Gene Lyons insists that Democrats should pass comprehensive health care reform with or without Republican input. Says he:
'In a column for Politico.com, our bipartisan friend Sen. Grassley recently wrote that, should it be enacted, "As many as 119 million Americans would shift from private coverage to the government plan." That, in turn, would "put America on the path toward a completely government-run healthcare system ... Eventually, the government plan would overtake the entire market."
Translation: The public plan must be stopped because it'd be too good.'
Too good? There's a pipe dream for you. Be that as it may, Mr. Lyons clearly favors the single payer model.
'Meanwhile, never mind that the White House has completely ruled out a British- or Canadian-style "single payer" plan, recognizing that many Americans are more comfortable with the private coverage they already have. Atlantic Monthly blogger Matt Yglesias wondered what British conservatives say about that country's National Health Service.
So here's the Tory position: "The NHS embodies something which is truly great about Britain. That something is equity: the spirit of fairness for all and the equal right of everyone regardless of age, background or circumstance to get the healthcare they need. It really is one of the most precious gifts we enjoy as British citizens ... That is why the Conservative Party has made [improving] the NHS its number one priority."'
So I thought it very timely when an email update from Canon Andrew White arrived in my inbox. Canon Andrew White is President of The Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East and Rector of St George's Churchin Baghdad. I get these updates from him from time to time because I once made a contribution to FRRME which was involved in efforts aimed at reconciliation among Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds. Those efforts were going on at a time when sectarian violence in Iraq was at its height.
Back then updates he sent out described the progress toward reconciliation. Now they have a different message. Canon White suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. He has been receiving stem cell treatments to mitigate the effects of his disease, and he gives periodic updates as to how they are going. Here is what he said in his last one.
'Well, greetings from Baghdad! I am pleased to say that yesterday I had my 4th Stem Cell Treatment for MS, as usual with my own stem cells. This time I had the injection in my neck, this was to try and deal with my balance problems. The fact is, since I started this treatment in Iraq I have improved by about 70%.
Every time I drive through the squalor here and then arrive in the modern, yet basic hospital, I am amazed that I can have this treatment here in Baghdad. The doctors are outstanding and perform this treatment to a very high standard. Yesterday, the injection was in the cervical vertebrae. I will have a further treatment on Sunday with the cultivated stem cells. I was the first person to have this stem cell treatment here. Since then, another 21 MS patients have had the treatment; all have radically improved. They have also treated a person with Motor Neurone Disease and several people with spinal cord injuries. Once again, these people have also improved. I cannot deny that the more I have this treatment and the more I make improvement, I become increasingly frustrated by the lack of treatment in the UK.'
On a side note, I think it's worth emphasizing that Canon White's stem cell treatment did not involve use of embryonic stem cells. They were his own.
But to the topic at hand, as a priest and a Brit, Canon White would be an unlikely proponent of free market health care systems. In fact he takes a swipe at capitalism and the profit motive, implying that they are to blame for the treatment shortcomings in the UK.
'All that is on offer are expensive drugs that make me feel very, very ill. The fact is, this [stem cell] treatment is cheap and makes nothing for the drug companies.'
So there he is in Baghdad getting his stem cell treatments in a modern but basic hospital. I think it's safe to say it was a private, for-profit hospital. I sent a response to Canon White's update, asking him to confirm my suspicion. At this point he has not had time to reply.
In the meantime I looked for confirmation in an article written this past March by Dahr Jamail which describes the rise of a privately run health care system running side be side with the government system in Iraq.
'Government hospitals are short of doctors. A small increase in pay over the last three years has lured some doctors back, but what they pay cannot match income in the private sector.
On average, a general practitioner in a government hospital earns about 300 dollars a month; a private hospital pays twice or three times that much. More and more doctors are shifting away from government hospitals.
“I and my family were unable to live on the pay I earned at a government hospital,” says Dr. Kubayir Abbas, 34, an anaesthetist. “So I decided to come over to the private sector instead, and now it is much better.”
Dr. Shakir Mahmood Al-Robaei, another anaesthetist, said “it’s better for us to work here than in the public sector. We earn more money, it is safer, and we don’t have to worry about having the right equipment and supplies. When I worked in the public sector, we were short of everything most of the time.”
And so government hospitals continue to run short of doctors, while some private hospitals have a surplus. What has improved since 2007 is that violence against doctors, and even against patients who attend certain hospitals, has dropped notably.
Government hospitals also lack basic supplies such as gauze, rubber gloves, clean needles, surgical instruments and drugs for anaesthesia. Non-medical basics such as clean bedding, disinfectants and air-conditioning are often lacking, even in the largest medical complex in the country, the Baghdad Medical City. Iraqis have for years had to buy their own medicines and even oxygen supplies on the expensive black market.
Corruption within the Ministry of Health, and the near total lack of reconstruction that was promised by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority in the first year of the occupation have left Iraq’s healthcare system depleted of resources.
A report ‘Rehabilitation Under Fire’ released last year by the health organisation Medcat said Iraq has only around 9,000 doctors, after most fled the country. That gives a ratio of six doctors for every 10,000 people. The ratio in Britain is 23 to 10,000.
Given the crisis in government medical care, the business of private hospitals is booming. Raphael hospital, which currently has 35 beds and sees on average over 1,000 patients a day, will soon expand to 90 beds and increase its staff.
Dr. Rhamis Mukhtar, the only surgeon for morbid obesity in Iraq, has been working at this private hospital since 2000, while also working at a state hospital. “I’m thinking of moving here full time,” he said. “There are much better supplies, services, and overall care for the patient. This centre is the best for laproscopic surgery in the country.”
For complicated emergency cases, government hospitals are still the best, Dr. Mukhtar said. They have special equipment most smaller private hospitals lack. It has to get very bad for someone before they can hope to get the best out of a government hospital.'
It is typical that government run health care systems ration care because it is the only way they can contain costs. We see it time and again, where visitors come to the U.S. to get the care they can't get in their own countries' single payer systems. Either they can't get treatment at all, or they can't get it in time, waiting lists being so long.
Mr. Lyons, Mr. Yglesias, and others on the left deny that rationing even happens, but at the same time they seem to believe rationing is really a good thing. It's a fairness thing. If everybody can't get the kind of treatment Canon White can get in Baghdad, then nobody should get it. And when nobody gets treatment, it'll be the drug companies who get the blame. It's the fairest thing.
Updated 6/24/09. Canon White's reply:
Dear Tom,
Thank you for the email. My treatment is in the Government Hospital. I only pay
for my Drugs the MRI is in a private clinic. I pay for my drugs as I'm not
Iraqi.
AW
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