Similarly, in consideration of the fact that the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does NOT have some type of national health care, and that polls consistantly show that a majority of Americans WANT such a plan, one might wonder why we do not have one. Not only do we not have it, neither of the major presidential candidates is even proposing one. I heard a caller on Washington Journal (a John McCain supporter, but it could have come from either side) say “well, of course we want Universal Health Care, but we’ll never get it” (implying that it was not an issue that would affect her vote.) To which I have to ask, why not? Who is stopping us?

The source article addressed above references two studies done five years apart, and calls the newer one “lies” because it does not reach the conclusions the author is predisposed to agree with. He doesn’t take into consideration the sea-change in public opinion on a wide variety of issues between the years 2002 and 2007. And while he may have a point that the second question was flawed in the second poll, the second question in the first poll was even more flawed. Underlining the words “paid for” [by the government] is going to have an immediate negative effect, especially to the wealthier class of Americans, more especially to a group of people whose livelyhoods rely on those payments. In fact, the “government” doesn’t pay for anything, and any educated person (such as a doctor) will know that. I’d have a hard time answering that question affirmatively myself.

Health Insurance is not the problem. It is a failed tactic to address the problem, which is a lack of access to Health Care. I’ve explained this in a series of posts on my admittedly anti-war (and therefor, I guess, leftist) blog. The first in the series is here. However, healthcare is not a partisan problem. Everyone gets sick. Everyone dies. Everyone has to carry on when those things happen to their families and lived ones. The problem is universal, so it the solution. And we are the only country in the moder world that can’t seem to work that out.

There are other models for the US to look at: British, Scandinavian, or – where I’m from – Australian.

But this means challenging the power of Big Pharma and the HMO’s (cost maintenance organisations). I’m not confident this can be done.