The State of Medicine in America

In real world news, I’m still waiting for news on my visa and possible placement sites from the folks in Japan. It’s a lovely game of hurry up and wait. Also, the Oregon Health Plan is being run by a load of heartless bastards. It turns out that they have decided to stop taking adult applicants in order to reduce the number of people using the state health plan. So much for helping the poor and uninsured receive basic medical care. For a country that claims to be the undisputed world leader in . . . everything, it is an unconscionable, yet true, fact that we are the only first or second world nation without some kind of nationalized healthcare system. All because we are afraid of communism.

I know it sounds stupid, but it’s the truth. For the lest 60 years, every time the idea of universal healthcare has come before the US congress, somebody has linked the idea of medical care for all citizens with communism. The communist philosophy of “all give what they can and all are given what they need” terrifies us because we have spent a generation training our people to react with terror and suspicion to the very words “communist”, “red”, “pinko”, and “socialist”. Then President Richard Nixon had the chance to sign true national healthcare into law. He was told by, I believe, his Vice-President “Mr. President, you realize this is socialized medicine?” The POTUS heard that red flag word, socialized, and hurriedly vetoed the bill. This caused pain and suffering for countless Americans simply because they (if you ask the right Conservative Christians) weren’t blessed enough by God to be granted enough money to afford medical coverage.

We MUST elect a young person to the office of President in 2008. Someone who wasn’t raised with the fear of change and progress that the baby boomers in Washington DC seem to possess. I don’t know who that is, therefore I do not endorse any particular candidate. Most likely, he or she has not appeared on the national stage. It is time to cast off the terror seeped culture of cold war America and start doing what is needed to:

Promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.