[whiteperil] Sean: Life to the fullest

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Posted by Sean:
Life to the fullest
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1185420599.shtml


   My blog friend Rondi "[1]Canada's Coultier [sic]" Adamson has a
   [2]post at the individualist site righthinker.com about the Canadian
   national health system. If you know her writing (and read the post
   title), you won't be surprised at her conclusion:

     But in Canada's rationed system, the choices for humans [as opposed
     to pet cats] are not plentiful and wait lists are frequently long,
     though few would question the devotion of medical professionals.
     What Canadians such as myself question is not the public tier
     itself, but the wisdom of limiting patients and doctors alike to
     that tier.

   She sent me the link to [3]this post because it riffs off the (brief)
   discussion we were having about health care here earlier. The point
   she makes is not dissimilar from the one Bruce Bawer [4]makes in his
   July 23, 2007 (5:10 P.M., CEST) post, in his case about Norway:

     Norwegians boast of their system's "total coverage" â but total
     coverage doesn't mean guaranteed care, or care on demand. Far from
     it. Even the media here, which generally push the official line
     that Norway's system is far superior to its U.S. counterpart, run
     occasional stories about Norwegian children who've been turned down
     for life-saving medications, who've had to fly to the U.S. to get
     the care they needed, or who've died while waiting for treatment.
     ...
     None of which is meant to suggest that the U.S. system doesn't need
     fixing. It does. But the solution to its problems doesn't lie in
     copying the Canadian and European systems.

   We Americans are a funny lot. We'll accept (lamentably) the most
   egregious quacks imaginable as "experts" if they manage to snag a warm
   endorsement from Oprah, but we absolutely hate "expertise" that's
   forced on us from on high, even if it's got degrees and studies to
   back it up.
   No health care system is going to satisfy all users all the time. Even
   in a rich, dynamic society, resources will always be limited. So the
   question is who gets to decide which trade-offs are made. Whatever the
   problems with insurance at it currently exists in the States, I think
   most people perceive that instituting a national health system means
   giving consumers less choice. Not a good direction for change, even if
   it would mean a "healthier" society according to criteria that would
   gladden the hearts of functionaries at the USDA and various UN
   organizations.
   BTW, both [5]Rondi and Bawer link to [6]this video clip, in which
   Ayaan Hirsi Ali is interviewed by an insufferably smug leftist wind-up
   toy who has to be heard to be believed. The best moment is when the
   interviewer, wonderfully uncorrupted by self-awareness of any kind,
   complains that Hirsi Ali is speaking in cliches. He's not wrong in
   literal terms, actually--the observation that you can come to America
   penniless and make your fortune if you have the resolve is hardly an
   original one. But Hirsi Ali has come by her conclusions through
   experience: living in illiberal societies and then moving to the West.
   Accusing her of mindless boosterism is ridiculous, even if you don't
   agree with all her criticisms of Islam.

References

   1. http://wonkitties.blogspot.com/2007/07/summary-of-fridays-hate-mail.html
   2. http://www.righthinker.com/content/view/156/
   3. http://wonkitties.blogspot.com/2007/07/fun-with-doctors-round-world.html
   4. http://www.brucebawer.com/blog.htm
   5. http://wonkitties.blogspot.com/2007/07/snot-nosed-mental-midget-destroyed-by.html
   6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08EYqwyns-k