OT: Another Republican Lie About Healthcare Debunked

["Robert L Bass" <Sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_037D_01CA363C.62B531A0
Content-Type: text/plain;
	format=flowed;
	charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

http://www.straight.com/article-244124/shona-holmes-joins-great-american-healthcare-debate

Canadian Shona Holmes joins the great American healthcare debate
By Mike Cowie

By now you've all probably heard of Shona Holmes, the Canadian woman featured
in those television ads that have been running all over American TV in recent
weeks, the ones slamming Canada's healthcare system as some sort of
nightmarish system from hell.

Well, the truth is now out and the fact is Shona Holmes never actually had a
life-threatening brain tumor, as she's been claiming in those ads and
interviews on American TV. Instead, according to the Mayo Clinic where she was
treated, her "brain tumor" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary
gland and "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they
are benign cysts."

The real story, it seems, is that she was on a waiting list for treatment here
in Canada for her non-life-threatening benign cyst, but didn't want to wait
and therefore went to the States and paid for her own treatment instead. This
is quite a different story from the one presented in those ads: a story about
how the Canadian system was going to just let her die because it's such a
flawed, awful, dangerous system.

All this is from a great article by Julie Mason that appeared earlier this
week in the Ottawa Citizen.

Sadly, CBC's main news program, The National, covered this story last week,
but somehow failed to mention (or perhaps failed to research enough to find
out?) that Shona Holmes never actually had any life-threatening brain
tumor-obviously the most important part of her story.

A Right-Wing Ad Campaign

Watch the ad here and listen as Holmes states that "I survived a brain tumor,
but if I relied on my government for healthcare I'd be dead". This is simply
not true. And Holmes, it should be noted, is not just some naive flake being
used by a right-wing group to help spread their anti-healthcare reform
message. She's actually an activist herself, one who has been all over the
American media airwaves giving interviews about Canada's healthcare system.
Now there's no doubt that the wait times in this country can be unacceptable
(and, since her cyst was starting to cause vision problems, Holmes definitely
should not have had to wait months to see a specialist). However, the simple
truth is that if a person has a life-threatening tumor in Canada they will be
treated and not, as Holmes states, left to die.

Why she'd want to see nearly 50 million Americans left completely uninsured
simply because she was unhappy with her treatment in Canada is beyond me.

Tellingly, if you listen to her talk she doesn't really seem to have much-or
any-concern for the uninsured. Being wealthy enough to travel down to the Mayo
Clinic for $97,000 private treatment, she seems to only be concerned with
people like herself, those with money-the uninsured 50 million be damned.

Obama's Plan

Holmes' stated aim in appearing in these ads and interviews is to persuade
Americans to stick with their current system and reject Obama's plan to cover
everyone (a mighty flawed, non-single-payer system, I might add, but at least
a noble attempt to finally cover everyone with some form of insurance).

This current system that Holmes so passionately wants America to retain is of
course the very same horrifically unjust one-the only one in the
industrialized world that doesn't cover all of its citizens-that the majority
of Americans have wanted replaced for years.

Does Shona Holmes really think that millions of American children are better
off with no medical insurance than with a system like that in Canada, no
matter how much she may find it lacking?  Is she really that insensitive?
Stupid? Self-absorbed?  Or does she, perhaps just like being on TV a lot?

Whatever the case, she sure comes across as a villain in all of this. A petty
villain perhaps, but a villain nonetheless. Not so much to Canada and the
Canadian healthcare system she's so intent on smearing with her
less-than-honest tale of woe, but more so to the American public who she's
hoping to condemn to the appalling status quo they presently call a healthcare
system-and what the rest of the world calls a joke.

Yes, yes, of course if you're wealthy and/or you're lucky enough to have an
insurance policy that actually covers you when you most need it (rather than
challenges your claim and/or denies you certain treatments) then you will
undoubtedly get some good care. But, seriously, who wants to live in a system
in which losing your job also means losing your healthcare, as so many
Americans have been finding out over the past year? Nearly 50 million citizens
go without any coverage whatsoever and tens of millions more have inadequate,
partial and/or tentative coverage at best. You call that a modern and just
society?

"The Best System In The World"

Americans always want to believe they are the best at everything in the world
and when it comes to certain things perhaps they are, but when it comes to
their healthcare system the fact is they're the laughing stock of the world.

The rest of the industrialized world long, long ago accepted the basic truth
that any modern, just and civilized society unequivocally must provide two
fundamental things to all of its citizens: universal primary and secondary
education and universal healthcare. Yet some 60 years onward America is still
attempting to claw its way into the 1950s. That is, 60 years after everyone
else America is still attempting to give all of its citizens these two most
basic and fundamental of human rights.

And if people like Shona Holmes have their wish they never will.

For another excellent article on healthcare reform in America try this quite
personal recent piece by Ted Kennedy, "The Cause of My Life".
Then there's this excellent piece by Roger J. Newell, an American who spent
years living under both the "socialized" British and "free market" American
systems and his take on both: "American health care: the view from expatriate
who came home".

Finally, check out this piece by David Sirota about how the wealthy in America
(including certain Democrats who Sirota calls "Land Rover Liberals") are doing
all they can to defeat universal healthcare, at least as long as it involves
them having to pay even a few thousand dollars more in taxes each year from
their hoard of millions and/or billions.

Let's just hope America ignores the scaremongering of the likes of Shona
Holmes and the greed and selfishness of so many of its own ultra-wealthy and
decides to finally join the ranks of truly civilized nations.

Mike Cowie is a freelance writer who writes about politics, music, film,
travel and much more. You can read more of Mike's views on his Web site.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

==============================>
Bass Home Electronics
DIY Alarm and Home Automation Store
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
Sales & Service 941-870-2310
Fax 941-870-3252
==============================>

------=_NextPart_000_037D_01CA363C.62B531A0
Content-Type: text/x-vcard;
	name="Robert L Bass.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
	filename="Robert L Bass.vcf"

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Bass;Robert L
FN:Robert L Bass
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx
REV:20090915T234031Z
END:VCARD

------=_NextPart_000_037D_01CA363C.62B531A0--