I have such a deep respect for that profound scholar, Glenn Beck, and have been so convinced by the anti-tax arguments of his allies, the Tea Party Movement, who are obviously correct that Obama is planning to raise our taxes, since, heck, he cut them last year, and Robert Barro has taught us that tax cuts must be followed by tax increases. In any case, Beck and crew have warned us that passage of health care reform in the US will constitute a victory by a ruling cabal of fascist-nazi-socialist-communists, and now this has happened! Clearly, every red-blooded American should prepare to leave the country to pursue a free enterprise system in health care!
Fortunately, I have studied the data, and Guatemala is the answer! Public spending on health care is barely above 1% and not likely to rise! Hallalujah! And, we foreigners can figure to hog the available health care facilities, which certainly have plenty of excess capacity, given that only about 40% of the population uses hospitals! Or alternatively, we can all move to Guinea, where witch doctors are more widely used in the private market than any public sector health care! Long live the free market in health care!!!!
6 comments:
I trekked about in Guatemala one time pretending to be a Canadian. It wasn't my idea, I met this Canadian who was also traveling alone and he suggested the idea. His contention was that it would allow me to see my country in a more honest light, and he was right about that.
What he really wanted though was someone to pursue European girls with, and they traveled in pairs, mostly, and he knew that they were not fond of Americans, and he was right about that too. My luck improved shortly thereafter.
We had a time that would have made Hemingway envious. Guatemala being a somewhat dangerous place at the time, European girls on the 'gringo trail' really appreciated the company of a 'pair' of strapping ‘Canadians’. So if any readers here do take Barkley’s health-care-savings-in Guatemala idea seriously, go as a Canadian. Tell the locals and other travelers that you are there for the weather or the food or whatever, and be enlightened about what is said about Americans when foreigners think we are not around. The health-care advantages may be disappointing, but the enlightenment would do most Americans a ‘world’ of good. Just remember to say 'eh' now and then.
On a more serious side, by now I assume that John Stewart's recent performace mocking Beck has been seen by all. I happened to tune in at just that moment when it was first broadcast on Comedy Channel.
Strange to me that as a satire it did not have the bite one might expect from such an absurd display. Beck's own performance is so extremely assinine as to be resistant to a satirical critique.
Beck is a satire of our entire media presentation of political analysis. Unfortunately he is the one laughing all the way to the bank, along with his cohorts like Limbaugh and O'Reilly. I understand the concept of free speech, but I do not understand when a license to broadcast became a license to foment discord and disseminate lies and deception. Broadcasters are granted a license to operate and those licenses have a set of standards. So what the hell is the FCC up to when it is more concerned about seven innocuous words than it is about slander and sedition?
Everyone has heard of medical tourism. But how about travelling to Guatemala--the very place--to undergo major surgery? A relative did just that, and she was well pleased with the outcome, involving, as it did, undreamed of levels of personal attention and as much recovery time as she needed, all at an affordable price, at least for a norteamericana. Anecdotal evidence, granted. A Guatemalan peasant, by contrast, may have had to rely on witch doctoring alone.
This is not to detract from Barkley's point, but rather to suggest a related one. If a place such as Guatemala is offering comparable, and in some respects superior, medical treatment for major ailments, what does that say about our own much vaunted private system, where so many live in fear of financial ruin? What does it say then, when citizens of the richest, most vociferously democratic power the world has even known find it necessary to travel to one of the world's poorest regions in order to be able to afford to have their bodies cared for medically?
Why do we not see Medical tourism in a very big way?????
Why is there not a FEDEX of "Where do I get my 'whatever' fixed?" Surely there must be specialists that do hip replacements at a reduced cost in India. And if the cost plus travel is less than Detroit then why not? Is the insurance company not interested in saving money?
BINGO!
The more it costs, the better they like it. And Medical Loss Ratio does nothing to fix it.
I've said this before but if libertarians are really serious then they'd move to that government and tax free paradise Somalia. I can just imagine them sweating furiously trying to restart their compound generators to get the floodlights and electric fencing back up as the night closes in...
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