Recordpub.com - OTHER VOICES: Universal health care: A human right

Canada provides universal medical care for every Canadian. England does likewise for every Briton. Ditto for France, Germany, Scandinavia, Japan and virtually all other advanced democracies.

Residents of those nations know they live in compassionate countries where they won't be abandoned if they become sick. They're proud to belong to humane societies that leave nobody behind. To them, medical care is a human right. It's a matter of decency and morality.

All those nations enjoy superior rates of health, and spend less on medical care.

Only the United States, with for-profit treatment and insurance, leaves 45 million Americans with no coverage -- and produces inferior health rates -- and has the world's most expensive care. America's system is a disgrace, compared to most of the world.

Congress is on the brink of giving America the same universal care that exists in other developed lands. It promises to be a landmark U.S. improvement as great as the creation of Social Security amid the Great Depression.

Conservative commentators rant that health-for-all is socialism, and some Tea Party protesters irrationally call it fascism. Evidently these "aginners" think Canada, England, France, Germany and the rest are evil because they offer safety nets for all families. But remember: The same hard-line U.S. conservatives likewise fought Social Security when it began. History rolled past them in the 1930s, and we hope it happens again in 2009.

Sensing that universal care may be inescapable this time, some right-wingers demand an American system operated solely by commercial insurance corporations, letting them continue reaping profits from sickness.

We hope a public option becomes the heart of America's new universal care plan. Let the Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannitys scream. They can sink into the past, while the rest of America moves upward morally. (Reprinted from The Charleston Gazette, Charleston, W.Va.)

8.	Posted by Uknown November 17, 2009
	Poo-Bah, I don't mind telling you this because 1. The Anarchist Cookbook, it ain't, and 2. Ames is probably the only person using this site "pathetic" and "childish" enough to put such information to regular, malicious use. In Internet Explorer, it's View > Source, then Edit > Find and enter your online name (or part of it) to search for it in the html. In Firefox, it's View > Page Source, then Edit > Find and enter your online name etc. A "faked" online name will have an unusual number of spaces in or around the name. In the case of fake Kent Sheetz, he registered as Kent Sheetz with 24 spaces in front of Kent. It's a minor quirk in html that extra spaces in html (page source, as written) are not displayed on the web page. Hence, both [24 spaces]Kent Sheetz and Kent Sheetz are displayed as Kent Sheetz. He, and for that matter, you and I, may change our online names at any time and may register as many free recordpub accounts as we have email addresses. Our false friend Brian must have quite a large collection of free recordpub accounts and email addresses by this time. Some hobby, eh?

2.	Posted by AMT November 16, 2009
	A ridiculous article filled with lies. Nobody in America is "abandoned" and denied medical care. By law, all must receive medical care. Those other countries are all going broke because of their programs are fiscally unsustainable. Republicans did not oppose Social Security, they only opposed the Democrat version of Social Security, saying that it was fiscally unsustainable. Republicans were proven correct. Republicans have tried for years to reform health care by starting with tort reform, but Democrats say "No" and filibuster. Now Democrats are trying to push through another fiscally unsustainable program and oppose any attempt by Republicans to put it on a sound financial footing. American health care is universally recognized as the best in the world. It works miracles on a smoking, obese population that the intellectually dishonest authors of this article know is the real reason for the poor health outcomes they cite. Democrats would destroy this system and make the government decide what health care you will be permitted to receive.