By Henri de Marne
In response to the My View entitled "Republicans are not afraid," it is so easy to beat your chest and proclaim that "all our citizens and illegals receive the best care in the world" while hiding your head in the sand. Everyone who has any knowledge of the state of health care knows that we are not faring well in comparison to other countries. In fact, we are way down the scale of quality while we have the most expensive health care in the world -- even Cuba is ranked higher than us! It's time for Paul Shaw to shed his elitist blinders and get educated about these matters before mouthing off again about something he obviously knows little about.
It's also delusional to clamor that the war in Iraq was carried out to liberate the Iraqis from a tyrant. That second war was undertaken for oil, pure and simple! The Iraqi oil ministry was the only ministry the U.S. forces protected, while we allowed the Iraqis to loot and destroy all the others. If we had wanted to liberate the Iraqis from their tyrant, it would have been a lot simpler to have done so during the first campaign, when we were at Baghdad's door, and there was no longer any resistance. In fact, Saddam himself thought that we were going to get him then. Let's not forget that our "desire to liberate" the Iraqis from their tyrant was preceded by our arming the same tyrant in previous years because it suited our "national interest."
I wonder how many Iraqis feel that they are better off today. Those who lost their lives since their "liberation" would tell us a different story, if they could. Their country is in shambles and unable to govern itself. They are still in a state of civil war, and it is likely to get worse, if and when we leave. To insinuate that their "liberation" is a success is abysmally ignorant of the facts.
On what facts does Mr. Shaw base his statements that the Veteran's Administration (VA) care is atrocious and Medicare bankrupt? The VA has a stellar record of excellent cost-effectiveness and equally outstanding health outcomes taking care of one of our most challenging chronically ill population.
I have a very personal experience with Medicare, having been on the system for nearly 20 years, and cannot be more full of praise for it. After a car accident, four years ago, which I survived by a miracle, Medicare has been paying all my bills to this day. It has not denied me any doctor, specialist, physical therapies, expensive MRIs, C-scans and other tests. By contrast, the million-dollar private policy, which I had been paying for 21 years for such eventualities, fought us tooth and nail when we sought reimbursement for lost income and other expenses. They told us that we would have to sue them to collect what was a justifiable claim. Its CEO wrote me that once we file a claim, we are in an adversarial position and he needs to protect his shareholders. I was a shareholder and needed to collect on a policy I bought for that very kind of protection! Is this the admirable freedom-of-choice insurance system so many extol?
Mr. Shaw is concerned about the working stiffs (I have to assume he includes himself in that category) being taxed to pay for the recently adopted health care law. Mr. Shaw may be worried about himself, but I worry about the less fortunate working stiffs who can't afford to buy insurance, who have been terminated after making a legitimate claim or denied coverage because of some real or fabricated pre-existing condition.
If we had a single-payer system of health care, as most civilized western nations have, Medicare may not be suffering from what Mr. Shaw claims to be bankruptcy - a fact not proven either. The example he states about Massachusetts has nothing to do with a national system. The huge and nauseating amounts of money paid managed care and insurance executives, including their sickening bonuses and gold parachutes (Blue Cross, Blue Shield of Vermont as an example), and the inexcusable profits of the pharmaceutical companies would be better used funding Medicare. The Europeans have access to, and develop, similar drugs without having to gouge the public. We should have the same benefits.
But last week's piece was fraught with further errors. Bill Clinton left us with a surplus after paying off the deficit left by a Republican administration. It took two years, but he succeeded where Republicans have not. He inherited a bad scene and turned it into a financial success not seen in many years before or since. George W. Bush squandered it all and left us with a huge deficit, aggravated by a senseless war. Congress may control the budget, but the president initiates it and steers it through.
Jobs for all under a Republican administration? What a cynical joke! More jobs were lost under the Bush administration than in any previous periods since the Great Depression. The economic meltdown occurred under the Bush administration, but we are now seeing a recovery, albeit slow, under the present Democratic administration.
My remarks about the Republicans were made about those in Congress now. I am well aware that more enlightened Republicans in past times have championed better health care for all of us. The bunch there now seems to be hell-bent on obstructionism - everything to make the president fail.
As an independent voter, I have voted for Republicans before, both in state and national elections, but their excesses in recent years have indeed turned me into a liberal, and proud of it. The poorest among us need the compassion and help that modern Republicans, most of them very wealthy, seem to deny them.
Henri de Marne lives in Essex and Waitsfield.
