The USA will move into state of the art medicine from sea to shining sea to decrease inefficiency and provide the best healthcare this nation has ever witnessed.
MOORE: No. I am sorry we've taken so much time trying to correct his facts here tonight instead of talking about the real issue. People can go to my Web site and you can see point by point where he was wrong on everything.
But I think the real discussion we should have, Larry -- and maybe we can do this again -- is to talk about what Sanjay just brought up in terms of the 47 million who don't have insurance. Eighteen thousand people die every year for no other reason other than the fact that they don't have insurance. Medical bills are now the number one cause of bankruptcy in this country.
And if I -- if I could, I would just like to say one thing about these wait times in Canada. They always talk about how you've got to wait longer in Canada, which is true for some things that are not emergencies.
But the reason why you have a little bit longer wait in Canada is because everybody is in line, because they cover everybody.
In our country, we've removed 47 million people from the line. And any time you remove 47 million people from a line, you're going to have less wait in line. Those of us who have insurance have a less wait time because 47 million of our citizens aren't there in front of us in line. That's the --
That is an excellant point. The populous of the USA under a single payer system is actually going to have to increase the size of it's health care system including employment. Keep in mind employees pay taxes and pay the bills for the nation.
People that have been long ignored and damaged by the lack of health care when coming under 'the umbrella' will have greater needs than if they were cared for properly from their birth. One of the secrets of having a health care system that is not exorbitantly costly is to have a society that focuses on health as a life style. We have done that as a country, but, not necessary enforced it through an advocacy program that makes it worth the while for people to be healthy and doctors to increase their interest in providing an impetus to that end.
Some people will never be very healthy, but, to deny them the opportunity to be 'optimally' healthy is a gross social injustice. People can't work if they are not well. If they don't work, they can't pay taxes. If they don't pay taxes the country's ability to be benevolent to it's citizens is diminished. Privatization has never supplied adequate care to the people, all the people of the USA. It's time to turn that around. I'll comment more in a minute, first, Dr. Gupta made a statement toward the end of the 'debate' if you will with Michael Moore.
It bothered me.
GUPTA: I think it's worth bringing up the numbers. I think Michael is right. I think, you know, for a cardiac catheterization, for example, Michael, which is something you and I both might need one day in our lives, you wait six days if it's sort of an emergency in Canada, and up to 60 days for it to be elective.
I don't know what you think about those numbers. In the United States, on average -- and I understand the un-insurance problem. I get it. I hear what you're saying.
But it can take about a day for someone whose non-emergent and a few hours for someone who is emergent.
These are the facts. These are the numbers, Michael. I mean if you have a heart problem, where would you rather be? If you were having chest pain right now and you needed a heart catheterization, would you want to be waiting six days, up to 60 days? Or do you want to be taken care of within hours or a day?
To begin, Dr. Gupta just doesn't 'get it.' He might 'recognize' the uninsured, but, there is no empathy with them. No demanding essential health care for all. Not only that, but the USA can give people more 'immediate' care because there are less people receiving it. That's a selling point to the system in the USA? Not where I come from.
If all the people of this nation were adequately insured privately and the coverage was enforced by the government the waiting time within the current system of health care delivery would immediately match Canada's or worse because so many Americans are in poor condition due to negligence of their health.
So, although Dr. Gupta's 'numbers' might be 'correct' and I don't know that for a fact; they are grossly reflective of a disaffected society. Those numbers of Dr. Gupta's does not reflect the care of all Americans, but, only fortunate Americans. They are invalid regardless of any accuracy.
Additionally, the 'pandering' to doctors within the American healthcare system and especially through the south is incredibly abusive of patients. I can point to a specific healthcare system that holds Greensboro, North Carolina as hostage because it is a corporation and a conglomerate of that 'region' owning the care and income to the citizen's there. That hospital system does as it pleases when it comes to administering care. Should a cardiac patient require care on a Friday, they'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week while the doctors are off for the weekend.
Literally, the doctors demand time off and the 'line' to the Catherization Lab grows longer and longer while the rooms of the hospital fill up over the weekend and patients sit in beds on Heparin and Nitroglycerin drips.
No lie.
So, don't try to tell me there are devoted doctors waiting at any moment to sweep a patient having a heart attack into the Cath Lab. It isn't true. That phenomena is true in every hospital across the south. The large well funded southern teaching hospitals are the most safe for any patient that lives in their vacinity because there is always 'ready staff' to answer the call. Due to that fact The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may very well become one of the preeminently safe hospitals of the south. That is their goal. They are working hard to achieve it.
