Yvonne Foong: Fighting NF

I must have sounded pro-America for highlighting plus points of U.S. healthcare many times. But America is really the only other country I’ve been, not even Thailand or Singapore,

Like Sophie said, I was only fortunate to meet kind doctors in L.A.. In general, Americans including doctors are feeling the pinch of their national budget deficit of USD9 trillion, owing to excessive military spending. Americans will live many years settling that debt. Although the U.S. could afford to invest in medical research far more than other western countries in the past, but because of the large sum of money that went into engineering war, other sectors are now paying the price. The money has to come from somewhere, and unfortunately for Americans, it was taken from their livelihood. As a result, more and more Americans are going without protection from Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies. The pie has shrunk.

While my trips to America were a blessing, just as much were also gripping as I experienced firsthand, changing attitudes as America sinks in debt. Early this year, I wrote a thesis about whether socialized insurance and the welfare state is possible in America. I have received a lot of help from the U.S. and naturally, I hoped my findings were positive. Unfortunately, although past presidents as far back as Roosevelt wanted to create a national healthcare system, there have always been strong resistance from right-winged conservatives. They always claimed socialism is evil, but what they really fear is the past Soviet Union and it’s evil practices claiming to be in line with communist ideologies.

Knowing this sentiment, U.S. capitalists thrive by demonizing Communism and the Soviet Union. People must work hard to secure their lives. Those who can’t, lose out — badly. Republicans always remained majority in congress, while Democrats and their welfare policies were stomped.

Unfortunately for Americans, this benign tumor in their system has turned malignant, in the form of a budget that runs to nine trillion in debt, malpractices of Health Maintenance Organizations with the sole purpose of denying as much care as possible to ensure profit, and more and more people dying from preventable causes.

Even so, I think it is unlikely that America would change it’s approach to government,. Capitalism is not just supreme, it is their identity. It is what America used to overcome oppression, build from ground zero, and break free of a colonial past. Who can question that? The American Dream may be nice when everyone benefits. But that is not the case.

A friend mailed me Sicko in DVD, a documentary by Michael Moore about the failing U.S. healthcare system. Satirical yet gripping, this documentary brings the viewer to Cuba, London, and France where people pay less than a fraction to none for healthcare that cost a hundred times more in the U.S. Did these countries fall into the hands of Communist tyrants? Certainly not. Tyrants don’t say you can go on paid maternity leave while the State takes care of your laundry.

I like it best when Moore interviewed a doctor in London. He asked, “So you work for the government. You take public transport?”

The doctor is in his late 20s or early 30s, happily married, lives comfortably,and drives to work.