[LINK] The Hospital Committee

[Jan Whitaker]

At 09:19 AM 3/10/2007, David Lochrin wrote:
>is a first, cleverly disguised step towards an American public 
>"health" "system".

"public"
There is no such thing in the US. There are commercial/secular 
hospitals and catholic hospitals (at least in my memory; may not be 
that way any longer). There was one designated as 'county' hospital 
where indigent/welfare people could go -- no insurance/no money. As 
far as I know, the government payments are through programs like 
medicare and medicaid depending on the qualifiers of the individual 
person - age or special needs or lack of money. It ain't pretty. It 
was based on the idea that workers received health insurance coverage 
as part through their employers. The employees were part of a pool 
and the employer negotiated with the insurance companies on the 
behalf of their employees. You could buy privately if you wanted to, 
but most people didn't. When the conservatives came in, business 
started dropping this 'benefit'. Insurance premium costs were 
skyrocketing. A policy that used to cost my company to cover me about 
10 years ago at $3000/year is now over $10,000. We don't know how 
good we have it in this country.

Jan


Jan Whitaker
JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
personal: http://www.janwhitaker.com/personal/
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Living, like writing, requires no wisdom. Only revising does. - Jim 
Sollisch, Sept, 2007
'Seed planting is often the most important step. Without the seed, 
there is no plant.' - JW, April 2005
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