The politics of health care
Posted: September 15, 2009 Filed under: News/information and opinion 5 Comments »
I believe there are three types of health care systems in the world. One is like in Britain or Canada, where the government either runs the whole health care system or runs the health insurance program. The people pay hefty taxes for it, but everyone is covered.
Second is like in Nepal, or in any other developing country, where health insurance is almost non existent. If you have money, you can find best of care. If not, then good luck in waiting for your appointment in government hospitals. Not a sound system, but fairly simple to understand.
Third is similar to what we have in United States of America, which I feel is the combination of above two. If you are above the age of 65 or a military veteran, then the system is more like in Canada, the government takes care of you. If you are below that age, then you need to purchase the ever expensive health insurance. If you have a pre-existing condition; good luck in finding an insurance provider. Even if you find one, it’s very complex to figure out what your insurance plan covers and what it doesn’t. The bottom line: health care system in America is best suited for wealthy or healthy.
The American legislator are currently trying to come up with a new health care legislation that will insure all uninsured people, and make it more affordable and stable for the ones who are already insured. There seems to be strong emotions in both sides of this legislative debate. I am, especially, fascinated with the opposition of this legislation. They have branded President Obama as both socialist and fascist for trying to overhaul the current health care system in America. I personally feel both of these accusations towards Mr. Obama are hyperbolic, but what amuses me more is how the “opposition” is trying to brand the proposed legislation (work in progress) as both fascism and socialism. Fascism and socialism are two opposing ideology. Even if the accusations were assumed to be valid, they contradict each other.
No matter how developed a country is, no matter how literate the people are; politics is always going to be politics: dirty.
Image source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u107/health%20care.jpg
I recently took a bus trip to NYC… and I remembered your blog as I was making my way over there.. so I had to come and check your site bro
At least you are still keeping up with the good work.. I am / will be back online
at nepalism.com soon.. 
A nice article on an extremely important subject.
If you have money, you can find best of care. If not, then good luck in waiting for your appointment in government hospitals.
I think you are right. Luck seems to be the best medication for most of the people particularly those living in the remote ares.
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BTW, I noticed that the sidebar of your blog drops down in IE 6 (which is a known problem, anyway). I think this is due to the long url addresses in your “My Twits” segment. you could think of putting the following html code to overcome this problem in the sidebar-wrapper:
word-wrap: break-word; /* fix for long text breaking sidebar float in IE */
overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */
This problem gave me headaches in past (which is why I kept on changing my blog layouts). Just wanted to share my experiences with you.
NNepali,
Thanks for dropping by. So you moved to US now? Anyway, can’t wait for your site to be up and running again
Deependra Ji,
Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately, wordpress doesn’t let me customize the codes (one of the drawbacks of wordpress). But, I am glad you told me about that issue. I decided to drop that twitter widget altogether. I felt my twitter account has no relevance to my blog. Thanks again for taking out your time for the feedback
You are welcome
Now the sidebar dropping problem is fixed.
by the way, my blog address has changed to http://www.deependrajha.com/ so, may I ask you you update my link? Thanks in advance.
Nice article and there are many other health plans are existing around the world. In the context of Nepal do we have any health care system? i don’t think anything is exiisting. Those who have pocket ful of money will rather travel abroad for their health care need. You can take an examples of those political leaders who have recently traveled for their medication.
twitter clone