Comments on: 5% solution: Health, Not Hooverism

By: MarkH

MarkH — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 02:02:54 +0000

america has the best health care system in the world.

A question which usually isn’t asked is whether it’s the ‘best’ because of the economic model or because we just have smarter better health care providers and the equipment they need to get it done.

Can you suggest what there is about the economic system for health care which makes outcomes better than in other places? If you’ve watched Michael Moore’s movie Sicko you can see a lot of stories about total failures within that same system. Do you accept those disasters as ‘normal’?

There are quality and coverage issues and there is the economic system. Both need to be improved.

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:03:07 +0000

Book Salon a couple of flights upstairs with Jane hosting Ed Begley, Jr and his book Living Like Ed: A Guide to the Eco-Friendly Life

By: Bluetoe2

Bluetoe2 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:52:26 +0000

Big pharma, the corporate media and the Republicon party have demonized the notion of single payer in the minds of most Americans. It will take a massive grassroots effort to move in the direction of the Canadian or Western European system.

By: DrDick

DrDick — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:51:38 +0000

My university is pretty generous with sick leave. We accrue 8 hours per month, which carries across years so we never lose it. I currently have enough to take off an entire semester and I even donated a big chunk to a colleague a few years ago after she had a baby.

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:44:11 +0000

I’ve had employers all across the board on thins. X amount of sick time per month or year; sometimes accrued sometimes granted at the beginning of a period. X number of days granted for whatever use; sick, vacation or personal time as needed. Or “unlimited” sick time in addition to vacation days with “unlimited” being “don’t call in sick every Monday or Friday but if you’re sick stay home and take care of yourself and don’t infect everyone else”

By: DrDick

DrDick — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:42:17 +0000

Unfortunately, if you take needed sick (or other) leave you are branded as a lazy slacker in this country. We valorize work over sense or anything else. Always has struck me as insane. On the other hand I have only used less than a week of sick leave in the past ten years (set a new record last year by missing two whole days). In my defense I am also generally pretty healthy.

By: katymine

katymine — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:40:17 +0000

you should of seen the Brits looks when I told them that if I called in sick…. it came out of my vacation time….

By: bigbrother

bigbrother — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:38:10 +0000

Great post: More of these agenda issue posts Stirling Newberry!

By: dakine01

dakine01 — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:31:39 +0000

It has always amazed me, the folks who brag about how they’ve never taken a sick day for any reason.

They were always the ones I blamed because they wouldn’t stay home, but just had to come into the office and infect everyone else.

This is especially so for groups like fed employees who do receive reasonable amounts of sick leave each year.

By: katymine

katymine — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:26:58 +0000

I agree totally….. the bump would getting those without insurance and those under insured who do not seek care to a healthy state …… but having everyone covered would counter that slight bump…… and the decline in costs would be dramatic….