Dear everybody on the MoLiCo Google list:
I have lived long enough that I feel I am being seriously threatened by the current legislation -- legislation that admits they will limit treatment to people on the basis of 'value' gained. I have lived in Canada, which has a medical system very much like what is being proposed by the government. The Canadian government has reached a financial limit as to how much medical treatment they can give back to their citizens from their taxes. This limit is high, because they tax the hell out of their citizens and residents to give them their "free medical treatment". So, what happens when demand for service by all citizens is greater than what can be financially supported? 1) the medicare administrators 'decide' who needs medical service the most. Are these administrators necessarily doctors? No! 2) They set up priority lists for individuals as to when they CAN get the treatment they need. 3) Very often the priority is decided on the basis of age. The rationale has been explained in the following terms: "A person that is 20 years old will get more benefit from a heart operation than a person 85." The end result is a gradual degradation of medical service as a citizen ages. Let me give you some personal examples. 1) While we were living in Canada, my wife (then aged about 48 or 49) developed a very bad hip/ball joint problem. It was agreed she needed a hip replacement right then. When did her place on the waiting list finally come up to the point of "Let's do the hip replacement now?" SIX years! Six years of pain and walking like a cripple. This is treatment? 2) My best friend in Canada (now 76) has had a kidney stone in his urinary tract for six or seven months. I had a stone a year ago while living in Springfield. I had it ultrasonically removed the day after it started up. This guy back in Canada is in intermittent agony whenever this stone shifts a little bit. His name on the treatment priority list hasn't come up yet. He doesn't know when he will get this stone removed. This is treatment? So, is the government proposed legislation really going to arbitrarily 'euthanize' anybody that is on Medicare? Probably not. Nobody is Canada has raised that point yet. Nonetheless, there are a lot of Canadian senior citizens living in unnecessary pain and unnecessary disability because their treatment is RATIONED. Maybe they are 'wishing' someone would euthanize them. I've been through it. I'm in good health for my age. I enjoy my life. I just know if I were living in Canada now, (or living in the US under the government proposed medical system), I'd be in trouble at the first sign of a new problem. Think about it. Is this new legislation proposed by Obama and Congress going to help you now? Will it help you as you grow older? Do you want your treatment to be decided by some government administrator? Should you believe EVERYTHING Congress and the Administration tell you about this new legislation? You have one vote from me for not believing the proposed legislation will be universally wonderful, and simultaneously, I believe there will be some very serious consequences for everybody if it is enacted into law. Jim Hornaday Springfield ________________________________ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This is a Free Speech forum. The owner of this list assumes no responsibility for the intellectual or emotional maturity of its members. If you do not like what is being said here, filter it to trash, ignore it or leave. If you leave, learn how to do this for yourself. If you do not, you will be here forever. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
