Thursday, July 26, 2012

Opportunity Through Tragedy

Just as the Colorado shooting prompted discussion about gun control, the incident also provides an opportunity to examine one of the major problems facing the nation:  healthcare.

In Denver, NBC is reporting that victims at three hospitals will not have to worry about their medical bills.   Many of the victims are young; they lack health insurance.

What would it have cost?   And how does that cost to compare to what the victim would have had to pay in England or Germany or France or Norway or Belgium or any other industrialized country? 
Why is the United States the only industrialized nation where families go bankrupt from medical bills?

The television networks should be asking the questions and examining the issue.  But of course considering what a serious and expensive problem healthcare poses, the networks should have been doing in-depth stories on comparative healthcare systems around the world for years.  They haven't.  Maybe this tragedy might help them examine the tragedy of healthcare greed.   They ignored banking greed until the system collapsed.   Let's hope the networks don't make the same mistake on healthcare,  a topic essential to every American family outside the 1% who cannot afford to get sick in America.
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