Jun 30 2009
Obamacare: Only The Strong Will Survive
 
We have been blessed with a set of beautiful twin girls – identical except one has genetic challenge. We also have to wonderful older children. DJStrata, our first, posts here often. And SJStrata who I am proud to announce has made it through Marine boot camp and the school of Infantry. Each was a gift. But the twins were a challenge because of the genetic challenge. about 20 weeks into the pregnancy the growth of one of the twins slowed down. We (as in LJStrata) were on regular sonograms to keep track of there status. At 32 weeks the one had stopped growing all together and was in distress.
That required a premature delivery where one twin was 3 pounds, 13 ounces and the other was 1 pound, 7 ounces. Thanks to preventive steroids they had Apgar scores of 9.0 and 9.5. But the smaller twin was in critical condition and, if not for the extra monitoring, might not have made it and risked the other twin’s life. I share this story because I would not want to trade this nation’s current health care system for the crap they have in Canada and the UK for anything:
A critically-ill premature-born baby from Hamilton is all alone in a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital after she was turned away for treatment at local facility and transferred across the border without her parents, who don’t have passports.
Ava Stinson was born Thursday at St. Joseph’s Hospital, 14 weeks premature.
A provincewide search for an open neonatal intensive care unit bed came up empty, leaving no choice but to send the two pound, four ounce baby to Buffalo.
This is Obamacare, where the critical cases better get on with dying in order to save the rest of us some money. As Ed Morrissey notes the real tragedy is not the fact the parents need to get a passport to visit their new child. The real tragedy is the rationed health care system in the modern (and reasonably wealthy) country to our north was so inadequate that the child had to be sent here for care. Our girls spent 3 and 10 weeks in the NICU growing and stabilizing to the point we could take them home with a pair of breathing monitors (that’s a lot to cart around).Â
Looking back I am damn glad we had them in this country under the current system. They may not have survived a national health care system – where apparently only the strong are worthy of surviving. Because they are cheaper to care for.
Something that Thomas Sowell said that I thought was interesting, when talking about the rising cost of medical care, is that we are so much better today then we were 20 years ago. We have improved care through machines, medication, and other life savings devices. These cost money to bring to the public and someone has to pay for them. He equated the notion to the development of cars over the same period. Adding air conditioning, stereos, power steering, air bags, power brakes and the alike has made auto more expensive but also safer. So we should expect as life saving devices and medication are advancing so will costs. He said that it costs about a billion dollars to bring a drug to market, of course we know many don’t get to market, but dollars have been poured into the ideas.
Frankly, I’m happy to pay for my life and health, and that of my daughters. Of all the things that I buy, with out health what good are they? I think we need to expand those who are covered, maybe if each person were encharge of their health instead of employers, people would begin to understand the value. Give tax credits to every family to buy their own health insurance. Or send the poor a check.
PS I’m happy for your twins. We do indeed live in a country with the most advanced medical care. We are very blessed and should not take it for granted. Fight for the best, always.
Three and ten weeks, AJ? If Obama gets his way, your daughters would have died. Quite possibly with government-sponsored help.
Unless you were a big Democrat donor…THEN they would have had a fighting chance.
AJ, that was a beautiful example of American health care. Thanks for sharing.
Unlike those that refuse to admit that we have some holes in the system, I still believe it is the best in the world. We don’t need to throw out all the good, only to work on the problem areas.
You nailed it with “Only the Strong Will Survive”. That should be the the message and shouted loud and often. If that doesn’t scare the Jones’ Enchanted, nothing will.
Thanks Owl!
And I agree, we need a tag line that sinks in. Please feel free to spread the word.
[…] are not strong or fit (which is most of us), then you will probably not survive the rationed care. I made not of this when Obama himself admitted as much in is White House Informercial with ABC […]