Each Day Already is a Challenge

Health care and politics... Figures, huh?

I heard the other day that the state of Massachusetts has passed a law that everyone has to have health care. I understand the laws about everyone having car insurance. But health insurance? It's soooooooooo expensive if you're not making a bundle of money. Unless everyone in Mass. is rich? I know the politicians are.

Of course, the only fine for not having health insurance is to pay an extra $220 a year in state income tax. Unless...I wonder if they've somehow made it so that hospitals don't have to treat those who don't have insurance? Anyone know?

What do you think of this?

"A couple of months ago, Saul Anuzi, chair of the Michigan GOP, petitioned to have Ron Paul banned from future debates. The reason, to summarize, was because he was doing better in polls regarding debate performance than any of the “top three” candidates. “I think Congressman Ron Paul … doesn't represent any of the Republican Party base” and is “getting in the way of the real debate of how to move our party” forward."

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.newswithviews.com/Takala/rudy19.htm

Back to health and health care. I know a lot of people are against socialized health care. But isn't that what our poor have - Medicaid? And isn't that what our elderly have - Medicare? The programs are not perfect, but they do get care. And most of the elderly folks I know get every test imaginable when they're sick or hurting.

Members of Congress certainly don't have to worry about health care. They have their own special program just for them and their families.

Rich folks don't have to worry. They might complain about what's not covered by their insurance, but they can pay for whatever isn't covered.

It's the rest of us - those who have insurance but have to fight to get care and then pay for what's not covered and those who are uninsured but unable to get Medicaid - who suffer by not having socialized medical care.

A few weeks ago, a member of our church died. He was only 58 years old. He had heart problems and a hernia. He went to the hospital with chest pains and it was discerned that he wasn't having heart problems. Knowing that it wasn't his heart didn't stop the pains.

He probably should have been admitted so they could find out what his problem was. I tend to believe that would have happened in Canada or France or Great Britian.
Instead (I think it was the next day), the man called 9-1-1, then his family, and he died on the way to the hospital. Cause? Strangulated hernia.

Should that happen in a country who boasts having the "best" medical care? I don't think so. The "best" care would have been to figure out the cause of his pain, not sending him home. They probably prescribed pain medications.