Thems that gots those hideously expensive medical insurance policies or enough cash on hand tend to get better. Many of them can afford to buy a controlling interest in their own senators and house members, too, so they're covered six ways from Sunday.

However, thems that ain't gots the policies or the dough-re-mi tend to die.

And they do so at rates far exceeding the national average, even when adjusted for demographics, environmental and occupational risk factors, lifestyle and so forth.

In fact, an ancient but comprehensive Tufts University study of what's jokingly called America's "health care system" (and quit smirking, cynical, irreverent twit ) found that poverty -- not smoking, drinking, working around asbestos or toxic chemicals, not even life as a rodeo rider -- is the dominant risk factor that determines Americans' life spans and, more importantly, their illness-free life spans.

The stats you see in all other "advanced" countries -- all of which also just happen to have some form of single-payer, universal-access public health system -- group the US among medical nirvanas like Nigeria, Burma, Chechnya and other health care backwaters .

If you're interested in another tale from the abyss, here's a post of mine from March of last year that I saved in my DU journal.

It briefly chronicles the fate of a late friend who, in 2003, succumbed to the murderous though inevitable outcomes of the American way of medicine. Triaging on bank accounts rather than medical necessity kills at least 22,000 Americans every year, according to this study.

It's a pretty good bet that the 2006 number (derived from US Census Bureau data) didn't fall while the Bush Economic Revival and Compassionate Conservative Express was running full speed backwards, on past the 15th, 12th, 9th centuries and -- Cheney could only dream -- not stopping until it reached the Stone Age.

In all, that same data set tells us at least 137,000 Americans died between 2000 and 2006 because they lacked medical insurance, including those 22,000 in 2006.

Americans are too busy thumping their hypocritical chests and chanting self-congratulatory nonsense like "We're Number ONE" and "USA! USA! USA!" to get it through their think, co-opted, propagandized, content-free skulls that lack of medical insurance in this country is a capital crime.

And even if it doesn't kill the patient, it'll probably impoverish them and their families for life. About 2/3 of all bankruptcies filed in the US these days are due to insane medical bills.

Maybe another few hundred million outraged calls to that candy-ass Daschle might be in order. And toss in ten million or so to his lobbyist wife just for the hell of it.


sf


The former "Warren Pease" now writing as Steven Franklin because, by gum, that's his name (or 2/3 of it, anyway).


On edit: Cleaned up the tpyos an mizspelunz an uthur weerd stuph, two