Memo Yanks: Socialised Health-Care Sucks

I’m always amazed at the number of Americans who seem to have fallen for first Hillary’s, then Obama’s, delusion  of “Free Healthcare for Everyone!”  So here’s a warning from an American-born Australian:  Socialised/’Universal’ Health-Care is by necessity Rationed Health-Care. And, of course, it’s not really “free.”

Every day I see examples and hear anecdotes about this just in my home state of Western Australia.   People with the financial resources “queue-jumping” and paying cash to buy themselves out of the “free” public system and those without financial resources being left behind.  With some cancer drugs, for instance, costing up to $50,000/year, and high-tech equipment so very expensive for hospitals to purchase and maintain, who in their right mind wouldn’t have seen stories like this coming?

From The West Australian:

Cancer Services ‘Close to Collapse’

There is a looming crisis in WA cancer services because of an alarming shortage of medical specialists and equipment and long waiting lists for treatment such as chemotherapy, a damning independent review has found.

A Cancer Council-commissioned audit, prompted by patient complaints and funded partly by the WA Health Department, warns that unless urgent action is taken, the system could collapse within five years as it struggles to cope with an estimated 50,000 new cancer cases on top of the existing load.

The report, by University of New South Wales professor of radiation oncology Michael Barton, found that while cancer treatment in WA was usually of a high standard, inadequate facilities and staff shortages were major concerns. It also warned new cancer facilities such as those planned for the Fiona Stanley Hospital would not meet demand.

Professor Barton warned WA faced 10,000 new cancer cases a year, rising by three to four per cent a year, but facilities and equipment were unable to cope. Urgently needed equipment included five extra linear accelerators used for radiation therapy.

Facilities in public hospitals for chemotherapy patients were overcrowded, with patients often waiting many hours to be seen by a junior doctor for 10 or 15 minutes. Treatment areas at Royal Perth Hospital were “dangerously overcrowded”.

Some high-cost cancer treatments were available only to privately insured patients or those willing to pay. And patients living in rural areas were at greatest risk of missing out on vital treatment.

[…]

Now Western Australia is not some  cash-strapped developing nation.  We are in the midst of a minerals and energy boom the likes of which Australia has never seen, and our State (with about 2 million people to service) regularly runs budget surpluses  of over $2 billion.

But in Western Australia you can see what happens when you have the double whammy of an incompetent Leftist (ALP) government and a Socialised Health-Care system.

So come on,  Americans, think:  Does any government, anywhere in the world, do such a stellar job on the things they’re already responsible for that you want them in charge of all of your health-care needs as well?

Repeat after me:  Socialised/’Universal’ Health-Care is by necessity Rationed Health-Care.

And it’s more expensive, in more ways, than you might think.

Obama to Go On Offense at Democratic Convention

RALEIGH, N.C. — Barack Obama’s campaign plans to use the four-day Democratic National Convention next week to relentlessly portray John McCain as a carbon copy of President Bush, in a strategic shift foreshadowed by two days of tougher attacks on his GOP rival.

The criticism itself, which will focus on the Arizona senator’s economic policies, ties to lobbyists and decades-long tenure in Washington, is not new. But the intensity of the attacks is — and it is meant to minimize the heavy emphasis on Obama’s charisma-driven campaign.

Fox News

Your tactics are damn offensive, Obama.

Obama, C-H-A-R-I-S-M-A, is NOTHING.

Farming And Suicide

Farming is amongst the toughest jobs out there. The hours are long, there’s no guarantee of success, and there are a lot of factors at play that aren’t under the farmer’s control.

Farmers are reliant on the weather, which is something they have no control over, and often fields of crops fail due to a variety of things, such as too little rain, too much rain, hurricanes, pests, insects, wild animals (kangaroos and deer especially) and a whole host of different factors. And because of these crop failures, farmers are unable to repay their debts to suppliers and banks, and get deeper and deeper into debt. It’s a very tough situation.

Another problem which compounds the debt issues, is the big chain stores, such as Safeway/Woolworths, IGA (Independant Grocers of Australia), Coles and all the other big chain stores don’t pay farmers as much as they should for the quality of farmer’s produce. One figure which I’ve heard quoted (and which I’m unable to verify) is that farmers are paid 10c for every dollar that the chain stores sell the produce for. That’s incredibly low. Should grocery stores really be able to receive a 90% profit on goods they only have the responsibility to sell? I know it’s the market at work, but it still seems highly unfair.

The weather, failure of crops, increasing debt, long hours and minimal profit (if any) would lead any person to dispair, and it frequently does. In fact, it leads farmers to such depths of despair that many see suicide as the only option, and take their own lives. It’s a terrible situation, and there should be more community and governmental support for those who provide us with food.

Stuff Worth Lookin’ At

Via Paco (and The_Real_JeffS (ACCEPT NO IMITATIONS!)) we have some military photos.

The Tree Hugging Sister clearly understands my KFC addiction.

A rather unsurprising look at the changing qualities of marijuana.

Mythusmage has it about right on the Bigfoot hoax. I like the idea of Bigfoot being real, so these types of hoaxes also annoy me.

Michelle Malkin has the scoop on how desperate the Obama camp is getting.

Maggie’s Farm has some really cool photos of Golden Gate Park.

An intriguing look at some US law.

The man with the bike sets an evil challenge. I was afraid to guess.

One of Canada’s Best. Make that, one of Canada’s finest…Shania Twain

Nice try asshole…Here’s another tune for ya’. You kinda’ sound like “Ray”, in this one.