At a town hall meeting in New Jersey, a voter named Geoff Ginter gives an earful to his Republican congressperson Tom MacArthur for drafting and voting for the amended Republican health care bill. This kind of heated meetings have become commonplace but this one is exceptional because Ginter provides a passionate and articulate attack on the bill and an insightful analysis of what is wrong with the system in the US. I was highly impressed that although he was clearly extremely furious, he did not let his anger take over and lose control. He was very lucid and coherent and the congressperson had to just stand there and take it.
I think people everywhere should see this video and use it as a model about how to give their own elected representatives a piece of their mind that is logical and informed but also compelling to listen to and watch. It is a brilliant piece of impassioned oratory.
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You can read more about the five-hour event here.
An impressive tirade and MacArthur deserved every word and every second of it. Does one have to be a rabid, sadistic, monster to be a US Republican politician?
I live in Canada and I have trouble believing that a modern first-world country like the USA does not have at least basic universal single payer health insurance.Our health insurance coverage is not as good as some countries’ but God, the USA is like something out of Dickens. And it seems to be regressing.
I was in to see my optometrist last Tuesday and OHIP (our health insurance plan) covered the cost. She suggested that I should have a minor laser procedure because of some protein build-up. Her assistant would contact the ophthalmologist and his assistant would set up an appointment for me. Again no direct cost to me.
jkrideau,
It definitely helps.
What is harder to believe than that we have no basic taxpayer-funded, government run single-payer health care plan is that so many Americans think that the crummy system that we have is the greatest system in the world.
@jrkrideau
One of the thing that surprises me , is that even fairly liberal folks in the US, who dont support republicans or their health care still think that Single payer health systems have extremely long lines for everything (and that the USA supposedly doesn’t) and will provide to an anecdotal So and So’s aunt didn’t get treated for so long in Canada!
@ 3 deepak
Some Americans think…Single payer health systems have extremely long lines for everything
Well, I had to wait for almost 3 days, once, to see my family physician. Of course I made the appointment late on a Friday afternoon.
There can be some fairly long waits for some treatments. But those waits are for non-life-threatening issues. I had a 4--5 month wait for some “trivial” hand surgery. I was not even going to get it done but my family physician persuaded me I was gong to need to get it done sometime in the next 10 year so I might as well do it.
If the issue is serious the system can move pretty fast. But as Mano points out Americans seem to believe their own myths about how good their crummy system is.
It’s a joke, but the USA is the greatest, therefore USA health care is the greatest has some internal logic I guess.
It was funny when the other day Trump said to our PM, Turnbull, that he’d improved USA health care, but there was no need to talk about that with Turnbull, as he comes from a country with great healthcare….I wouldn’t say great, but it’s good and the only ones who don’t think so are the Tea Party wannabees who keep trying to chip away at it in Parliament.
I wonder if evolutionary psychologists have an explanation for this bizzare, “I got lucky so fuck you!” attitude from the authoritarian clique. It seems like it wouldn’t confer a survival advantage. Aren’t destitute poor people more willing to serve their more evolved masters? I’m sure there has to be a theory.
I have a sister in Canada, and I hear nothing but good things about the health care.
As overused as the word is these days, I found that tirade entirely awesome. Ever since I moved to the US from England, it has been self-evident to me that ‘for profit’ and ‘health care’ are, at least in a sane world, mutually exclusive. And the more I have witnessed of the US health ‘care’ system, the more obvious it has become, being the recipient of inches of insurance-related paperwork since my recent retiring.
Here’s the thing about wait times in Canada…
If people have access to health care, sick people go to see the doctor. If you deny a lot of people that access, then the fortunate ones who have the access will get in quicker.
So yes, there are wait times in Canada. That’s because sick people are getting help!
Another thing about ‘wait times’ …
it’s waiting for treatment not denial of treatment.
Here he cuts to the bone:
“This is the point, Congressman: health insurance as a for-profit business is immoral! You insist that I pay before you will save me? That is immoral, sir!”
If this were accepted as a principle, it would have radical effects throughout the economy. Discuss…
chigau@#10:
Another thing about ‘wait times’ …
it’s waiting for treatment not denial of treatment.
And it’s not “you get the treatment, and then you’re bankrupted.”