[Peace-discuss] (no subject)

[Carl G. Estabrook]

But only the federal government can administer the "damn good  
whacking" - and only when it is forced by an outraged public to do so.  
As Dave Lindorff writes,

"...the  Affordable Health Care Act is not affordable. It does little  
or nothing to control health care costs, which are destined to  
continue to gobble up an ever increasing amount of the total US Gross  
Domestic Product as well as of corporate profits and families’ incomes.

"The new federal version of Romneycare simply prolongs the day when  
the US finally does what it should have done decades ago, should have  
done during the first Clinton administration, and should have done at  
the start of the Obama administration: namely expanding Medicare to  
cover all Americans.

"Instead of going for this option when he had broad and enthusiastic  
support as the newly elected president, Obama deliberately shut out  
all discussion of the Canadian-style approach to national health  
coverage — a national program of government insurance for all, with  
doctors’ rates and hospital charges negotiated by the government — and  
instead devised a scheme that leaves the whole payment system in the  
hands of the private insurance industry, and effectively lets doctors  
and hospitals charge what they can get away with."

*	*	*

BTW that's a wonderful bit of doggerel, which I'd never heard, and it  
led me to Lettsom's fascinating biography (he apparently wrote those  
lines himself!):

"Dr. John Coakley Lettsome (1744–1815) was an English physician and  
philanthropist born on Little Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin  
Islands. He was born into one of the early Quaker settlements in the  
territory, and grew up to be an abolitionist. His surname is sometimes  
spelled Lettsom ... Dr. Lettsome founded the Medical Society of London  
in 1773, convinced that a combined membership of physicians, surgeons,  
and apothecaries would prove productive. His revolutionary idea met  
with success and the Society has provided a forum for all branches of  
the medical profession from its inception to the present. Situated at  
the heart of London's medical community at Lettsome House, Chandos  
Street, near Cavendish Square, this is the oldest medical society in  
the United Kingdom. As founder, president (1775–76, 1784–85, 1808–11,  
1813–15), and benefactor Lettsome was the mainstay of the Society from  
1773 until his death in 1815..."

He sounds a character out of Patrick O'Brian's roman-fleuve (!) set in  
his lifetime; I'd have to check to see if he appears.

--CGE

On Jul 4, 2012, at 8:51 PM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:

> I am a loop-tape or broken record ad nauseam on this matter,
> but the problem with "health care" and "medical services" is not who
> pays.
>
> The problem is that these services, as a matter of business  
> strategy, are severely limited.
> The USA does not make enough doctors and health care workers.  It is  
> a matter of
> strategy, boom dot bust supply demand market strategy.  The medical  
> guild hides behind
> its facade of "we are the doctors, and you aint, and if you dont pay  
> us whatever we
> want, we let you die.  So there."
>
> As the song goes, what they need is a "damn good whacking".
>
> it will take a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth,
> but what is needed is many many more doctors
> and a radical restructuring of the drug business.
>
> I, John Lettsom.
> Bleeds, blisters, and sweats 'em.
> If after that,
> They choose to die
> I, John, Lets 'em.
>