I don't personally think Doug's comments were all that cranky, but then I've been on this list for a long time - it seems to me more like he was playing Devil's Advocate. But to John's sincere question, I also wonder what generally happens to uninsured people who come to a hospital emergency room - I've always been fortunate enough to have health insurance in the USA. Just from a "faith in my fellow man" perspective, I hope that those with truly life-threatening injuries are almost universally treated, at least until the emergency has passed. But after such emergency treatment, I wonder what happens. Or similarly, what happens to those who come in with non-life-threatening conditions - the "urban legend" is that they are treated and the hospitals suffer terribly by being so over-burdened; I don't know if that is true or not.
I guess I come down on the side that says access to at least basic health care should be a basic human (oh no, he's going to say it!) *right*. Now, I don't believe we are born with some nebulous, touchy-feely notion of rights as in right vs. wrong, but I do think it behooves a society that wants to succeed to *create* basic rights that it is willing to fight to provide. Most civilized countries in the world at least pay lip service to human rights, and most financially well-off countries consider medical care to be such a human right - if not for the moraility of it (another hard to defend concept perched on a slippery slope), then for the sheer economics of it: outside the USA, it seems pretty well agreed that providing at least a minimal government run health care system is more efficient than privately run systems. Being even more of a curmudgeon than Doug (IMHO), I wonder what would happen to people without insurance if they were to show up at wealthy private hospitals, collapse on the floor, and proclaim that they are too sick to leave. See if the administrators would call the police to forcibly remove these people from their sick beds. Maybe it would at least draw some media attention. Maybe they could even have a tea party while there... ;; Gary On Feb 16, 2010, at 11:01 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote: Again, apologies to all for my cranky outburst yesterday. ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org |
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