Ted Rall for June 22, 2009

Oh, Ted! Rome wasn’t built in a day! Give Obama some time before giving up on him.

When Obama won, I realized that in order to really change anything in Washington, change would have to be incremental, at least during a first term. Little did I realize that the change would be infinitesimal.

I just had a brain storm. Forget the public option. Instead, we just pass a law that every insurance company has to accept everyone and has to charge everyone the same rate regardless of age, pre-existing conditions or future illness. Every company has to provide exactly the same coverage, too.

Of course they won’t like it because that cuts out all the fun of ripping customers off, but….

Look to the British and Canadian systems. Jokes aside, the majority of their citizens love their systems and there is no massive bureaucracy. We can do even better if we get over our neurotic distrust of our own government. There are those who have earned our distrust and it is correct to tear those people down. Those who are grossly inept or act with thinly veiled greed or self interest should be torn down. There are many (on both sides) that are sincerely trying to do their best and face challenges. To tear these good people down with the bad is not balanced - its just mean. We can do better if we work together.

Yes, Liam Neeson is really happy with the Canadian health care system. A freaking helicopter would have saved his wife’s life, instead, Natasha had to be bounced around in the back of an ambulance for 45 minutes to die in a hospital.

If she fell on the slopes in the US, she would still be alive.

Come on Doc Canuck, try and defend this one!

Bill_Clay, to quote the great Eliot…

And indeed there will be time For the yellow smoke that slides along the street, Rubbing its back upon the window-panes; There will be time, there will be time To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet; There will be time to murder and create, And time for all the works and days of hands That lift and drop a question on your plate; Time for you and time for me, And time yet for a hundred indecisions, And for a hundred visions and revisions, {*particularly for Obama} Before the taking of a toast and tea.

…at least the “F— You” system is consistent, for the rest of you, ‘tis merely a hobgoblin. Fortunately, Unca’ Sam takes care of mine.

To the Attorney-in-Chief, one of the oldest lawyer-shark jokes in existence, thus damning with faint praise:

“There’s another: why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Hum! This fellow might be in’s time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more, ha?” –Hamlet

Muchadoodoo, you are right, but the only misery I see Obama creating is for the GOP!

Doc, my eaxample is spot on. There was no “mistake.” The issue was the 45 minute drive to the hospital over bumpy roads, instead of a smooth 5 minute Life Flight. Name me a major city that doesn’t have a Life Flight.

I’m sorry, you’re Canadian, let me explain. Life Flight is an ambulance which is a h-e-l-i-c-o-p-t-e-r, not a truck. Pretty useful in critical situations. Expensive too, probably why you don’t have many. Rationed, I’m sure.

And, you pompous fool, I have my undergrad from one of the most prestigious Universities in the US. I also have an MBA, and I’m considering going back for my doctorate, so I can bring some balance to what we teach our children, rather than fill their heads with Leftist BS.

Blaming Natasha Richardson’s death due to undiagnosed epidural hematoma (a condition that kills thousands of Americans every year) on the Canadian medical system is right-wingnut logic at it’s finest.

oh yea what cdward said, 1 day ago sounds like an exellent idea I just had a brain storm. Forget the public option. Instead, we just pass a law that every insurance company has to accept everyone and has to charge everyone the same rate regardless of age, pre-existing conditions or future illness. Every company has to provide exactly the same coverage, too. Of course they won’t like it because that cuts out all the fun of ripping customers off, but….

Senor, so sorry. Ambulances are covered by your insurance. If your insurance refuses to pay that much for ambulance service, (like Life Flight) it will go out of business. You think the government will pay? Let’s look for examples to our state, I mean, neighbors to the north.

In the Richardson case, no Life Flight was available, because they didn’t have it. Experts say that had she fallen on a slope here in the US, she’d be alive and well today.

“fennec said, But then, Right_On, you have to remember the helicopter crash in Maryland a few months ago that killed the auto accident victim and the EMS personnel.”

and

“DrCanuck said, Write_off, has no one ever told you that you cannot generate rules from individual examples, only from over-all averages?”

No comment here … I’ll still want that Life Flight, thank you.

And Doc, I am saddened that you have nothing to say … but then again, leftist control of the Universities wasn’t on your talking points list …

I find the comments on education extremely depressing. First of all, while I don’t agree with all of Right On’s posts, his comment on his education was in response to a dismissive comment by Doc. So, Fennec, you might want to cut him some slack on that one. Second, I hope there was some sarcasm intended in Doc’s post on Phd’s. First of all, its not true. However, there is a distinct liberal bias in most higher- ed institutions, in the U. S. There was a good Economist article covering this a few years ago; not much has changed. On the other hand, there are some first class professors, in a number of fields, with Conservative POV’s. Having taught American Politics at a community college the goal is to get people to think critically about their views. I have never graded anyone by their political orientation. They do get graded on how well they present their arguments.

We don’t have many helicopters? I guess the ones I see flying to and from the hospital in my neighbourhood are figments of my imagination. Seriously, Canada does not have a health system, health care is a provincial responsibility under the constitution, and each province runs its own. The federal government only provides financial assistance to have-not provinces. The notion that Canadians need to ask permission from some bureaucrat before being treated is GOP bull. You go to the doctor, and the doctor sends the bill to the health ministry instead of a private insurance company. I used to work in South Carolina, and had far more health paperwork and hassle there than here in Ontario.

The wife just last week was down in the bathroom. 911 call, paramedics, ambulance, sent the engine (LACty#11) back to the station. Just got the bills; $938 ambulance ride, $5600+ for a day-and-a-half at Huntington Memorial ER and room in the wonderful new wing. Glad it’s there, but we’re on the Don’t Get Sick health plan after four years out of work. Self-insured sux!