Monday, August 24, 2009

Healthcare, Stick Figures and Analogies

This YouTube video (found by Lilly) not only spells out the case for universal healthcare, including a public option, but ends with a great analogy that will help people struggling with the complexities of the current system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jng4TnKqy6A

(I had it embedded, but the dimensions of the video exceed the space allotted and I'm too lazy to recode the main page. It's 4:37, well worth it, amusing, and not a Rick-Roll.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Where to start with the number of errors in that cartoon.

Eh, start with Medicare. I think what they mean is "Medicaid" first of all, because "Medicare" is for the elderly. "Medicare" barely works at all, and Medicaid is hardly better. But even if they mean Medicare, we're screwed if the government runs universal healthcare like they do Medicare.

The fire analogy fails on several points. First, people do have non-government fire insurance to cover damage, and all of the issues raised by the cartoon are relevant to that, and people are screwed by it. Second, putting out fires is not even close to treating a sick patient. That's like saying a patient comes in unconscious due to a seizure and is woken up and released. It "puts out the fire" (unconsciousness) but doesn't treat the cause of the seizure at all. Third, firefighters don't need anything close to the training that doctors needs, with all of the heavy expenses and time commitments that implies. Fourth, treating fires is a lot cheaper and simpler than treating many medical conditions.

Try this instead: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200909/health-care

-A

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