MOORE: No. I actually love our government. I think the government is great. It does a great job of administrating Social Security. Our parents and grandparents get their checks every single month on time and for the correct amount.Our government used to do a lot of things really well. We put a man on the moon in eight years, after the president said we're going to put a man on the moon. We had FDR, who defeated the Nazis and then the Japanese and Mussolini in less time than it's taken us to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.
GUPTA: I hear you.
MOORE: I mean the government actually used to do things right. The problem is who we've put in power who holds office. They're the ones who sort of messed this up and we just need to have the right people there administrating it.
KING: Well --
GUPTA: Michael, one of the best examples of health care, at least some sort of universal health care, would be Medicare. I think you would agree with that.
MOORE: Yes --
GUPTA: It's going to go bankrupt by 2019. It's going to be $28 trillion in debt by 2075.
To start about Medicare is a poor choice of topics if Dr. Gupta is trying to derail the debate toward a singler payer system. You see with a single payer system whereby the people of this nation receive the best care that can be obtained there won't be any more Medicare OR Medicaid OR Veteran's benefits. They will all be under one umbrella.
Veterans will no longer receive inferior care in the Veteran's system.
The nation's children will not be able to discriminate their differences due to the healthcare they receive because they will all receive the same healthcare or at least the same opportunity to it with their parents as active partners.
There won't be people 'maneuvering' around a 'donut hole' or corporations stating they will only pay a small percentage for the medications they receive while subscribing to an insurance policy.
All that will be eliminated as a single payer system streamlines the 'cash flow' to it's caregivers.
Seniors will have the medications they need and the nation can purchase them at far lower prices than any current corporation can and does. The Veteran's medication system is testiment to that.
So, while Dr. Gupta is worried about increasing the federal deficit regarding Medicare, a single payer system is way ahead of all the pitfalls. This country, in the long run, will pay less for healthcare than they do now because people will be immediately healthier and healing far quicker because they won't debate about whether or not they can afford their wellness, it will handed to them.
A healthy nation is a happy nation. A happy nation is a productive nation and the cost of healthcare to all will be returned within one generation of time to the USA Treasury to balance the books. Americans aren't lazy, they aren't stupid and they love efficiency. It will be no time before the USA is leaving workforces around the world behind because they are well enough to do it. It's unconscionable to do anything else.
Thank you, Michael, for the opportunity to address this much needed change in our society.
BUSH HAS problems bigger than anyone can solve. He has a grudge match going with McCann. I don't believe Senator John McCain has any grudge with Bush but Bush does of him.Yesterday McCain took the floor of the Senate to discuss his recent return from the war torn nation of Iraq. This is not an endoresement, but, more a pathetic observation of the Bush Behavior when it's John McCain that has center stage.
It was horrible.
The news agencies didn't know where to point the cameras. While John McCain was giving his assessment of the circumstances in Iraq, Georgie was 'on the trail' selling his so called 'strategy.' Is that jealousy or what? Georgie is afraid McCain is going to steal his steam. Believe that mess? Our troops are dying and our nation is sinking into insoluable debt and Bush is attempting to 'one up' John McCain. The egos are amazing. But, let me address 'the mess' in the Middle East to resolve the doomsayers observations.
There is a lot going on with the Middle East. Hamas is trying to impress the world with compassionate acts while taking control of Gaza. Who knows exactly what is occurring because there are no UN Observers or INSPECTORS to 'gauge' what the world is witnessing as compassionate acts.
Israel is still receiving rockets over it's borders. The UN Peacekeepers are occassionally challenged by Hizbollah/Hezbollah depending on whom is spelling it. Lebanon was able to suppress the al Qaeda issue in a refugee camp. Egypt and Jordan are still overwhelmed with Iraqi refugees, but, much to their credit they don't turn them away. Saudi Arabia is grasping at it's new reality in that the Sunnis of Iraq need an ally and they are desiring nuclear technology. India is using it's nuclear clout to leverage markets globally. See, if India sells it's nuclear technology to the Middle East that would be bad, so the Brits and the Americans (...and include in there Putin...) at the risk of their political reputations are solisitious to that reality and attempting to be the majority of India's market power to leverage power against India arming the Middle East with nukes. Nice, huh?
