Posted on 10/02/2010 1:40:54 PM PDT by wagglebee
Michael Kinsley thinks Baby Boomers are a failed generation. I agree. We have been the most self satisfied and smug generation in this nation’s history–with the least about which to be smug and self satisfied, unless self absorption is warrants such attitudes. But…
We should not, out of guilt, submit to health care rationing. But Michael Kinsley thinks we should–as sort of our form of World War II sacrifice that marked our parents’ generation. From the end of his current article in the Atlantic:
One final thought: as we learned during the health-care debate, citizens of other advanced countries live longer than Americans, while spending far less per person on health care. How can that be? Well, it’s partly that they don’t try to save people through heroic, expensive, long-shot efforts, most of which fail. You’ve seen the figures: for example, last year Medicare spent $50 billion on the last two months of life. Trouble is, we don’t know when we’re two months from the end. CBS’s 60 Minutes reported last year that “20 to 30 percent” of this $50 billion “may have had no meaningful impact.” Of course, all $50 billion had very little meaningful impact, if the patient died within two months. It’s easy enough to be in favor of not paying for treatments that do nothing. The tough decisions involve treatments that do something, but not much. Or treatments they’re not sure about.
Even putting costs aside, if you could choose at the beginning of your life which health-care system you’d prefer to live under, you’d pick the one where you’d probably live longer, no? Yes, that medical system involves “rationing,” but rationing already goes on here, more than we admit. Why not make it official? Let’s be honest: such a system would cost some Boomers their lives, but they would die in their 80s or 90s, unlike the teens and 20-somethings who gave their lives in World War II. Just a thought.
We have much for which to answer. But a quasi generational death penalty for us when we are most in need of care? I think not.
This "thought" represents the moral collapse of America.
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You go ahead Mikey, we’ll catch up with you later.
It is also possible those other countries don’t do their statistics the same way we do. Which is actually pretty common.
Him first..I will see how that turns out!
Like the “Infant Mortality” thing. The US seems to count miscarriages while other countries count babies after birth and some a day or three after birth before their counted in the stats.
So you can’t really compare the US and, say, Cuba when it comes to infant mortality.
Or was?
Perhaps he just wants less competition is the coming battle for rationed Obamacare?
Comparing europe to the US is crazy. The populations are not randomly selected, they are not bogged down with a huge fat lower class. And I dot believe they live longer.
I didn’t know Michael Kinsely was still around, to be honest.
I don’t think they live longer either.
Wasn’t there a conservative writer by that name who died in Iraq?
I’m probably mistaken.
Here is the reality, no matter who is running the country:
Medicare has an unfunded liability in excess of 70 trillion dollars.
A huge percentage of seniors are dependent on Medicare and won’t have significant personal resources to spend on care beyond that.
It’s the Bernie Madoff medicine plan.
So rationing and death panels absolutely will happen.
And, we also have a population of low income people who do not seek healthcare until they are advanced in their pregnancies, many of whom are into drugs and alcohol.
I bet Michael Kinsley is investing in a new corporation called the Soylent Corporation. Yep! That’s the ticket!
We could call it "The Last Gurney Ride" or something. Give it a holiday or festive atmosphere.
If government weren’t in the healthcare business, these kinds of debates would be passé, part of the bygone totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but because we have enlightened socialist polluting every political and cultural thought, this idiocy is considered progressive.
So will many others.
Once that monster is unleashed, its appetite will grow without limit until it has consumed lots and lots of people. That's the ironic point - those who advocate this will, at some point, become fodder.
If you compare Americans to Africans of the same localized ethnicity, that is Ga to Ga, Fulani to Fulani, Yoruba to Yoruba and the most numerous Ibo to Ibo, the Americans have lifespans equal to or longer than their African counterparts.
This same general characteristic is true when comparing American Arabs to Middle Eastern Arabs, and Armenians to Armenians.
In every level playing field comparison, being American comes out on top.
It's only the aggregate where there's a problem ~ that's when you fail to account for ALL the people in the Old World with people in America. For some reason the analysts just don't want to do that. I think they're trying to hide their cousins in India, rural China and New Guinea!
Having cared for my parents and my husband's parents into their old age, I can attest to the fact that there were times when we had to visit hospitals or doctor's offices and the physicians wanted to refer them to social workers so that they could be placed under government supervision. I was appalled how easy it was for social services to step in when there was no need.
The real costs are in nursing home care. Sometimes it's necessary, but most times the elder doesn't want to go there. There have to be other ways that are more economical.
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