Panis et Circenses

[dotinthesky]

[Poll #1445374]

Feel free to expand in the comments section.

Edit: If you are British, please consider "Health Care" as including the National Health Service (NHS). Basically, what I meant by it was an umbrella definition for some kind of system (whether private or not) that offers you health care.

Comments

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

It's just shocking to me.

I've followed your case and what you had to deal with in terms of your condition - but I never took into account the financial aspect and how it affected you. I just assumed you had a good health coverage! You would have received free treatment for it here in the U.K., including tests, private GPs, hospital visits, whatever. It's your right and, as I said in another journal, I find it laughable that the American government (especially under the Republicans) will take issue with other countries Human Rights records...

I'm honestly so mad at the Far Right in America that I can't stop wishing bad things for them.

[olamina.livejournal.com]

It's not just the far right. The center is also chickening out on making this into a true health care for all system by making concessions to the health care thieves (I worked in both health care and insurance, so I feel justified to say THIEVES) and failing to adequately debunk the outright LIES that people like stupid Sarah Palin are spreading. This has been a major FAIL.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Is the center behaving this way due to political pressure from the right (i.e. fear of getting painted with "nazi" tags by their hysteria)? Would they, in a more rational climate, lean towards supporting it?

[olamina.livejournal.com]

I am not in America at the moment, so I can only speculate but I am well aware that people from the left to the right have had health insurance industry money flowing through their campaigns and with that money comes commitments and concessions. The right barely had a pot to piss in since they are in the minority and don't have the white house, but they are GAINING traction with this matter because they commitment on the left and from the center is so weak. The result is that there nothing for people to really support but plenty for people to rail against....thus the situation America is facing now with old people and right wing people in mass hysteria.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Oh dear... it's just so depressing that in this day and age we still witness so much greed and stupidity.

[olamina.livejournal.com]

"this day and age" that phrase always cracks me up. what is so exceptional about this day and age? what have we learned? how have we really changed beyond surface level aesthetic shifts here and there? sometimes i just don't know.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

I just mean the access to information, the ability to see beyond our own little worlds - compare and contrast our situation with others. The people interested in withholding health care must know on some level that there is a stronger argument than theirs - but they hold their own interests above others and choose to ignore this (or maybe they are just plain stupid). It's different from other days and ages, where the lack of information was more pronounced (I'm using my own experience here since I grew up in a military dictatorship in Brasil that screened much that came from outside) and disinformation more usual.

Learning is possible - as can be seen by countries that have eventually moved into a fair system of health care. It's just a shame that some countries, like America, learn so slowly - or perhaps not at all.

[olamina.livejournal.com]

the funny thing about the people interesting in withholding health care are actually acting AGAINST their own interests both to spite the uninsured others (surely poor black people, mexican immigrants -- in their collective imagination) and also as pawns of greedy insurance companies. not sure what it says about our glorious information age that so many people are willing to unquestioningly swallow the misinformation that is being fed to them in the name of squashing progress towards health insurance that will benefit that country.

[commonpeople.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! It's almost as if our information age is making it clear that information in itself can be quite subjective, not properly digested by some. It's a terrifying conclusion in my opinion because it means people can't be dissuaded, no matter what.

Willful Ignorance

[msanthropist.livejournal.com]

Join the club...SO tired of the sheer stupidity of the majority of American sheep, it is beyond embarrassing...it is infuriating. Fear is a very powerful motivator and unfortunately until our society evolves en mass change is destined to come very slowly...