Edmond,

As you are probably aware, we Americans tend not to know much about the
rest of the world.

The health care debate that is going on here is an excellent example of
this.

Your comments are valuable for any American to read in order to figure
out who is telling the truth about national health care in other
countries.

As teachers, we must always have respect for facts.  We should all be
disturb that one of the major news outlets in our country is blatantly
misrepresenting the facts.

Bob Yates, University of Central Missouri

>>> Edmond Wright <[log in to unmask]> 08/25/09 10:54 AM >>>
> I must just add a factual correction to Geoffrey Layton's remarks
about my
original message.  No one is preventing anyone purchasing an expensive
drug if
they wish to or entering into an insurance to cover such an eventuality.
 Such
free choices exist side by side with the NHS.  There is no 'dear leader'
forbidding one from doing this.  I don't have the statistics about the
proportion of people availing themselves of these options, but I am sure
that it
is sizable.  You may say that I am contradicting myself --  very well,
to quote
Whitman, I contradict myself, but that is because our system isn't a
logical
system through and through.  Nevertheless, the result is that all have
access;
there is no sign that a little queue-jumping disturbs the overall
fairness.
There is no sense that the rich are squeezing out vast numbers of poor
or that
insurance companies are blackmailing everyone.  I would add that it is
not only
Britain that has a national service;  most European countries do, and I
am not
aware that they are ruled by Kim Jong Ils.

I am beginning to feel that I ought not to have invaded our discussion
as I
did, but it is galling as an Englishman to hear of the Fox distortions.
They indeed seem to match the habits of the media in totalitarian
countries.
Fox chose an English conservative who is extreme right-winger to
describe
the NHS -- I presume you know that his remarks were immediately disowned
over here by David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party.

Edmond


Dr. Edmond Wright
3 Boathouse Court
Trafalgar Road
Cambridge
CB4 1DU
England

Email: [log in to unmask]
Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/
Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256





> This discussion may actually be very relevant to the grammar group if
the
> hideously subversive language used by the socialists can be identified
and
> examined:
> 
> 
>> It is obvious that some new, specialized, and hideously expensive
drug cannot
>> be immediately made freely available to all hospitals because that
would mean
>> that money for other patients would be unfairly restricted.
> 
>  
> 
> It is obvious that new, specialized drugs can be made available
immediately
> through some hospitals to those who are willing and able to pay,
either
> through their own pocket or that of their privately purchased health
> insurance.  A government body that prevents people from taking
advantage of
> such life-saving medicine is what some people might call a "death
panel."
> 
>  
> 
>> Under a free service which ministers to all citizens irrespective of
their
>> economic status, a measure of justice must prevail.  To describe this
>> committee as a 'death panel' is a gross insult, one which ignores the
>> underlying patriotic fairness of its
> purpose. 
> 
>  
> 
> Interesting that the writer doesn't say that the "death panel" label
is
> inaccurate; only that it is a gross insult.  We Yanks have always been
known
> for our lack of manners with our betters across the pond.  The
patriotic Brit
> doesn't quite explain why it's my patriotic duty to die simply because
the
> socialists won't let me have a drug that they deem "hideously
expensive" and
> "unjust" if I get to take it.
> 
>  
> 
> All of these rules about dying that will become law for government
bureaucrats
> to administer - death panels by any other name are still death panels.
 What
> do> _________________________________________________________________
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