Wednesday,
November 14, 2007
Italians Refuse to Believe US Health
Spokesperson "Spin Malarkey"
The
ANNOTICO Report
Italians/Europeans
truly believe the
The
American Health care Industry spokesman tried to explain:
(1)
the percentage of
Now
how is that impressive that the
while Europeans for the same % GDP, and are caring for
their TOTAL population? !!!!!!!!!
(2)
many of our uninsured are just temporarily without
coverage in a system that ties health insurance to the workplace.
Temporary
can be catastrophic, and the new job may not give the same benefits at the same
cost.
And
what about the people have their High pay job shipped overseas, and
have to settle for a Low pay service job, reduced benefits
(3)
Or that the uninsured do get care--albeit
in a far-from-ideal system--through hospitals, private physicians, community health
centers, charity
clinics, and other means.
You
said it---FAR FROM IDEAL !!!!
(4)
Or that Americans value private coverage, with its broader access to new
technologies and medicines and faster access to surgeries and treatments.
Then
why is that many US Health Plans are encouraging their
clients to have surgeries in Superior Hospitals in
(5)
Every country's health care system must respect and supports the sanctity
of the individual.
The
Rich have NO problem getting respect. "Sanctity of the Individual"
means the rest of you are on your own. Good Luck!!!!!!
(6)
While the
Again,
The Individual Freedoms for the Rich works out just fine!!!!! So much for Compassionate conservatives.
(7)
I said the common good is achieved when individuals are treated as responsible
beings in a moral society that "embraces the truth about the transcendent
origin and destiny of the human person," quoting the Acton Institute's
mission statement. This responsibility extends to our families and communities.
Now
that is a rather large pile of mumbo-jumbo!!!!!!!! I don't have a clue to
what they are saying. Put it to Music!!!!!!
Europeans Refuse to Understand American
Health Care System
Author: Grace-Marie Turner
Published by: The Heartland Institute
Published in: Health Care News
Publication date: December 2007
This autumn in
Some takeaways: Europeans
truly believe we have a permanent underclass in the
When I tried to
explain the facts--through a translator--to an Italian senator on RAI radio, he
was incensed.
Hostile Interview
He didn't want to
hear that the percentage of our gross domestic product we spend on public
health care--which covers about one-third of our people--equals or exceeds the
GDP percentage many European countries spend in total on health care. Or that
almost half of our more than $2 trillion in health expenditures are made
primarily through these public programs that cover the poor, the aged, the
disabled, veterans, and lower-income children.
Nor did he want
to hear that many of our uninsured are just
temporarily without coverage in a system that ties health insurance to the
workplace. Or that the uninsured do get care--albeit in a far-from-ideal
system--through hospitals, private physicians, community health centers,
charity clinics, and other means. Or that Americans value private coverage,
with its broader access to new technologies and medicines and faster access to
surgeries and treatments.
It seemed almost
as if he wanted people to believe there is nothing at all to be learned from
Americans, so as not to crack the veneer of socialized systems.
Common Good
An excellent
free-market Italian think tank, the Istituto Bruno
Leoni, and its dynamic leaders, Alberto Mingardi and
Carlo Stagnaro, arranged the radio interview and a
luncheon with government and industry leaders to provide more detail on how the
Hearing the
details of our complex network of private and public programs, and that the
uninsured cannot be denied care at hospitals, was news to almost everyone
there, who were convinced that Michael Moore was telling the whole truth in his
Sicko movie.
The main reason
for my trip to
I said the common
good is achieved when individuals are treated as responsible beings in a moral
society that "embraces the truth about the transcendent origin and destiny
of the human person," quoting the Acton Institute's mission statement.
This responsibility extends to our families and communities.
State Takeover
The state
purports to assume this role in providing for the common good, but it violates
the principle of subsidiarity--the common-sense idea
that government should not usurp the proper functions of the individual, the
family, and, in the case of medicine, the doctor-patient relationship.
Pope Benedict XVI
wrote in his recent encyclical Deus Caritas Est,
"We do not need a State which regulates and controls everything, but a
State which, in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity,
generously acknowledges and supports initiatives arising from the different
social forces and combines spontaneity with closeness to those in need."
In a
state-controlled system, individual responsibility in using health care
resources most efficiently is replaced by rationing by the state.
Unique Challenges
Every country's
health care system is unique, and each has its own challenges in moving to an
approach that respects and supports the sanctity of the individual. While the
The Acton
Institute, its president Fr. Robert Sirico, and the
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
Italia
Italia
Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net
THE HEARTLAND
INSTITUTE
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