding about American Healthcare. The U.S. doesn't have the world's best system if you measure "best" in terms of how well U.S. Citizens are cared for. The U.S. does seem to have the most advanced medical system in terms of use of medical gadgets and techniques and care available, but only at a cost which means that most Americans can't really afford such care without going deeply into debt or buying insurance at exorbitant cost.
I think many Americans think the U.S. is the world leader in healthcare development but as a matter of fact most really important medical breakthroughs were developed or invented somewhere else: (This is just a very brief partial list) Antibiotics (England), Insulin (Canada), Heart Transplant (South Africa), Modern eye surgery (Russia), DNA discovery (England- though an American was involved), Radiology (France), HIV (France), Vaccination (England), even sterile surgery (Scotland). Our drug companies did develop Prozac, Viagra, and birth control pills though. Asprin was developed in Germany (Bayer).
For some reason, Americans don't seem to favor universal health care overseen by the government, at least not until they reach age sixty-five and really begin to need it, than they are ALL in favor of Medicare. Why is what's good for old folks not appropriate for the rest of our citizens?
What was that about the Canadian health care crisis again??
