Barack Obama……right. John McCain……wrong.

Major inequalities in health and life expectancy persist worldwide, according to an independent World Health Organization commission which on Thursday called for all countries to offer universal health care.

Huge discrepancies also exist within countries, including Scotland where a boy born in the deprived Glasgow suburb of Calton can expect to live 28 years less than one born in affluent Lenzie, just 13 km (8 miles) across town, it said.

“The health inequities we see in the world are absolutely dramatic in their scale,” said Michael Marmot, a WHO health researcher, who chaired the commission, told reporters.

“Between countries we have life expectancy differences of more than 40 years. A woman in Botswana can expect to live 43 years, in Japan 86 years.”

More at Yahoo News

Speaking of doctors……. yesterday I took my Mom to a new doctor. We’ve been looking for a good family doctor here. This was the worst doctor I’ve ever seen. His arrogance and coldness was unbelievable. He never once asked my Mom why she was there. Never addressed her by her name. Didn’t introduce himself. He just kept going through lists of questions. Any time either one of us tried to ask a question he refused to answer, saying we’ll get to that, I’m not worried about that….blah blah blah. Then he gives me a stack full of prescriptions so he can send her to get every imaginable test. (tests she doesn’t need) On the way out I noticed a plaque on the wall. “Physician of the Year” I’m thinking to myself, what morons would vote this dick physician of the year? Guess who….. a REPUBLICAN congressional committee. (my guess is he gave Jeb Bush alot of money) I’m going to write the guy a letter and tell him we won’t be back and we won’t be getting the 30 tests she doesn’t need because……..he’s an asshole. I’m also going to tell him that seeing how the Repubicans have led our country down a path of destruction that perhaps hasn’t effected him but probably has effected his patients, it might be smart to keep the fact that he’s a republican on the down low. It’s bad enough he’s an asshole. There’s my story of the day.

From the Sun Sentinel:

The American Medical Association formally apologized Thursday for more than a century of policies that excluded blacks from a group long considered the voice of American doctors.

The nation’s largest physicians group also apologized for its “dishonorable” silence during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

“The medical profession, which is based on a boundless respect for human life, had an obligation to lead society away from disrespect of so many lives,” the medical association’s immediate past president, Ronald M. Davis, said in a commentary to be published next week in its journal. “The AMA failed to do so and has apologized for that failure.”

Although John Edwards dropped out of the race, his wife Elizabeth Edwards is taking John McCain to task for not offering universal healthcare. I sure would of liked to see her and her husband in the White House. McFriendy said the following statement wasn’t true. He didn’t receive federal healthcare when he was a prisoner of war. Sorry McFriendy, that doesn’t count.

“He has not spent a single day not protected by a federal health plan, not a single day of his entire life, and yet he denigrates this care,” said Edwards in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal.

Full article at Political Radar

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Paul Krugman, discusses the disgusting lack of health insurance in America. It truly is disgusting:

Health Care Horror Stories

Not long ago, a young Ohio woman named Trina Bachtel, who was having health problems while pregnant, tried to get help at a local clinic.

Unfortunately, she had previously sought care at the same clinic while uninsured and had a large unpaid balance. The clinic wouldn-t see her again unless she paid $100 per visit - which she didn-t have.

Eventually, she sought care at a hospital 30 miles away. By then, however, it was too late. Both she and the baby died.

You may think that this was an extreme case, but stories like this are common in America. [...]

The end result is that the uninsured receive a lot less care than the insured. And sometimes this lack of care kills them. According to a recent estimate by the Urban Institute, the lack of health insurance leads to 27,000 preventable deaths in America each year.

UPDATE:

Some interesting numbers from KnoxNews.com:

In Tennessee between 2000-2006, the report said, more than 3,600 people 25-64 years of age died as the result of a lack of health insurance. Uninsured people are 25 percent more likely to die prematurely than adults with private insurance.

I love Elizabeth Edwards.

Elizabeth Edwards has cancer. John McCain has had cancer in the past. Last weekend, Mrs. Edwards bluntly pointed out that neither of them would be able to get insurance under Mr. McCain’s health care plan.

It’s about time someone said that and, more generally, made the case that Mr. McCain’s approach to health care is based on voodoo economics - not the supply’side voodoo that claims that cutting taxes increases revenues (though Mr. McCain says that, too), but the equally foolish claim, refuted by all available evidence, that the magic of the marketplace can produce cheap health care for everyone.

As Mrs. Edwards pointed out, the McCain health plan would do nothing to prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to those, like her and Mr. McCain, who have pre-existing medical conditions.

More at the NY Times

As I posted here, medical coverage isn’t the problem. It’s the associated runaway costs. We know it. They know it. So why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

But Democrats said Bush’s budget targets the wrong health care providers for cuts. They said insurers subsidized to provide Medicare coverage are being overpaid.

