PUT DOWN THAT PIE AND STEP AWAY FROM THE TABLE!
Posted on 01/13/2009 5:26:59 PM PST by John Semmens
President-Elect Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle is reportedly eying Japan as a possible model for a US national health care system.
“I don’t blame people for being queasy about the national health care systems in Canada or the UK,” Daschle said. “There have been enough horror stories about inadequate facilities, long waits, and indifferent medical personnel. But Japan has a sterling reputation for quality and efficiency. Look what they’ve done to our auto industry.”
The key, according to Daschle, is Japan’s devotion to preventive care. “If all we do is insure everyone while we allow them to get fat and out-of-shape we’ll never keep a lid on costs,” Daschle pointed out. “We’ve got to be proactive if we want to avoid high costs later.”
Under the Japanese system, everyone older than 40 is subject to regular inspection by government health care workers. Those deemed too fat or out of shape are sent to mandatory diet counseling. If this is insufficient to get them into compliance with government standards, their city government is assessed a fine.
“If people know they will be held accountable they are more likely to adopt healthier habits,” Daschle argued. “Penalties doled out to the community will help bring social pressure into play. Neighbor looking after neighbor will strengthen the collective bonds of society. It’s a win-win situation.”
(Excerpt) Read more at azconservative.org ...
Oh forced dieting... wow...
WOW! This should go over realy well with all you FAT OBAMA VOTERS! ROTFLMAO!!!!
Of course to have Japanese health care you need Japanese people. So in the states YMMV.
Japan has no illegal immigration problems, and the Japanese lawyer lawsuit industry is non-existant.
Japan culture does not lend itself to life-long getovers like the slothful Americans.
THAT's why Japan, if this article is true, can handle an expanded health care system.
With FREE health care to all Americans, that thundering sound you hear would be another 50-million illegals stomping across the borders with all the kids they could claim were theirs.
I hate to say it, but you are right. I can gurantee that most Obama voters like their chips, burritos and cokes. They aren’t about to change their eating habits for Obama.
I do not think that Japan has free health care, but what Japan does is cap the cost of services. All of the hospitals in Japan cannot charge more for a room than the same price as a night in a really good hotel. The hospitals stay competitive (in service - thus to the benefit of the consumer) because the consumers know that it will cost them the same to spend one night in a crappy hospital or one night in a luxury hospital. Recently I was in a really bad wreck (caused by an illegal who did not get hurt - his life is not changed) and had to spend some time in the hospital. Over $2k per night and there is no way in the world you can convince me that the room and care was worth $2k. In Japan knee replacements are the same price anywhere in the country. This weeds out the bad doctors. In Japan the consumers are happy and the health care providers are happy. Taxes are not impacted at all. However, in all fairness to US doctors, I do not know if the Japanese doctors have less school loan to repay. Also, this is the first that I have heard about Japan penalizing fat or lazy people. I think there are enough models of successful medicine around the world that we could borrow ideas from different models but would be foolish to take up any model exclusively. By the way, you bring up an excellent point about the illegal immigrants being a burden upon our medical industry.
Those deemed too fat or out of shape are sent to mandatory diet counseling. If this is insufficient to get them into compliance with government standards, their city government is assessed a fine.oh yeah... that'll make-em go on a diet alright, NOT!!!
ya gotta be kiddin me...
I guess some Freepers didn’t know the article was satire..:)but interesting responses though.
Will they treat SRPD (satire resistant personality disorder)?
If we could rid ourselves of millions of lawyers and millions of illegals here to take rather than give to our society maybe we could experiment a bit.
Likewise, I went to the hospital emergency room on the weekend when my finger swelled up and turned cherry red.... (my regular doctors office was closed)
I was there 35 minutes tops.... they gave me a script for anti-biotics and said to go home. (in retrospect, I was just paranoid that I had something serious, which it was not)
Anyway, they just sent me a bill for $1,100 and claimed they gave me a discount!
No wonder medicare (or whatever) is broke... and getting worse.
If insurance companies were allowed to 'spread risk' by issuing CATASTROPHIC plans only, that would eliminate many problems.
I am willing to pay for regular doctor visits and testing. No problem.
I just worry about a catastrophic auto accident or cancer/disease, which would cost $200,000 or more.
THAT is what insurance is for.... not the everyday expenses.
Your area has a fast emergency room turn around. Ours is about 9 hours (even when parts of your body are dangling by a thread and you are bleeding like a stuck hog). I guess this provides all mobile parties an opportunity to reconsider just how bad they need to see a doc. The rates charged are absurd because there is always an insurance company to go along with the farce. I suppose that I should get some high deductible low monthly insurance. For the time I had been banking on my sturdy health, sensible lifestyle, feed store meds (yes, there are a lot of folks who are using animal meds because even with insurance the people meds are too high) and paying cash. I just never figured in the increasing odds of being hit by an illegal alien. Did you know drunk driving is legal in Mexico? I’m glad that your finger got better.
darned. and it was even labelled satire.
I went at 5:30am early Sunday morning ... I couldn't sleep because my finger was throbbing so bad and I started getting paranoid that it would have to be amputated if I didn't get it treated right away.
Plus the hospital is in a very nice, upscale suburban neighborhood in Bucks County, Pa. --- too far from the illegal or no-income population to be filled with medicares.
You were fortunate. Over the decades our community has decided to centralize medicine and now there is only one hospital left standing. It serves a couple of counties and all income or no income levels. As it has no competition, it can charge whatever it wants and the quality of care is down to the point that it is a very dangerous hospital. So I am moving.
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