Letters - Going Dutch - NYTimes.com

Letters - Going Dutch - NYTimes.com:

I didn't post about the original article, it's in my stack of reading material, but i liked the letters, especially the first one here:

"To me as a religious-studies professor and Lutheran minister, the most telling line in Russell Shorto’s article (May 3) was, “This system developed not after Karl Marx, but after Martin Luther and Francis of Assisi.” The last time I taught in the Semester at Sea program, I found it necessary to interpret for our students the rich “social capital” that runs through the Northern European societies we were visiting. What they knew and had read in their guide books was that not many people are in church on Sunday morning, especially compared to the florid religiosity of the United States. So their working assumption was that Americans take religion seriously and Europeans don’t. The new thought that amazed them was that the unchurched Europeans live in social democracies deeply saturated with historic Christian values, while the much-churched Americans celebrate a society characterized by a ruthless social Darwinism that the God of the Bible, Old and New Testament alike, denounces.
DONALD HEINZ
Gig Harbor, Wash."

As to the rest of the letters, particularly the critical ones, I simply say, "OMG, you mean there are trade-offs required? We can't have everything for nothing? Then count me out!"

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Sunday Forum: Medicare for all ("Australian Rules")

Sunday Forum: Medicare for all:

"Some Americans believe that countries like Australia, Canada and nearly all of Europe have 'socialized medicine.' For many, it's a vague concept that often conjures images of uncaring doctors, dirty government clinics, cracked plaster, crowded waiting rooms and really old magazines. And if you don't like it -- well, you can't fight city hall.

But that's just a dark fantasy. Australia has attractive offices and hospitals, great doctors, state-of-the-art care and, most importantly, quick and easy access to high-quality emergency care.

It's not socialized medicine, it's Medicare for all. You are born with it, you die with it and you get all the care you need in-between. Everyone has insurance, all the time."

Dr. Flanders is a psychiatrist in Pittsburgh and does a nice job of contrasting healthcare in the US and Australia. I've written for the Sunday P-G, so I know they really limit the length of your column. I hope this means we can hear more from her in the future.

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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: by Ian Morrison (author, consultant and futurist based in Menlo Park, Calif.)

"Somebody must be doing it right, we start to think. Well, actually, every system around the world is an ugly compromise among cost, quality, access and security of benefits, and almost all systems are in crisis according to the local news media. We in the United States have a bad bargain, maybe the worst: high costs, uneven quality, poor access and no security of benefits except for those over age 65."

Nice overview of a system we rarely hear about in discussions of universal healthcare, Australia.
Now, let me conclude this post with a prayer: Australia, Australia, Australia, We Love You. Amen. Crack the tubes!

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