The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    CVille Dem's picture

    Did We See The Same 60 Minutes?

    Did I see the same 60 minutes as everyone else here? 

    If Hillary's inability to give a direct answer in support of her rival's religious affiliation gets everyone in a twitter, I think you missed the BIG story.

    Maybe you went on to blog about Hillary's inability to take the high road about one single thing about Barack , but if so you missed an poignant and scandalous story about Americans flocking to get charity health care.  Hundreds of people waiting hours in their cars for the doors to open where a cadre of volunteers, using donated equipment, took care of people who can't afford to take care of themselves.

    When it came on, the tv was muted, and I wondered absently what county this "medical mission" was in.  Then the sound came on and it was in Georgia, USA.  People with abscessed teeth, with untreated diabetes, cervical cancer, high blood pressure, and more.  Women getting their first mammograms in 15 years.  Some were uninsured; many were underinsured, with high co-pays or deductibles that are out of their reach.

    There was a woman whose vision was so bad she could hardly see, and she said she had worked all her life and always had insurance, but now she couldn't afford an eye exam or glasses, and "just hated to ask" her friends to help out.  Happy ending to her story; they re-opened the eye clinic and took care of her.

    At the end, 50+ people were turned away, because they just had to stop at some point.  Their faces were painful to watch as they slowly turned and went back to their cars.

    This is wrong.  In the face of the trillions we have thrown away in Iraq it is a national scandal when someone says that Universal Health Care is too epensive!  I have news for Hillary, Barack, and John Edwards:  none of your health plans will fix this, because they don't address co-pays, deductibles, and the headache of pre-authorizations.

    Nothing but a single-payor, NOT FOR PROFIT system of health maintenance (not HMO) will work.  As long as there is a profit motive, patients lose.

    So to those of you who left after the Hillary thing on 60 Minutes -- get over it -- it hardly matters, because she was completely predictable in her response.  You missed what really mattered in the program.