Congress continues its deliberations and maneuvers as the Democrats try to come up with one single Health Care Plan that will satisfy all the needs and requirements of Americans - not just their healthcare needs, but the political obstacles to passing it.
So, many Americans are curious about what the final version will look like. There are differing ideas in the several committees working on the bill and no one really knows whether to be for or against such a nebulous creation. (Well, the folks in the middle anyway - the Right is against the Democrat plan and the Left naturally supports the Democrat plan... those in the middle just aren't sure yet.)
So while they craft and scheme and study, where can we turn to see what may be in store for us in terms of government run health care? Does a prototype exist?
Yes. And arguably, it could be a great example. The military health care system. From the very top down, members of the Armed Forces are lauded as the best the country has to offer and deserving of all the support the country can lend. This certainly must be true for their health care, no?
Yet, in today's USA Today article, Gregg Zoroya declares "Routine GI Health Needs Not Met".
What's this?
The military has its own complete healthcare system. It's single-payer, universal, and government run... all the very best descriptors of what is trying to be brought to all Americans.
Before even reading the article, the chart next to it shows that for the last year, of the Army's 36 major hospitals, 26 don't meet standards for providing access to health care within seven days. That's 72%, or roughly a 1 in 4 chance of being seen in a timely manner. The best year shown, 2007, gives only a 45% chance of being seen in a timely manner.
This is the Army medical system taking care of its own - Army Soldiers and Army families. It should be safe to say that they're highly motivated to take care of them as quickly as possible.
This is government health care when they're taking care of the most important people in the system - Soldiers and their own families. I wonder what it'll be like when they're taking care of just regular Joes?
Friday, July 31, 2009
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When you try to tell this to people...they don't believe it. Although, now that I think about it, these are the same people that were all over the WRAMC stories. Oh, but that was just the evil GWB and Darth Cheney and Haliburton not taking care of the wounded. Now that the caring/sharing people are running things...everything will be just fine.
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