I find myself getting very hot under the collar over the healthcare reform debate in the US of A. What really gets to me is how misrepresented the Canadian and UK health systems are by those opposed to reform of the US system which includes a government sponsored element.

I have lived under both the UK and the US systems. In the US system I have had three different kinds of insurance and all have been at the higher level of coverage. Many of the comments I have heard show a lack of familiarity with the UK system. For example, there is a private healthcare system in the UK and you can buy into that just as you buy into the US system. In the UK doctors are contracted by the Health authority into the public system for as many hours as they chose and they can run a private system alongside that. If you are fortunate enough to be able to afford private care you can elect to do that in addition to what is provided under the National Health Service (NHS). UK healthcare is also free at the point of need. You are not required to make any payment at the time of treatment. Free, of course, is relative just like the lunch! Everyone pays a regular contribution to healthcare from their pay packets. Some additional charges for food, etc have been added in recent years. (The argument goes that if you were home you would be eating, etc anyway).

It’s a complicated and complex task to overhaul such a huge system. It takes real courage and commitment to those who cannot enter the system by the normal method (i.e. buy your way in!). There are clearly lots of interests that have a stake both in reform and the status quo.

What interests me is twofold. The first is the quite deliberate publication of mis-information, notable by senior senators and congress persons. They are, of course, politicians and so why would I not expect them to act as such! The answer is because I believe firmly in politics, by which I mean the way in which we live together and govern ourselves. What I am fearful of is party politics. I know only too well what happens to me when I find myself passionate about an issue and its outcome! What I see from party politics is what I most dislike in me. I want to rise about that and I want those who claim to govern on my behalf to do the same.

The issue of healthcare provision is far too important to leave to a party political debate because in the end the party politicians will win and those who need most to be aided by the society of which they are part simple slide further down the ladder.

I have noted watching and listening to so called “town hall debates” the fury and anger on the faces of many speakers from the floor. Many of them appear old enough to be Medicare recipients who will be least affected by the reforms. I sense that this misinformation around advanced directives is so violent just because that is the case. If you don’t review your advanced directive every 5 years with your doctor I believe that is irresponsible. If you don’t have an up to date directive and are kept alive in a vegetative state, or dispatched before your time, whose fault is that? Talk os euthanasia is party politicking.

What I sense is a great deal of fear around but I don’t understand where it comes from. I am aware that mush of our debating over such issues descends to fear when we can no longer engage in sensible debate.

Absence

To those of you who followed my blogs for a while - thank you. I hope they gave you some food for thought and perhaps expanded your thinking.

My memory failed me and I could not recall my user name - serious issue here - I tried all kinds of things. In a flash of inspiration I tried something else and bingo I am back again. Of course now I have to remember how it all works and then get my thoughts together.

I f you have been reading, thank you. I will be back soon.