There are the 'silent partners' of Iran and Syria. They keep their profiles low while they can't control their borders, and I do believe they can't. That is kinda necessary as the Shi'ites are sending food, medicine and water to the Iraqis within their country's border. See, the way I see it, all Iraqi citizens are refugees. It's just that some are safer outside their country while there are those that are unable to leave and risk being allies to the Americans, ie: the dead Sunni Sheiks. So, to solve the 'internal Iraqi refugee issue' there are compassionate organizations that literally attempt to rescue lives with shipments, by camel sometimes, within Iraq. That is necessary. I don't see that stopping. At all. Part of securing a country away from the ravages of al Qaeda is providing benevolence to the people. The Shi'ites are attempting to do that through their supplies and leaders. And I know that the Shi'ite clerics are buddy-buddy. I read all about that. They're allowed. It's up to the region to stop the hatred across ethnic/secretarian lines. They have to respect their differences. They don't have to love each other or care about their religions other than recognizing they are each allowed to exist without danger of genocide.
There is the issue of Pakistan and it's internal struggles. Human Induced Global Warming complicates the outcomes of all these nations and earthquakes always are a problem for Iran and Pakistan and Afghanistan. I'll get to Afghanistan in a minute. First the Kurds and Turkey, okay?
Basically, the way I see this is that Turkey is confronting the reality that the Kurds are 'coveting' a nation called Kurdistan that includes all Kurds including those within the sovereign borders of Turkey. We have witnessed elections in Turkey that ended with a degree of discrimination minimally.
Turkish government, opposition bicker over presidential candidate (click here)
ANKARA, Turkey: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday rejected a call by an opposition leader to nominate a nonpartisan figure for presidential elections that are likely to take place soon after the general election on July 22.
Erdogan's refusal shattered hopes for a compromise between his Islamic-rooted party and the secular opposition over electing the next president. It was a standoff over the presidential elections in May that forced the government to call for early elections and attempt to change the presidential election system.
If the Kurds, whom are Sunni, decide to fight Turkey they will have years of war. No doubt in my mind. They are not interested in 'taking' a small piece of real estate. They are coveting a huge land mass to comprise Kurdistan. They may decide Allah was good enough to leave them what they have in Iraq and it's provisional status at this point and leave it at that. If autonomy is a 'decided' goal there isn't anything the world can do to stop them. Personally, PKK should be dismantled by the Kurds in Iraq and they need to provide for their people within their borders. PKK is a maverick from it's ethnic brothers and sisters and if they can amass an army with weaponry to confront Turkey, Turkey will take advantage of it and invade the Kurdish region of Iraq. Lots of oil there, okay. But...
Iraqi Foreign Minister: 140,000 Turkish troops deployed along Turkish-Iraqi border (click here)
10 July 2007 11:30
...currently and to it's discredit, Turkey is the aggressor. It should not be and to that end the United Nation's Security Council cannot take a back seat to these tensions. I propose...
Turkey: Threats Of Incursion Into Iraq Increase (click here)
July 10, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- On April 12, the chief of Turkey's General Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, announced that the military was ready to stage a cross-border operation into Iraq to put down Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants. The only thing holding it back was authorization from the government and parliament.
Since then, there has been a constant stream of rhetoric from military officers and opposition politicians seeming to agitate for action.Recently, the government has also weighed in. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul confirmed that Turkey had drawn up a plan for a possible incursion into Iraq.So has the balance tipped and can we expect Ankara to launch an assault in coming days? Not necessarily, say observers, but Gul's statement is a clear sign the government is under pressure.
...that Iraq is neutral territory. I realize the UN Security Council has little say with diplomacy when it comes to al Qaeda, but, it does with all Iraq's neighbors. There has to be a new resolution regarding the Iraqi people and their 'land.' The country, former or otherwise, of Iraq is war torn and has been for what will be half a decade come March of 2008. If the USA continues down this path of War Mongering and sending troops into war regardless of their fitness and preparedness the 'goal' of the Neocons will come closer and closer to a generation of Americans that have lived all their lives with war as part of their culture. That is a very bad idea.
That said, the neighbors of Iraq want peace. I believe that. I realize Iran is 'off the scale' with it's determination to escalate it's nuclear program, but, recently President Putin and Walker Bush agreed on a strategy to prevent that reality from happening. I believe also, they mean it. There cannot be an invasion into Iran, but, hopefully new and tighter sanctions will bring about resolve to the issue. If not, Israel is watching.
