Comments on: The Fear Is Back http://verabass.com/2007/09/17/the-fear-is-back/ on freedom, entrepreneurship, web development and perspective Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:31:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Vera http://verabass.com/2007/09/17/the-fear-is-back/#comment-97 Vera Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:33:00 +0000 http://verabass.com/2007/09/17/the-fear-is-back/#comment-97 Hi George,It's interesting that you illustrate some increase in humanized relations in Russia in contrast to the decrease in North America, where so many Soviet refugees first tasted freedom. Are we, Canada and Russia travelling in opposite directions on the same road?You are absolutely right to point out that medical care isn't necessarily better elsewhere. There are many places in the world where it is much worse than in Canada, and in some of them it is almost non-existent.This reality, however, is exactly what we are always told to remember in the name of state vs personal and societal responsibility. If the state isn't doing a great job, well, it could be a lot worse. If we reduced state control then we'd be 'less secure in case of emergency', subject to market forces, and cast out on our own into a cruel and capricious world. That would be the price of freedom.The US medical system is, as usual, the most fascinating case of all. (I have lived, worked, and received medical care in the US.) There is, naturally, a wider spectrum between sub-standard care and excellent care than in any country with a fully socialized system. I know of individuals who could not afford long term treatment for serious illness (and couldn't get more insurance of course) in the US who have moved here. So, for example, a kidney transplant candidate gets regular and free dialysis, but will never see the end of the transplant line. This example is representative of a core medical constituency which is at the heart of the argument for socialization, but this constituency is also a very small minority of the population. Most of us, with or without serious health problems, suffer from continuing deterioration and denial of care under socialization as the costs escalate beyond reach. We forget, for instance, that there are millions of mostly healthy Canadians who can't even find a GP anymore.Is the US system better as it works now? Yes and no. Yes because at least there is personal choice. Even though most can not afford the best care, it at least exists, and could be obtained. No because of private insurance companies (replacing the nanny state for many people) combined with the litigious nature of the American society. Corporate entities are responsible to their shareholders and profits and are not capable of being truly moral in themselves, although they can be run ethically by highly moral people and behave best under peer pressure (also known as competition and free enterprise). As to the legal system, that is the more complex issue. The US doesn't have a justice system; it has an advocacy system. This is a mainstay of freedom, but, as we see, can run amok when abused or manipulated, as can all freedom.What is missing in state run systems, and melting away in the US as well, is the human to human relationship between caregivers and patients. Where there is no government intervention at all, this becomes a very strong relationship because each is responsible to the other as well as to themselves. Any system which takes away our responsibility takes our rights along with it. I believe that the two are inseparable. My friend doesn't fear a medical system per se, she fears a loss of autonomy and humanity. Hi George,It’s interesting that you illustrate some increase in humanized relations in Russia in contrast to the decrease in North America, where so many Soviet refugees first tasted freedom. Are we, Canada and Russia travelling in opposite directions on the same road?You are absolutely right to point out that medical care isn’t necessarily better elsewhere. There are many places in the world where it is much worse than in Canada, and in some of them it is almost non-existent.This reality, however, is exactly what we are always told to remember in the name of state vs personal and societal responsibility. If the state isn’t doing a great job, well, it could be a lot worse. If we reduced state control then we’d be ‘less secure in case of emergency’, subject to market forces, and cast out on our own into a cruel and capricious world. That would be the price of freedom.The US medical system is, as usual, the most fascinating case of all. (I have lived, worked, and received medical care in the US.) There is, naturally, a wider spectrum between sub-standard care and excellent care than in any country with a fully socialized system. I know of individuals who could not afford long term treatment for serious illness (and couldn’t get more insurance of course) in the US who have moved here. So, for example, a kidney transplant candidate gets regular and free dialysis, but will never see the end of the transplant line. This example is representative of a core medical constituency which is at the heart of the argument for socialization, but this constituency is also a very small minority of the population. Most of us, with or without serious health problems, suffer from continuing deterioration and denial of care under socialization as the costs escalate beyond reach. We forget, for instance, that there are millions of mostly healthy Canadians who can’t even find a GP anymore.Is the US system better as it works now? Yes and no. Yes because at least there is personal choice. Even though most can not afford the best care, it at least exists, and could be obtained. No because of private insurance companies (replacing the nanny state for many people) combined with the litigious nature of the American society. Corporate entities are responsible to their shareholders and profits and are not capable of being truly moral in themselves, although they can be run ethically by highly moral people and behave best under peer pressure (also known as competition and free enterprise). As to the legal system, that is the more complex issue. The US doesn’t have a justice system; it has an advocacy system. This is a mainstay of freedom, but, as we see, can run amok when abused or manipulated, as can all freedom.What is missing in state run systems, and melting away in the US as well, is the human to human relationship between caregivers and patients. Where there is no government intervention at all, this becomes a very strong relationship because each is responsible to the other as well as to themselves. Any system which takes away our responsibility takes our rights along with it. I believe that the two are inseparable. My friend doesn’t fear a medical system per se, she fears a loss of autonomy and humanity.

]]> By: George http://verabass.com/2007/09/17/the-fear-is-back/#comment-96 George Tue, 25 Sep 2007 17:38:00 +0000 http://verabass.com/2007/09/17/the-fear-is-back/#comment-96 Vera, are you sure, that medical service abroad (in 99% cases that really means USA) is better?! I can tell you similar stories about several visits to one of the prestigious US hospitals in Chicago several years ago -- and it was awful! I never experienced such humiliation in any USSR hospitals!<br/><br/>I wish you were right, that somewhere, somehow (by a miracle?) the medical system is much better. However, a couple years ago I was in Tijuana -- a small border town in Mexico. Its only, but lucrative and perennial, business is selling medical (and some other) services to nearly 40 million Americans per year. <br/><br/>(A funny part of that trip: when I was crossing the border, returning back to USA, the officer, who painstakingly asked Americans, how many pounds of pills they bought today, became bored seeing my Canadian passport. He knows for sure: "poor" Canadians do not by "cheap" medicine in Mexico -- unlike rich Americans... And "poor" Mexicans were also not interested in me as a customer: Canadians still do not need to buy there. When we support those who want to ruin our medical system, we'll have to go to Mexico.)<br/><br/>However, your partner was right: she feels, better to say, intuits, as any other person born in the USSR, that a similar process has started (or has been started) here as well -- the process of deprivation us from our rights and freedoms. Once Russians allowed it -- and they still have problems. Do we, Canadians, need it? Vera, are you sure, that medical service abroad (in 99% cases that really means USA) is better?! I can tell you similar stories about several visits to one of the prestigious US hospitals in Chicago several years ago — and it was awful! I never experienced such humiliation in any USSR hospitals!

I wish you were right, that somewhere, somehow (by a miracle?) the medical system is much better. However, a couple years ago I was in Tijuana — a small border town in Mexico. Its only, but lucrative and perennial, business is selling medical (and some other) services to nearly 40 million Americans per year.

(A funny part of that trip: when I was crossing the border, returning back to USA, the officer, who painstakingly asked Americans, how many pounds of pills they bought today, became bored seeing my Canadian passport. He knows for sure: “poor” Canadians do not by “cheap” medicine in Mexico — unlike rich Americans… And “poor” Mexicans were also not interested in me as a customer: Canadians still do not need to buy there. When we support those who want to ruin our medical system, we’ll have to go to Mexico.)

However, your partner was right: she feels, better to say, intuits, as any other person born in the USSR, that a similar process has started (or has been started) here as well — the process of deprivation us from our rights and freedoms. Once Russians allowed it — and they still have problems. Do we, Canadians, need it?

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