Keith's health care special comment
I watched Keith's full-episode Special Comment on Health Care over lunch today and was totally crying by the end of it. :( (and in the lunch room at work, to boot, though fortunately I was alone). It was very powerful and to the point. I loved how he said that, in the end, health care reform isn't about politics or money or any of that, it's about something as basic as life and death - the right to live, regardless of how much money you make. And that people have lost sight of that with all the yelling and the fear-mongering and the politics. And the way he framed it around his own experiences right now with his father in the hospital is so sad. :( I hope his dad's going to be okay, I know Keith has been off quite a bit recently to spend time at the hospital with him. Makes me sad, given that his mom died this past spring. :(
Anyway, ayarane was nice enough to upload the ep (the official podcast gets replaced every day with the next one...) and has offerred to let everyone spread it around, so here it is: http://video.layer-infinity.net/countdown-100709.wmv
Or alternatively, in embedded video on MSNBC's website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#33217642
It's definitely worth watching... I may not be American, but I still care about health care reform down there and I wish those in power would get their acts together and fix it. And stop spreading stupid lies about death panels and shit. (though I haven't heard about those for awhile, hopefully that particular lie in dying down a bit? I say optimistically...) I just feel very luck to be Canadian right now. *clings to universal health care, which may not be perfect but at least we have it* Case in point - when I got my appendix out 3 years ago and spent a week in the hospital, I think we spent maybe an extra $100 for a private room. For the whole week. And probably a bit for the antibiotics, but not much. And when I lived with my parents we paid, as a family of 3, what, about $100/month for all of us? Yeah. Now I'm on my own paying about $50/month, at least part of which I can get subsidized because I make under $28000 a year. And yes I know our health care system isn't perfect, but christ, it beats having millions of people being denied, as Keith put it, the right to live because they don't have enough money. I never really realized how much they have to pay down there until I read someone's comment on LJ somewhere saying that her premiums went up to $500 or something ridiculous when she lost her job. And she's a perfectly healthy 20-something. There is something very wrong with that picture.
*gets off soapbox* Yeah, it's a good episode. :) He says it so powerfully and eloquently...
Anyway, ayarane was nice enough to upload the ep (the official podcast gets replaced every day with the next one...) and has offerred to let everyone spread it around, so here it is: http://video.layer-infinity.net/countdown-100709.wmv
Or alternatively, in embedded video on MSNBC's website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677#33217642
It's definitely worth watching... I may not be American, but I still care about health care reform down there and I wish those in power would get their acts together and fix it. And stop spreading stupid lies about death panels and shit. (though I haven't heard about those for awhile, hopefully that particular lie in dying down a bit? I say optimistically...) I just feel very luck to be Canadian right now. *clings to universal health care, which may not be perfect but at least we have it* Case in point - when I got my appendix out 3 years ago and spent a week in the hospital, I think we spent maybe an extra $100 for a private room. For the whole week. And probably a bit for the antibiotics, but not much. And when I lived with my parents we paid, as a family of 3, what, about $100/month for all of us? Yeah. Now I'm on my own paying about $50/month, at least part of which I can get subsidized because I make under $28000 a year. And yes I know our health care system isn't perfect, but christ, it beats having millions of people being denied, as Keith put it, the right to live because they don't have enough money. I never really realized how much they have to pay down there until I read someone's comment on LJ somewhere saying that her premiums went up to $500 or something ridiculous when she lost her job. And she's a perfectly healthy 20-something. There is something very wrong with that picture.
*gets off soapbox* Yeah, it's a good episode. :) He says it so powerfully and eloquently...