Us Healthcare Quotes
Both of these programs have been amongst the most popular programs in American History. Yet for Republican conservatives at the beginning of the 21st century, these were programs that they wanted to either terminate of alter in such severe manners that they would not be anything like the original programs. When these programs were passed by Congress, most Republicans were opposed to the legislation but enough were supportive to have bipartisan support. However, by 2000, most liberal Republicans had been driven out of the party, and it was the Democrats who kept the programs alive and in force despite the Republican assaults. The Democrats had public opinion on their side on these battles and even most registered Republicans opposed President George W. Bush’s major attempt to privatize Social Security.
In some areas, the United States has the best performance in the entire world—length of survival rates for breast cancer and some other diseases for example. However, on basic medical services, like infant mortality, we have a poorer record than all the other industrialized countries. Cuba and Costa Rica are better than us in this area and their citizens actually have a longer life expectancy than Americans. Emmanuel makes the argument that the cost differential between US health care and other—even better systems—is so great that we can easily save money and reform our system without rationing medical care or wait in lines for surgery. However, to do so, there must be huge reforms and few in the system want to risk changing anything. It is hard for most Americans to face the fact that other countries offer obvious medical superiority in many areas. For example, in France, if you call their emergency telephone number for a medical emergency a doctor answers the phone, not an operator with only modest medical knowledge. When a French ambulance is dispatched, it does not have emergency medical technicians only, but there is a doctor and a nurse in the ambulance. And the ambulance itself is equipped to do emergency surgery of other critical treatment if time is critical.