But, I see Iran as a separate issue from 'the region.' The culture and peace initiative of the Middle East has to be conducted by the nations of the Middle East and now, not five years from now or next year, but, now. They have witnessed the invasion into Iraq. They knew what was going on and it is up to them to change the course of the outcomes to their nations.
With Iraq as a neutral nation whereby no other country can send arms or invade there will be a complete dismantling of tensions between the nations and ethnicity. There is a real reason why this measure must occur. If the Arab brothers of the region are devoted to peace, as I believe they are, including Syria and Lebanon, making Iraq a neutral country will return some degree of stability so a government can form out of the anarchy that exists now. It may be the current government or a different form of provincial governments, but, the Iraqi people have to have a chance to establish peace within their borders with intense diplomacy and 'support' from all it's neighbors. Iraq needs the charity of it's Arab neighbors while they establish a 'lack of anarchy' no matter what form it takes.
The USA HAS TO remove it's troops. The American troops are the reason for the civilian deaths and the growth of al Qaeda in Iraq. If Iraq is to move into a peacful nature the Americans can't do that for them. I remind the incident recently regarding the An Albar Sheiks. Those men wanted to settle the dispute between al Qaeda in Iraq and the American troops. In doing so they took up alliance with the Americans. The Americans could not provide long term security for those men. As a result they are dead. The Americans are not the solution, they are the problem. For all the 'good intentions' of American GIs acting as ambassadors to the Iraqi people to influence them out of Civil War or alliances with al Qaeda, the initiative is failing and failing royally only to cause greater and greater hardship to the people there and causing their leadership into extremism and radical 'stands' to attempt resolve to Bush's disaster within their borders. There is every indication the American presence endangers the Iraqis and does not secure the peace.
The Iraqi people have to decide whom their leaders are, where their borders between their ethnicities lie and act to protect themselves. Recently, that reality was made very clear to Iraqis by their Prime Minister in reaction to Americans arming Sunnis. Sooner or later, America and the region has to come to terms with the blundering, not mistakes, complete blundering of the American Commander and Chief.
Armed Sunnis: Gains Now, Risks Later (click here)
The U.S. tactic of using armed Sunni tribesmen in the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq offers short-term gains to weaken the insurgency, but could set the stage for a full-scale sectarian civil war when the Americans begin to draw down their forces.
The danger that these alliances of convenience could backfire becomes all the greater if Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders fail to achieve genuine political reconciliation - the key to ending the conflict.
Instead, signs point to further polarization, despite some progress hammering out deals on sharing the oil wealth and returning many former Saddam Hussein loyalists to government jobs. Parliament could take up the oil bill as early as Wednesday.
When the region has declared Iraq a neutral country and stops the arms into that 'land' then there will be an honest assessment of the established government over the chaos. The region can then act in their own sanctions, closed borders by limiting everything except humanitarian supplies. With regional cooperation the enemies of the Iraqi people can be stopped. Provisional governments can assist with aid while organizing a 'peace' with the help of their holy men. There is no other way. Too many people have died and there will be vast many more if this continues. There is no success in Iraq to date. The nation needs to be neutralized of it's 'attraction' to violence and war. It's the only way.
As far as Afghanistan. It has a leader, a competent leader that is constantly faced with civilian deaths at the hands of the Western military there. Hamid Karzi is not interested in having the Taliban and al Qaeda back in power in Afghanistan, but, he has to be 'in charge' of his own country in dismantling a 'resurgence' of the Taliban.
He is in a precarious position, being held responsible by his people while there is no coordination with the NATO, British and Australian forces at work in Afghanistan. Hamid Karzi knows the terrain, the people and the strategies of his enemies.
He needs the cooperation of Pakistan as well as an input to the military within his country's borders. One aspect in Afghanistan that insured the people's loyality to their 'new nation' and 'new leader' is being destroyed and that is their culture.
The Afghan people are wonderful people, but they have to work with their government to dismantle warlords, including the Poppy culture which has to come to an end. They will accept that with reassurances of a return to their stability and a return of hope for their future. Afghanistan needs to move out of poverty and insure it's citizens shelter, food and water. It has to happen and now, not five years from now, but, now. Otherwise, the people will abandon all their accomplishments to date.
Regards.
