All posts by Wintery Knight

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News

Health care policies in the UK and in Ireland

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Over on Health Care BS, they reported the results of an Healthcare Commission investigation of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in the UK. This foundation runs the which runs Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals.

Excerpt:

If you have a friend or loved one in an NHS hospital, make sure to send them flowers. They may have to drink the water out of the vase to avoid dying of thirst.

…The Prime Minister apologized and claimed that this was an isolated situation. Oh, really? Tell that to the NHS patients who starve to death in your hospitals. Tell that to the patients who die of cancer because the NHS won’t pay for their treatment.

Tell that BS to the patient on whom NHS surgeons insisted on operating despite the dead rat in the OR.  Tell that to the emergency patients stacked in ambulances in the ER parking lot. If they could hear, you could tell that the patients waiting for hearing aids.

Scary stuff! And this is what Obama wants for us, because then everyone will be equal, regardless of their ability to pay. Should individuals be left free to choose how much health care they need based on their own lifestyle choices? Obama says no.

On the other hand, the Stockholm Network reports that Ireland raised their co-payments for ER treatment, in order to encourage people to use managed care instead. (H/T State Policy Blog). They reduced their ER demand by 5%.

The 2009 Irish budget, presented by finance minister Brian Lenihan, revealed that charges for A&E services would rise from €66 to €100, if the patient has not been referred by their GP, or if they do not hold a medical card.

The revised tariff came into force on 1st January and …saw 4.5% less people attend A&E in January 2009 than in January 2008…

There is a myth on the ignorant left (and in Canada) that Americans are dying in the streets because of private medical care, that emphasizes personal responsibility. Actually, ER medical care is free in the USA, and maybe we should start charging something for it like Ireland is doing.

I posted before on the nationalized health care, the exploding health care costs in Massachusetts, and on health care problems in Sweden. Also, here is a funny video from a Canadian-raised comedian on single-payer health care.

UPDATE: John Lott has a post on how 9 people accounted for 2,678 ER visits over 6 years in Texas, costing taxpayers 3 million dollars.

Podcasts

Assessing the current state of the debate on abortion

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Here is a GREAT discussion between Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason and Scott Klusendorf of the Life Training Institute. The discussion starts at time 55:50 of the podcast. Klusendorf and especially Koukl are on fire in this podcast! Do not miss this podcast.

Topics include:

  • How do left-leaning Christians justify their pro-abortion voting?
  • What kills more people: unintended civilian casualties in war or deliberate killing of unborn babies? Are these two kinds of death morally equivalent?
  • Have Obama’s policies on abortion reduced or increased abortions?
  • Did the rate of abortion decline under Clinton and increase under Bush?
  • What policies really do reduce the number of abortions, and who supports those policies?
  • Should Christian medical personnel be forced to perform abortions against their consciences?
  • What are the root causes of abortion, and should we be addressing them by government-enforced wealth redistribution (social programs), instead of by legislation?
  • What is the difference between embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) and adult stem cell research (ASCR)?

As well, Klusendorf alludes to some research by Michael J. New at the Heritage Foundation about the policies that reduce abortions. You can read about it here in National Review. The supporting research is here.

I have blogged about some of these topics before, such as: stem cell research, a simple case for defending the unborn, right of conscience for health care workers, and about Representative Michele Bachmann’s opposition to FOCA and ESCR.

Scott Klusendorf makes the pro-life case on audio, here.

UPDATE: Doug Groothuis has a short, non-sectarian argument against abortion here.

News

Projected increases in electricity prices under Obama’s cap-and-trade policy

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Over at Michele Bachmann’s blog, I noticed that she has posted about the expected increase in electricity prices (per person) under Obama’s proposed cap-and-trade legislation. The numbers are provided by Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp.

Here are a couple of the bigger increases:

  • Alabama $1,528.26
  • Indiana $1,627.46
  • Kentucky $1,798.23
  • Montana $1,717.63
  • North Dakota $4,350.56
  • West Virginia $3,972.29
  • Wyoming $7,249.54

Looks like the effect is to transfer wealth from pro-business red states to anti-business blue states. Redistribution of wealth. Equalization of outcomes. Welfare. After all, a lot of these blue states have been spending like drunken sailors, and will need to grab some money from their red-state neighbors, if they are to continue acting irresponsibly.

Here is an interesting quotation in Michele’s post, provided by the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Dr. Douglas Elmendorf on the proposed cap-and-trade legislation:

At a Ways and Means hearing today, Congressman Camp questioned Congressional Budget Office Director Dr. Douglas Elmendorf  about the impact of this policy on consumers in other ways as well.  As Dr. Elmendorf said, “at any point in which we are putting a price on carbon emissions, that would be passed through to the cost that consumers face on energy products but also all other products that are made using fossil fuels….I don’t know if there are any goods that use no energy in their production.  It seems to me unlikely.”

I blogged here about the proposed tax hikes on oil companies, and here on the proposed cap-and-trade system and here on the proposed carbon tariffs Obama wants to impose on imported goods. And we’ve also seen that global warming is just a myth – useful crisis that leftists sell to the public in order to justify government control of the free market.