Just to clarify a few points:
The US government is already involved in Healthcare. The single largest payor is Medicare and it is nothing BUT red tape and inefficiencies (what else can you expect when it is Government run?). Medicaid is administered (and partially funded by Federal dollars) through the states and covers those too young to qualify for Medicare. There are GREAT disparities from state to state on coverage (just like Canada is not the same in every providence).
The Obama plan is to partially fund the new system by going back and cleaning up Medicare (great plan, eh?) and prosecuting those providers inappropriate billing / committing fraud by retrospectively reviewing claims and applying current Medicare guideline interpretations to past claims (trust me there is a difference as the rules and "interpretations of the guidelines by the Medicare Fiscal Intermediaries" are a moving target). Why don't we just clarify the rules and stop the abuse now? Guess that would make too much sense....
I guess it could be compared to the plan to increase revenue by hiring all of those additional IRS agents to "go after" the bad guys who haven't paid their fair share according to the latest interpretation of tax laws. I would venture a guess that many of these people simply don't have money, so guess they will be filling up our prison systems. Call me silly, but I am pretty sure that these guys (and girls) have a pretty small earning potential behind bars. But I digress...
Ok, God, the statistics are flawed - the US does have more premature births than norm (which contributes to the mortality rate) and popularity of fertility treatments in the US is playing a part. The other factors are not as clear, but could be due to more diligent reporting on miscarrages than other countries.
Clearly you have never been in a neonatal intensive care unit in the US. Although, these units are notorious "losers" when it come to cost/ payment (due in part to many of the high risk mothers - drug addicted, fetal alcohol syndrome, etc), the technology and clinical expertise is highly advanced and continues to be a priority for the industry, even when there is no payment on extremely expensive services. Sick babies born in rural areas are more at risk because they have to be transported to larger cities with these capabilities. Some of these are unexpected, but many others could have been prevented. Really not sure how you can force high risk, drug addicted mothers to receive the free prenatal care that is publicly funded...
I know of one of these grant funded public health clinics (looks like a palace) in South Atlanta that actually has to "bribe" mothers with gifts to enroll and actually make their appointments! Of course the funding is tied to number of patients treated... probably another Acorn program
So, I believe that we are all in agreement that babies are our future and the innocent ones as they didn't ask to be born. So you can probably calm down now about babies being left to die because they don't have insurance. It is simply not true.