“The president is proposing to once again slash health care coverage for seniors and low-income working Americans,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said. “The president’s cuts are exactly the wrong medicine when the cost of health care and the number of uninsured continue to rise and families are feeling economically insecure.”

Health care providers said the president’s recommendations would make it harder for them to meet expenses, which would continue to rise as a result of inflation, even as their reimbursement rates were frozen.

Greed: Mansions and summer homes. Multiple garages, expensive autos. Exotic vacations in far-off places. Memberships to the finest clubs. People laying dying on hospital sidewalks.

Greed: Keep feeding it.

Those who need organ transplants or who have hemophilia, Gaucher disease or other costly chronic illnesses can easily rack up medical bills that blow through the lifetime benefits cap of $1 million or more that is a standard part of many insurance policies.

That has left some very sick people facing health-care tabs of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, prompting their families to seek help from the government, or to scramble to change jobs or even divorce for no other reason than to qualify for new health insurance. And it has led some advocates for the chronically ill to plan a new lobbying effort in hopes of persuading Congress to require that insurers increase lifetime caps to as high as $10 million. (emphasis mine)

And when medical bills begin to blow through the new $10 million benefits cap, we’ll change it to $20 million… then $100 million. Whatever it takes to keep the money flowing into the pockets of insurers and the health care industry.

‘Grease’ was the word in the 1970’s. Today it’s ‘bloat’.

We need some serious discussion on health care reform in this country. There are people getting turned away at emergency doors. There are families losing their homes. Combating this by finding new ways to fatten fat-cat pockets even more is not the answer!

God we can’t get rid of this guy fast enough.

In addition, federal officials challenged Louisiana to explain why it did not want to enforce the one-year waiting period for children who had lost private health insurance because of a parent’s death or the failure of a business where a parent was employed. In such cases, the state replied, the loss of coverage is involuntary, and the waiting period would “penalize children and families for circumstances beyond their control.”

The Bush administration is imposing restrictions on the ability of states to expand eligibility for Medicaid, in an effort to prevent them from offering coverage to families of modest incomes who, the administration argues, may have access to private health insurance.

The restrictions mirror those the administration placed on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in August after states tried to broaden eligibility for it as well.

Until now, states had generally been free to set their own Medicaid eligibility criteria, and the Bush administration had not openly declared that it would apply the August directive to Medicaid. State officials in Louisiana, Ohio and Oklahoma said they had discovered the administration’s intent in negotiations with the federal government over the last few weeks.

More at the New York Times

If you haven’t heard Natalne Sarkisyan’s story, you can catch it here.

Cigna’s statement:

The family’s “loss is immeasurable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them,” Cigna said in a news release Friday. “We deeply hope that the outpouring of concern, care and love that are being expressed for Nataline’s family help them at this time.”

Gee, what would of helped them is if you had done the right thing in the first place and let her have the liver she needed in order to live. I realize no amount of money will bring back their daughter, but I hope they get millions in this lawsuit.

So sad. This country is in dire need of health care reform yet so many defend the status quo:

“Nothing in life is certain.” Thank you, Mr. McPherson, for setting us straight. Even though everything else you post is utter hogwash, it’s nice knowing you give a damn about your fellow man!

Greed. When man gets to the point that he’ll sacrifice his fellow man to hold onto his worldly goods, is it any wonder it’s considered a sin?

It’s definitely a ‘ME’ country we live in. Climbing upon the backs of an x-number of poor to obtain wealth and power is one thing. Using that wealth and power to keep the poor down is another. Further, not just by allowing, but promoting the idea that “nothing in life is certain”, thus sitting by and watching fellow Americans die as your bank accounts grows most assuredly is a promise of a one-way ticket to hell.

This twisted philosophy I lay squarely at the feet of conservatives. Men whose ranks, ironically, are aligned with those who profess a brethren-loving, Christian faith. May the Lord have mercy on this misguided lot.

Study: Insured Cancer Patients Do Better

ATLANTA (AP) — Uninsured cancer patients are nearly twice as likely to die within five years as those with private coverage, according to the first national study of its kind and one that sheds light on troubling health care obstacles.

People without health insurance are less likely to get recommended cancer screening tests, the study also found, confirming earlier research. And when these patients finally do get diagnosed, their cancer is likely to have spread.

The research by scientists with the American Cancer Society offers important context for the national discussion about health care reform, experts say - even though the uninsured are believed to account for just a fraction of U.S. cancer deaths. An Associated Press analysis suggests it is around 4 percent.

Those dealing with cancer and inadequate insurance weren’t surprised by the findings.

“I would just like for something to be done to help someone else, so they don’t have to go through what we went through,” said Peggy Hicks, a Florida woman whose husband died in August from colon cancer.

Edward Hicks was uninsured, and a patchwork health care system delayed him from getting chemotherapy that some argue might have extended his life.

“He was so ill. And you’re trying to get him help and you can’t, you can’t,” said his 67-year-old widow.