Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Oh, yes, that American medical system is a real role model.


Sure, the Canadian healthcare system needs fixing but, just once, I'd really like to hear the whiners admit that the American system has it own problems. And they're getting worse:

President Bush's top health advisers will fan out across the country this week to quell rising discontent with a new Medicare prescription drug benefit that has tens of thousands of elderly and disabled Americans, their pharmacists, and governors struggling to resolve myriad start-up problems...

Even as federal leaders touted the enrollment figures, state officials and health care experts continued to report widespread difficulties, especially for the poorest and sickest seniors who were forced to switch from state Medicaid programs to the new Medicare plans on Jan. 1...

Saying "it is time for us to take care of our own," Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said California will spend as much as $150 million to provide medications to as many as 1 million low-income seniors who have been turned away by pharmacists or overcharged co-payments because of glitches in computer databases...

In a letter to Bush, 14 Democratic governors wrote that, "while well-intended, the new Medicare drug benefit has caused confusion, mismanagement, and a bureaucratic nightmare."

Yeah, that's just the system we want to emulate, isn't it?

BY THE WAY, not surprisingly, states run by Republicans think things are just ever so peachy keen and swell:

Florida's Agency for Healthcare Administration does not see a crisis. Those who can't get their medicines would disagree.

It's just one delusion after another for these folks, isn't it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Um, yeah. Let's see Canada overhaul its healthcare system and see if no major problems occur in the beginning.

CC said...

I'm sorry ... you consider this total clusterfuck acceptable in terms of growing pains? Is that what you're saying?

I can see why you folks still think things are going swimmingly in Iraq then. Apparently, total chaos and mismanagement is par for the course these days.

You might consider setting your sights slightly higher.