It's enough to make you sick

Last evening, Occupy Greenville sponsored a Teach-In featuring a showing of Sick Around the World, followed by a spirited and lively discussion. There were maybe a dozen of us in attendance.

This follows our showing of Sick Around America last week--both shows produced by PBS Frontline.

It's a depressing situation: how did this country's health care system get so messed up? Can we fix it? Will 'Obamacare' make it better or stretch our existing makeshift solutions to the breaking point?

Sick Around the World profiled five rich, capitalist, Western countries, and how they have managed health care for their citizens: Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, and the UK. All systems are far superior to ours, and running on less.

From the transcript of "Sick Around the World"--some highlights:

T.R. REID: [voice-over] Here's something else that's different. Japanese patients have much longer hospital stays than Americans, and they love technology, like scans. They have nearly twice as many MRIs per capita as Americans, eight times as many as the Brits.

So how do they keep costs under control? Well, it turns out the Japanese health ministry tightly controls the price of health care, right down to the smallest detail. Every two years, the physicians and the health ministry negotiate a fixed price for every single procedure and drug. Like the items in this sushi bar, everything from open heart surgery to a routine check-up has a standard price, and this price is the same everywhere in Japan.

If a doctor tries to boost his income by increasing the number of procedures, well, then, guess what? At the next negotiation, the government lowers the price. That's what happened with MRIs, which are incredibly cheap in Japan. I asked the country's top health economist, Professor Naoki Ikegami, to tell us how that happened.

[on camera] In Denver, where I live, if you get an MRI of your neck region, it's $1,200, and the doctor we visited in Japan says he gets $98 for an MRI. So how do you do that?

Prof. NAOKI IKEGAMI, School of Medicine, Keio Univ.: Well, in 2002, the government says that the MRIs, "We are paying too much. So in order to be within the total budget, we will cut them by 35 percent."

T.R. REID: So, if I'm a doctor, why don't I say, "Well, I'm not going to do them, then. It's not enough money"?

Prof. NAOKI IKEGAMI: You forgot that we have only one payment system. So if you want to do your MRIs, unless you can get private-pay patients, which is almost impossible in Japan, you go out of business.

T.R. REID: [voice-over] So that shafts the medical device makers and must limit innovation, right? Well, no. Japanese manufacturers of scanning equipment, like Toshiba, found ways to make inexpensive machines they could sell to doctors. And guess what? Now they're exporting those machines all over the world.

The whole show was like this, a series of PRICE REGULATING realizations that blew my little mind. (Why do we accept the AMA's flimsy-ass excuses for everything?)

In Taiwan, everybody must opt into the system, and they issue a standard government health care card that you just pop into a slot, like paying to park: Zip. All I could think, watching them flip that wonderful little card in and out of various slots, was how these rabidly-anti-government guys around here (waves to my radio-show callers!) would never go along with something like that: galdurnit, I won't get a guvmint ID card! I can hear it now--echoes of last week's Ron Paul rally dancing in my head.

What is interesting is that once they finally get it established, even conservatives in these countries appreciate (and want to continue) universal health care for all of their citizens. And at that point, it becomes another political football, as liberal politicians threaten the populace that conservatives want to cut benefits. (Could that actually happen here?)

In Switzerland, their system was a wreck as late as 1994. It took a lot of political will to change it. Their administrative costs are now 5% of their medical budget, compared to our whopping 22%. From the transcript:

[on camera] One of the problems we have in America is that many people -- it's a huge number of people -- go bankrupt because of medical bills. Some studies say 700,000 people a year. How many people in Switzerland go bankrupt because of medical bills?

President PASCAL COUCHEPIN: Nobody. It doesn't happen. It would be a huge scandal if it happens.

T.R. REID: [voice-over] But here's Switzerland's challenge. Having achieved universal health care, it has to decide how much citizens are willing to pay. Today, an average monthly premium for a Swiss family is about $750. But there's pressure to raise the premiums. And it's already the second most expensive health care system in the world, although still much cheaper than ours.

What's interesting about Switzerland is that after LAMal's success, people in this proud capitalist country see limits now to the free market.

[on camera] Could a 100 percent free market system work in health care?

Pres. PASCAL COUCHEPIN: No, I don't think that. If you do that, you will lose solidarity and equal access for everybody.

In conclusion, there appears to be three major factors to make universal health care work:

These capitalist countries don't trust health care entirely to the free market. They all impose limits.

There are three big ones. First, insurance companies must accept everyone and can't make a profit on basic care. Second, everybody's mandated to buy insurance, and the government pays the premium for the poor. Third, doctors and hospitals have to accept one standard set of fixed prices.

Can Americans accept ideas like that?

Well, the fact is these foreign health care ideas aren't really so foreign to us. For American veterans, health care is just like Britain's NHS. For seniors on Medicare, we're Taiwan. For working Americans with insurance, we're Germany. And for the tens of million without health insurance, we're just another poor country.

