Nursing Informatics · Clinical Perspectives · Healthcare Systems
"The United States alone [among wealthy countries] treats health care as a commodity to be
distributed according to the ability to pay rather than a social service to be distributed
according to medical need."
— JAMA (2003), 290, 798
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The Medical-Industrial Complex
October 19, 2008 -- One of my heroes, Paul Krugman (winner of
the 2008
Nobel prize in economics) writes in the
New York Times
on 7/9/7 regarding Michael Moore's
Sicko
and the Canadian healthcare system:
For more than 60 years, the medical-industrial complex and its
political allies have used scare tactics to prevent America from
following its conscience and making access to health care a right
for all citizens...
Yes, Canadians wait longer than insured Americans for elective
surgery. But overall, the average Canadian's access to health care
is as good as that of the average insured American -- and much
better than that of uninsured Americans, many of whom never
receive needed care at all.
The only things standing in the way of universal health care are
the fear-mongering and influence-buying of interest groups. If we
can't overcome those forces here, there's not much hope for
America's future.