Saturday, September 19, 2009

Lived long enough?

Garrison Keillor, of Lake Wobegon fame, has written a beautiful and provocative column about health care. Keiller recently suffered a stroke, received superb care, and wrote about it. I really identified with some parts of it, after being treated for heart problems a while back. I especially liked his comments about the smart, capable and nurturing women who work as nurses in our hospitals. Keillor, a liberal who suffered mightily from Bush Derangement Syndrome, now is, thankfully, writing about something besides George W. Bush. He concludes his column by emphasizing our common humanity. "It is not decent that people avoid seeking help for want of insurance. It is not decent that people go broke trying to get well."

Yes, Garrison, but would you have had all those life-saving services if some bureaucrat in Washington decided that rationing was appropriate since you are now 67 years old? As Rush Limbaugh continually says, "Where do you suppose the cost-cutting is going to be done?" On the backs of those deemed to have lived long enough.

1 comment:

Terri Wagner said...

Glad you're back Bob. Yeah Kellior and his group just can't seem to grasp the fact that free healthcare isn't free...it has to be paid somehow and the ones who drain it (i.e., the fill-n-the-blank challenged) will be the first to go. I keep thinking of the Demolition Man movie.