WTF: http://opensourceactivist.org/2008/02/06/bill-to-improve-health-care-in-mexico/ The health care mess in the United States is a top concern of voters. Too many Americans find that, despite their best efforts, they are unable to provide quality health care for their families. Too many Americans live in fear that an illness might leave them destitute. Too many Americans spend years sacrificing to pay skyrocketing premiums only to discover that, when the need arises, their policies offer protections that are next to worthless. Most of us agree that it’s simply not right that so many Americans, sincerely trying their best to provide for their families, are at the mercy of a phalanx of greedy insurance companies, medical malpractice lawyers, health care corporations, and other profiteers that have used decades of influence in Washington to institutionalize their chomp hold on the public jugular. What would Americans think, then, of a member of Congress who introduced legislation, not to improve health care in the United States, but to improve health care in Mexico? Insane? Drunk? Unworthy of public office? What would Americans think, then, of a bill introduced in Congress that required federal agencies to come up with a plan, not to expand health coverage in the United States, but to expand health coverage in Mexico? Impossible? Unthinkable? Wildly irresponsible? What would Americans think, then, of the motives of a senator, who not only introduced a bill to improve Mexico’s health care system and extend coverage to a growing population of 120 million people, but gave health insurance companies the right to help devise the plan? Blatantly corrupt? Grossly indifferent to the well-being of the American people? Downright treasonous? Unbelievable as it may seem, the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act of 2005 contained a provision giving insurance companies the right to help devise a plan for extending US health care to Mexico (Sec. 1004. BINATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND HEALTH INSURANCE). Even more unbelievable, the senator who sponsored the bill is not on the verge of being thrown out of office for this odious piece of legislation. No, the senator who introduced the bill, Senator John McCain of Arizona, is on the verge of locking up the Republican nomination to be our next president. Damn! How come you didn’t know that before you voted for John McCain on Tuesday, you ask? You’ve been watching the all-day-every-day TV news coverage of the primaries.
I read the bill. I can find this suggestion nowhere in the document. It merely makes a provision to for our Health and Human Services Department to contract with its counterpart, the Mexican Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, to study binational public health infrastructure and health insurance efforts. It's an effort to learn how the health insurance and services work on both sides of the border. The idea is for Mexico to learn how to provide improved health services to prevent the need for Mexicans to cross the border to try to find it here.
We have to learn somewhere! Isn't it funny that the majority of the planet has it figured out, examples on both sides of our borders :yelwink2: yet we continue to be the example of what not to do regarding our healthcare system. Look at Europe, I want a system like theirs! Pharmaceutical profit is regulated, Healthcare cost are REGULATED, Malpractice suits are minimal in comparison to our golden shores and humans are provided for regardless. Most hookers in Europe are under a better health plan then our own service members! I say thank God someone is looking outside the box. Start by regulating Pharmaceutical cost and the rest will shatter into place.
Hate to disagree with you CLIC, most of the drug cost that we pay goes to production, and R&D for new drugs. The reason the drugs are cheaper in canada or mexico is because they are either a. buying generic forms of the drugs that are made here on the black market, or b. selling drugs that are not yet approved by the FDA here so you take your chances. I've felt it in my family as I've had people close to me that have had to go to mexico to get drugs that could/wouldn't be available here. You do what you have to do. I would NEVER want europes health care system. NEVER. I am in favor of free market solutions. I don't want the Gvt to provide it for me via taking more taxes from my pay. I'd rather be able to shop around and find my own plan with a company/provider of MY choice.
Shane, FDA approval is the door stop for drug approval. I have been working in the Pharmaceutical industry for 8 years now and I can tell ya that a drug candidate in the US takes on average 5 to 7 years to achieve FDA approval. Some of those drugs folks gotta go abroad for are American drugs which do not make US approval rather they clear through Europe and in most part France. They call that the back door! I lived with the locals in Europe and having the coverage I now have, go ahead and dock my pay. An ingrown toenail in Frankfurt will give you a week off with pay, unless you are an armed services member, you don’t see that in the civilian world ever. Soon after you retire from the Army you shall see even with a great policy there is a major chunk missing from your pay compared to the champus system you currently have now! My wife is an amputee 4 times over so I have gotten an overdose of our healthcare system and I have a great policy, however the limitations and the small print can be life changing.
At some point you have to learn how to fish Red. If R&D is not built in to the drug cost then where does it come from? The drug fairy maybe? I'll find out what the % is as I am not sure of the exact number, however it is in there. It's not just all profit for the company.
