Perhaps the Nazis were only preparing the way for private medicine - removing all those people likely to cost insurance companies money. Down the road there is a woman living in a £300,000 house costing the State about £250,000 a year to maintain with her 4 autistic kids - she knew it was very likely her children would be so. We allow this kind of thing whilst not operating on fat people or smokers, letting others die as drugs are too expensive and so on. I wonder at what point those advocating private medicine recognise just how 'ableist' they are? I'd bet many of them are PC freaks. Medical bureaucracy and overpayment to professionals making themselves in short supply is probably where our focus should be. Medical students are not much brighter than the rest and a lot of doctoring jobs are actually pretty simple compared with the training they forget (much of it useless) - we could easily train more doctors, do it quicker (by taking on mature people) and bring down the salary overhead. The bureaucrats could all be sent to the Happy Valley Year Zero 'community farm'. Wouldn't matter then whether medicine was nationalised or private.
We've been misled on this debate for decades - even know I see articles fro McKinsey drones claiming private medicine is much more innovative and efficient. Cobblers! Both forms can be highly inefficient. Singapore may be best and that place is ruthlessly organised. The very medical insurance won by unions is now the reason our manufacturing firms can't compete. The jobs that have gone are always replaced by dud ones with dismal conditions or (here) in the public sector doing bureaucracy. Something structural has changed that make our arguments in this area completely dud. I would personally whip the benefit hordes back to work if there was any work (other than in flogging). Even if Francis had private insurance, he might lose it in retirement - in the good old UK many will lose pensions (already have) and other benefits. In the US all it takes is for someone to have had it away with the funds in so-called good times. Even arguments that NHS-style provision leads to foreigners coming in to rip off our hard work are shaky - we've been lazing away eating their cheaply produced food for decades and relying on their cheap labour and miserable working conditions. Even if we've been putting the hours in it's likely lots of the effort was for no decent purpose. According to Hannah Arendt, the Nazis were very good at practising banal evil and even people who worked in the notorious 'baby factories' claimed not to understand what they were doing, not to know what concentration camps were for and so on. Just because we don't see people dying as our bureaucracy shields us from the actual death, doesn't mean we aren't making the same cowardly decisions the Nazi-followers made. What sort of idiot really thinks the richest nation on Earth can't afford a system like that of creaky old England! An idiot who can't recognise he is stealing treatment from an overseas qualified staff needed back home I would guess. On 3 Oct, 17:48, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > Gorby has come out recently and said that Thatcher and other right- > wing flops wanted him to crush German reunification. I tend to find > the country rather like the fair-minded, well educated and progressive > Britain I was supposed to be living in. I rather liked my trips to > the old DDR for that matter - there was even something good amongst > the lunacy and repression. Even in this civilized country there is > little real progress towards a real understanding of how we might live > if we can break the military-consumerist fetish. Private medicine > would be OK if insurance was a genuine form not based on only taking > people unlikely to be ill - but we'd still need to restrict white > collar criminals (doctors etc.) taking rip-off fees. > > On 3 Oct, 14:31, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > And a happy German Unity Day to you too, Gabby! > > > I am in complete agreement with you on the health care issue. (Well, > > ok, apart from anything else, I work in the health area :-)) I see us > > facing difficult times in Germany in this area following the recent > > election results. The so-called liberals (the junior partner in the > > next government) are on record as saying they want the whole health > > system completely privatised. Already the pressure towards a two-class > > health system is growing. Free market experts talk about us all taking > > more responsibility for ourselves and the availability of private > > supplemental insurance. Even on a purely personal area it worries me - > > as someone middle-aged, with a medical history of treated alcoholism > > and an artificial hip, the rates I would have to pay for private > > supplementary insurance are far beyond my means. > > > The challenge for the united Germany remains the same as it was twenty > > years ago - to achieve and maintain a just and fair society for all > > its residents, whether in Duisburg or Dresden. > > > Francis > > > On 3 Okt., 14:44, gabbydott <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Let me explain. > > > > I was born in West-Berlin 7 years after a wall was raised that > > > protected the East from the fascism of the West. Unfortunately, West- > > > Berlin was in the middle of East-Germany. My relatively poor geography > > > marks give testimony of this circumstance. Times have changed and > > > fascism has become a too difficult word to employ. Instead, becoming > > > aware of the need to fight for the right idea has become more and more > > > important. To have the right on my side has become the essence of our > > > democracy. > > > > Chris and Craig are right to assure each other (on Facebook) that our > > > compulsory medical insurance system without a loud and heartfelt > > > discussion on fines, penalties and death sentence for those who dream > > > of dropping out of this system is wimpy and retarded. Welcome back, > > > new fascism! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
