[kj] oliver / fox election spin

[B. Oliver Sheppard]

You're asking me?

For the same reason you had a solid chunk of the GOP base stubbornly 
believing Obama was a "SOCIALIST!" because he merely wanted to go back 
to the Clinton tax rates. "Socialism" is such a bad smear word in the 
US, a frightful bogeyman, and  in popular discourse it's lost any real 
meaning. It technically means "government (or public) ownership of the 
means of production." But to like maybe 1/4 of the US population it just 
means "taxes I don't like to pay," which is stupid.

This 1 hour program, _Frontline: Sick Around the World_, is the best 
comparison I have seen between the health care systems of the US, 
England, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, and Switzerland. It shws how other 
countries can do it and the US cannot. (Better than "Sicko.") The makers 
of the documentary went out of their way to contrast the US to 
_capitalist democracies_:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/


And, yes, 14% of our GDP goes to heathcare, compared to the average of 
8% of countries in the West who have universal health care, and we get 
far worse outcomes, including almost 50 million lacking health care. 
Japan spends 7% of its GDP and has the lngest lifespan, lower infant 
mortality, and everyone is covered somehow.

It makes no sense. But the private insurance lobby in the US would not 
have it any other way.

-Oliver



Brendan wrote:

> So what exactly is up with your healthcare system, why do you pay so much

> over there and still get so little for your dollar?

>

>   

>