And just for a laugh, I picked up (not purchased, just thumbed through) Gingrich's new piece of trash, 'Real Change', a dig on Obama's campaign theme. In it, he has the most RIDICULOUS concept of health care reform I have ever seen.
I'll give you the three most audacious:
- Too much paperwork.
WTF. I worked in health care administration for years, and I can tell hospitals do have electronic records. The IT revolution has already made its mark. Yes, I am sure there are many small clinics that keep case history on paper, but you are not going to have a major medical procedure done in a small clinic, you are most likely going to have this done at a larger medical institution, which keeps electronic records. In addition, paper records are required, because in an emergency, computer access may not be possible. Computers are pretty useless if the power goes out and there is limited operating power.
- Health, not health care.
As if we don't know that people need to take better care of themselves. But that's why it so important that preventative care performed. If patients can't even afford this, or are being denied it, patients die, not to mention all the additional health care costs incurred by treating advanced diseased states. A hard fact of this current American life.
- Health savings accounts.
My father was a career military man, 35 years in the army. He was in so long, he had a special health care benefit no longer offered by the military. At the end, he elected to do chemotherapy to extend his life. The bill for that treatment was $8,000 a week, not including the other services he needed. He continued this for several more months of life.
Now, how many Americans earn $8,000 a week? ($418,000 a year) Gingrich and people who think like him in my opinion, fall into 1 of 2 categories:
- An advanced sociopathy. These people are dangerous to the rest of us. Their apathy is absolutely lethal. Perhaps in the future it will be possible to treat this kind of antisocial behaviour.
- Pure. Fucking. Evil. (And I do not believe in evil as a real thing.)
UPDATE:
At the request of Kossacks, I have removed mental illness, as much as possible, as a descriptor of the behaviour I am try to describe. I have been accused of being insensitive to those with mentally ill loved ones. I would like to state that I, too, have people in my family with mental illness and despite the body of this text being political, I still feel, in all sincerity, that sociopathy is mental illness, because the person exhibiting such behaviours is unable to recognize this in themselves, even when confronted about their behaviours. If you would like to calmly and politely debate this point with me, I will respond in kind.
My apologies.