But almost all of us can agree that this fragmented health care mess cannot be ignored. The longer we leave it, the sicker it becomes, and the more expensive the cure.

I'll repeat the question here: Can Americans accept these ideas, do you think?

~*~

Update: Walkupy's recent bust in Madison County, Georgia, did not dim the hardy spirits of our Occupiers! We tweeted news of the arrest to the world and the Madison County Sheriff's Office was bombarded with phone calls from all manner of lefty busybodies such as your humble narrator. The Powers-That-Be responded by setting them free with all charges dropped--WOOT! Very happy about that, as one of our local Greenville Occupiers has joined up with Walkupy for a stint. (We love you, Lynne!)

From the Anderson Independent Mail, here are some very nice pictures of Walkupy on the roads.

~*~

At left: Daisy and the dangerous sign-carrier. (Would this man hit anybody with a sign?)



Speaking of busts, the official consiglieri/producer of the DAISY DEADHEAD SHOW, Gregg Jocoy, was cited for having a sign that was TOO BIG, outside the federal courthouse last week, during the Occupy the Courts action. Yes, there is some dopey Greenville County ordinance about the size of signs.

And what about Newt's enormous signs all over the county (that still haven't been taken down by his lazy supporters)? Well, they don't count, since it's a PICKETING ordinance! Big signs are okay, but not if you are walking around with it... I guess he might hit somebody with it? He'll poke his eye out!

So, an expensive citation, which I suspect was really because he was out there yelling about the courts. Occupy the Courts was a national succcess, if (as usual) receiving little media coverage.

I love seeing the Occupy movement stretch out in all directions!

Occupy and Walkupy

Hey, you crazy kidz! My apologies for intermittent internet woes, keeping me from bringing you all the straight dope on the South Carolina primary.

Well, what can I say?

We are averaging about one robocall every 2-3 hrs or so. I assume this is because I voted in the Republican primary in 2008 (for Ron Paul, a deliberate act of strategic voting that I will be repeating on Saturday). These damn phone banks are harassing the hell out of us... I assure you, I have no desire to talk to Rick Santorum or Newtie, who have virtually wallpapered my neighborhood with their annoying signs. Newt's people seem to be focused on internet exits, while Santorum's people are targeting particular neighborhoods, concentrated with born-agains. Newtie wants it all!

I'd like to thank author Jeff Sharlet for being on my radio show Saturday to talk about Occupy writers. (I did not hear him as well in the studio as you could hear him on the air. Not sure I understand the reason for this broadcast phenomenon.) THANK YOU, JEFF! I was a nervous wreck with someone so important on my show and hardly slept at all the night before. (Does this stuff happen to Rush Limbaugh and those people?)

I am still learning, and it is at such moments that I realize how far I have to go.

On Saturday, after the show, there was a march in support of Occupy in Columbia, and my consiglieri, Gregg Jocoy, was quoted in the news account! As I said, no sleep at all, and I just didn't have it in me to march around Columbia. However, on Sunday, your plucky heroine was back with Occupy Greenville at Bergamo Square; a local hip-hop group, High Stakes, showed up to lend their support. (2nd photo at left) A Ron Paul supporter also dropped by and wished us well. I didn't see a single other campaign worker, from any other campaign. (I guess they don't have many face-to-face folks, and would rather just bleat bullshit in random robocalls.)

Tonight we welcome Walkupy with a potluck! I have made my trusty Curry-Lentil soup, just for them.

From Spartanburg Herald-Journal:

Spartanburg County residents might have seen them during the weekend, a group of 18 walkers trekking through the Upstate, ranging in age from 18 to 63.

They are part of Walkupy, a march to raise awareness for the Occupy Wall Street movement, said Darrin Annussek, a participant from Philadelphia. The group carries American and peace flags. One participant flies a Texas flag as they walk, and another bears the Veterans for Peace flag.

On Sunday, they were headed into Greer from Duncan, along Highway 290. Today, they’ll head to Greenville.

“We invite anyone to walk for a day, or a few hours,” Annussek said.

Annussek, 36, joined Walkupy in Philadelphia. The original march began in New York and went to Washington, stopping for a visit at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial there.

Annussek has been walking since the beginning of November, he said.

“It’s amazing meeting people,” said Annussek, who left his job as a career counselor to participate in Walkupy. “There seems to be a general understanding that something has to be done to change the country. We’re getting the word out for social change.”

Annussek used to live in Inman, and he said the group’s reception in the South has been amazing. A participant of the recent Occupy Spartanburg demonstration downtown assisted the Walkupy group over the weekend, helping the marchers find accommodations. Annussek said the marchers have camped out and stayed in a couple hotels but mostly have received lodging from churches and private homes.

It will be great to meet you all at last. My soup rocks, and its vegan too.

Hope you all had a great Martin Luther King Jr holiday!