Shadow Fox over at Movin' Meat wrote an excellent peice on universal health care and the debate surrounding health care as a human right. Check it out:
http://allbleedingstops.blogspot.com/2008/10/healthcare-is-not-right.html
I could not help but sound off. Here is what I posted in his comments. Where do you stand?
7 years comment:
"First of all, I would like to thank the cosmos that I have found a liberal Doc blog. For the past year of medical school I have been floating around the blogosphere reading horrifically conservative med blogs. I will not name names but I believe that although so many Docs are annoyed by the system, at the end of the day they go home to a comfortable living situation, add to their savings, and enjoy the lifestyle of the top .5% of the world.
I have seen too many people write off Universal Healthcare and chose to vote conservative just because they don't want to shell out taxes and are afraid a big change will rock the boat. Their boat. Case in point: Nurse K's comment. She does not want to lose what she currently has. She is fairly set. She works hard and does not want any compromises in how she lives. This is a moral standing point that she is not likely to change although it is one, that in my opinion, is constructed on FEAR and insecurity.
(As a sidenote, I am suprised that a nurse would have such confidence in a private health insurance company. Has she not gotten sick yet and have them deny her claims with every slick trick in the book? Good for her.)
Well, this debate comes down to a moral standing point. Am I willing to risk my lifestyle and make sacrifices in the hope that more can enjoy basic human rights and humanistic benefits like healthcare, disability, and other social gifts? I am. It is called social progress and it is what has gotten us from roaming, feuding tribes of primitive men and women to the societies that exist today. If conservatives were left unchecked we would most certainly still have slaves, a domineering church, and not be making strides in the rights of gays/lesbians. While every group, including liberals, need their checks and balances, I believe social conservatives such as McCain and Palin constantly just keep us 50-100 years behind in social progress.
I think there is a lot of complacency and apathy that goes on within conservative thinking. It is short sighted. What goes around comes around and when the top tier gets too high above the populaces, it will equalize eventually. Why not begin with a new wave of social projects that does not leave the historically marginalized and the unfortunate in the cold?
We have an inefficient, unequal, shitty health care system that needs an overhaul. Insurance companies rape and pillage. Docs give away services. Primary care nurses have to spend their days calling in preauth's for medications. Patients get treated by overwhelmed and overloaded docs. Nothing works here. What are we trying to preserve?
Why the f@ck are we all afraid to change?
Wall street just ran people into the ground. Their savings, their retirements, their homes... Why trust health care to the same people? Why corporate care and overpaid CEOs? The government may not be perfect but 1 system, social equality, and money spent on people instead of battling with health insurance companies sounds like a good plan from where I sit as a humanist, future doctor, and social liberal.
Please pardon the rant grammar, I need to skip the proofreading and get back to studying."
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2 comments:
I usually post anonymously, but since you requested people use "names," I've included mine. It does tend to get confusing when multiple people post under the moniker "anonymous," especially when they espouse contradictory political views, and even more confusing when you can't indicate which person you're responding to, so here goes:
I'm one of the lay-person progressives who hangs out on SF's blog (just fascinated with medicine, in general). It was really pleasant to see another progressive physician join the group. As you've already noted, you're in the minority on the blogosphere. Stick around!
Your response to Nurse K was excellent. I've tangled with her several times, but never made my point as cogently as you did.
Questions for you: Approximately what percent of your medical colleagues are progressive? Do you see yourself as a minority in that regard (in rl), or do you see a trend toward more humanitarianism in the upcoming generation of doctors?
From the perspective of the common person, capitalist neocons are frightening and dishearteningly naive about the negative effects of their political agenda.
Marcia-
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate at least one person agreeing with me.
It is hard to argue with conservatives because there is such a fundamental difference in what they desire vs. what I would love to see change. I imagine they feel the same way but in my experience they are just more nasty and smug about it.
In terms of humanitarianism in doctoring, I try to believe that there is a degree of it within all doctors. You really can make more money elsewhere if you got the brains so there has to be some desire to help people as well. In my opinion, many of the docs blogging are doing so to vent and the ones who don't want Universal Healthcare are also the ones that are burnt on freeloaders in their ERs. Which is reasonable. But they give up hope that we can truly have a more efficient, equal health care system because they smell like burnt toast. Drug seekers and mental nutcases wear you down. But shouldn't that be even more of a reason to sponsor, fund, and develop more mental health and preventative care programs? In lecture yesterday, we learned that approx. 50% of those seen in primary care have or have had a significant mental health issue. Nurse K mentioned in one of her responses about health insurance, "who covers mental health these days anyway" (or something like that) and that is just not ok with me. It causes bigger problems to not deal with the issues at hand and put them off till later and the prevalence of the mental health diseases is just too large! (IMHO, this can partially be due to the meaningless and excessive consumption lifestyle that is pushed on us by these markets/ads. Look at the happiness ratings for the U.S. compared to the world! We have the most! We use the most energy! We have the best government! We have the coolest cars! Yet our rates of mental health cases is super high. And we have one of the lowest happiness ratings in comparision to almost all developed countries and even some 3rd world countries? Not to mention our great healthcare system has been shown by some to not reduce infant mortality or extend lifespan in comparision to other more social healthcare systems.)
To answer your ?s:
I am at a fairly small, and in my mind, progressive school. Most people are voting for Obama from what I can tell. Most want some form of Universal Health care. But We are also not in the field yet. Our boats will not get rocked because we are not in the boat yet. I really think Docs are scared that they will lose money, lose importance in society (by becoming some kind of government employee of sorts?), and they are comforable enough right now so why change?
I think more students start with ideas of humanitarianism in medical school then actually follow through. After 8 years of school and accumulating $350,000 in debt (my price tag-many have less debt)you need to work. For a long time. And so you work and you become jaded and you want the money you are working for and trying to pay back. That is why there are so many conservative docs. Burnt toast.
Politically, most of my class is liberal I would guess based on my experiences. There are a few church flowers who oppose abortion or have conservative views on medicine and policy though. Which is their own prerogative.
I do think there are more actively humanitarian docs coming in the new generation. It is a different generation that includes more woman, more diversity, and one that spans more socioeconomic groups as well. The question is: can they avoid getting burnt before they have the time and capacity to help? In terms of voting, I believe medical students are more liberal than our attending doc population.
Hang in there.
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