From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Tackling Concerns of Independent Workers
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 16:23:24 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> So when you say the above, I find no way to interpret it other than
> "I've got mine, fuck you, jack, go off in an alley and die".

I hope you don't think the same of me, if only because I don't "have
mine."  I've been uninsured for years.  I have no intention of ever
seeking or accepting medical care unless I'm sure I can afford it.
New glasses?  Yes.  Tests for cancer?  No.  (Even if the tests are
affordable, there's no point in my spending money to be tested for
any condition I couldn't afford treatment for.)

We both want good medical care to be available to everyone who needs
it, or to as many as possible.  We disagree on whether capitalism or
socialism is more likely to result in that happening.  We agree that
the current mixture of the two isn't working.

Over my lifetime and yours, government has gotten more and more
involved in both regulating and providing medical care.  And the
result has been an enormous increase in costs.  I don't think that
even more government involvement will somehow reverse this trend.
I'd like to see a complete separation between state and medicine.

At today's prices, providing all possible medical care to everyone
who could benefit would literally bankrupt the country.

When Obama was asked about death panels, he could have answered,
"Well, that's a rude term for them, but yes, since there isn't enough
wealth to give everyone everything, obviously there will have to be
government panels which decide who will get life-saving treatment and
who will not.  We can discuss whether there will be one panel or many,
who will be on them, what rules they will apply, and whether there
will be an appeals process.  Needless to say, there will be completely
transparency at all stages -- no secret rules or deals.  And a
patient's wealthy, race, sex, orientation, religion, and politics
will play no part in deciding whether treatment will be provided."

But of course that's not what he said.  Instead, he said it was a
lie, and that there will be no death panels.  In practice this either
means he intends to *literally* destroy the economy, such that almost
everyone who is not hospitalized is starving and homeless, or, far
more likely, he intends that there be *secret* death panels, and that
you and I will never be allowed to know who is on them or what rules
they apply.

My mother was treated several times at Inova Fairfax Hospital, a
non-profit organization.  That's basically a creature of the state,
since their non-profit status can be yanked at any time on any
pretense.  Anyhow, it was obvious that she needed a new lung.  I
offered several times to donate a lung.  Each time I was told, in
no uncertain terms, that they do not do organ transplants on people
over 65.  Ever.

A few months after her death, that same hospital provided a heart
transplant to former Vice President Dick Cheney.  And this was
obviously not a directed donation.  Someone had signed an organ donor
card wrongly thinking his organs would go to whoever who would get the
most benefit, not to whoever who had the most clout.  It made me wish
I had an organ donor card, so I could tear it up and mail the pieces
to Inova's president.

And *new* large medical bills continue to pour in from that hospital,
more than a year after my mother's death.  Am I supposed to keep her
estate account open forever, as they keep "remembering" more and more
things they "forgot" to bill her for when she was alive?

You obviously think that if we had socialized medicine, your cancer
would have been treated competently, quickly, and for free.  I think
it more likely that years earlier, when you were seeking treatment for
a minor condition, they would have checked to see if you were a tissue
match for any powerful politician or wealthy campaign donor who was in
need of a new organ, and if so arranged for you to have an unfortunate
accident.

> "Other than telling us how to live, think, marry, pray, vote,
> invest, educate our children and, now, die, I think the Republicans
> have done a fine job of getting government out of our personal
> lives."  - seen in the Oregonian

I agree completely.  Similarly with the Democrats.  Given how much you
complain about the government, I'm baffled as to why you want more and
more of it.