User talk:Joshyelon

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bgod 13:34, 23 Jul 2004 (PDT) I didn't forget about you. :) I'll read through those articles soon. Yeah the Buzz Report is a big effort. I'd love for it to be a dKos community effort. We'll see how it goes... just trying it out for now.

bgod 12:39, 24 Jul 2004 (PDT) Hi Josh. Ok, I took a look at the Hippocratic Oath article. I like it, but I’m not sure if I agree with your conclusion and have some questions. Note however, that I'm not extremely knowledgeable on the subject of health care..

Let’s see if I can boil it down to the salient points -

• All doctors accept a moral obligation to help the sick regardless of ability to pay
• Hospital emergency rooms don’t refuse the uninsured
• Your personal experience of getting ER treatment while uninsured was good
• But overall the ER system is poor
• The ER policy of treating everyone is similar to universal health care
• You believe your doctor and others would be subordinate if ordered to turn away the uninsured
• Americans are “constitutionally unable to turn our backs on suffering when brought face-to-face with it”
• Our leaders do not have the power to prevent doctors from treating people who can’t pay
• And the clincher: We already have broken universal health care, but politicians prevent it from being fixed

My comments/questions:

• The Hippocratic Oath is an embodiment of our values regarding health care and the poor. It fits perfectly at the center of your article.
• I’m not sure what you mean by we are “constitutionally” unable to turn our backs…
• I don’t know if I agree that because hospitals treat all emergency cases, we can say that we already have universal health care. Are there not stark limits to the coverage they will provide? Maybe this is more universal emergency care?
• Do the doctors really have all the power? I don’t watch the TV show ER very often, but I seem to remember this as part of a story arc. Can a hospital legally turn away the un-insured by policy? If that happened and a doctor proceeded to treat them, couldn’t that doctor be dismissed, and therefore lose access to the expensive, hi-tech tools and drugs she needs to do her job?
• Is the current system protected by law, or can the hospitals change their policy?
• Is our argument really that we have what we want but that it is simply broken? Even if it is not completely true, it could be a good meme or frame for the discussion. But what fixes are you calling for? What do you envision as being better?
• Not sure I agree with this statement: “We are already paying the highest possible price for a universal care system.” Wouldn’t an expanded UHC system come at an even higher price?

-- I'm not sure if this is what you were looking -- you said style, and I think I went for content.. Oh well, hope it helps either way. :)