Alligators

[murphyj87]

http://www.alternet.org/story/140918/we%27ve_been_trapped_inside_a_bad_health_care_system_so_long%2C_we_don%27t_even_know_how_much_we%27re_missing/?page=entire

Sometimes, when you're up to your chin in alligators, it's hard to focus on the fact that there's a big, broad, alligator-free world waiting somewhere out there, beyond the edge of the swamp.In this case, it's hard for most Americans to even imagine that nobody in the rest of the developed world lives this way. We've been living inside the restrictions and making the trade-offs required to hang onto our all-important health care coverage for so long that we don't even realize that we're cutting those deals, or what we're giving up, or how thoroughly those choices have come to dominate and limit our lives. If you're an American under 40, you can't remember a time that the health care system didn't work this way -- or that keeping coverage wasn't a dominant factor in making your life choices. If you're older than that, the memory of another, happier era beyond the swamp is dim, and fading fast.

This was one of the things that struck me hardest when I arrived in Canada five years ago. The swamp-blindness was so dark and deep that it took a while to adjust to a world without alligators. It's almost impossible to describe to folks back home how different life is when health insurance simply doesn't factor at all into how you choose to live your life. There's almost no language for it. Rather than even attempt it, I sometimes just ask my American friends and relatives to open up their imaginations, and answer the question for themselves:

How would your life be different if you never had to worry about getting, keeping, or affording health care again?
What other choices might you have made?
Where else would you be right now?
How would it change your plans for the future?


What would you do differently? I watch my Canadian neighbors live their lives, and the world beyond the swamp comes into sharp and stunning focus.
...

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Somawas]

2. +1

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. My life wouldn't be different

I haven't seen a fucking doctor in nearly 15 years. I fully expect to live a diminished and unnecessarily shortened life due to my lack of meaningful access to healthcare. At this point I figure thst's just a given. I'm a throwaway.

Because of these circumstances, healthcare reform is the single most important issue to me as a voter. There are no incumbents in any position that have earned my vote to retain their position. Without exception they se me as expendable.

[murphyj87]

4. So, if you were a Canadian ......

If you were a Canadian your life would, in fact, be different. Did you read the rest of the article?

http://www.alternet.org/story/140918/we%27ve_been_trapped_inside_a_bad_health_care_system_so_long%2C_we_don%27t_even_know_how_much_we%27re_missing/?page=entire

Canadians, despite the urban legends which Americans believe are true, live four years longer than Americans, in large part because every Canadian, young or old, rich or poor, has unlimited access to the same health care that the Premier of his Province, his Member of Parliament, and the Prime Minister of Canada have.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. I'm not a Canadian

and I don't have the resources to buy my way out of this fucked up country.

While it could be different here I am not willing to pretend that such change is likely to occur during my lifetime. Some of us don't have the luxury of waiting another 20 or 30 years for such reform.

I'm American. I'm a throwaway.

[murphyj87]

7. The other alternative..

The other alternative is to force your politicians to adopt a health care system which allows the kind of access to, and quality of, health care that we Canadians take for granted, and which both lengthens and improves our lives, when compared to the vast majority of Americans.....

Despite the urban legends that Americans think are truth, but are actually Fox news type distortions and lies, Canadians are very satified with the access and quality of their health care, and it vastly improves our lives. 97% of Canadians would never, ever think of adopting the kind unfair, life shortening, and denied or rationed health care that American insurance company bureaucrats allow you to have.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

8. "force your politicians"

Please, tell us how to do that. Especially in a system purchased by, paid for and controlled by corporations.

I don't think Canadians understand just how far the U.S. has fallen toward a fascist state.

[murphyj87]

9. No we don't...

We think of politicians being responsible to the people, as they are in Canada.

[Vinnie From Indy]

5. Well done!

Cheers!

[RagAss]

10. I'm glad for you.

As for most of us Americans....we're fucked !