Healthcare and Convictions

I trust that those who have been campaigning so vociferously against the "public option" in healthcare reform will follow through and refuse to use Medicare, Medicaid or VA healthcare should the time come when they desperately need care but can't afford it (owing to limited income as retirees etc.)

I mean it would be grossly unfair to force someone to take government-directed healthcare when they expended so much effort telling us how horrible such a concept would be.

Seems like Americans are long on "fiscal responsibility" except when it comes to healthcare where we pay more, per capita, for healthcare than just about any OECD country yet don't live as long as countries where people pay less. And our healthcare system was ranked #37 in 2000 by the W.H.O.

Besides, it's not like healthcare is a normal market good. I don't seem to see too many folks suffering from aggressive life-threatening illnesses taking the time to do "comparison shopping".

Most Americans probably can't tell you how an MRI works, let alone assess if they need an MRI done. Good luck with "shopping around".

But I am assuming the good folks who have, yet again, kept us from moving forward into the same area that almost every other developed nation has in terms of healthcare, are going to follow through on their convictions. And, when they retire and are living on a fixed income, they will dutifully turn down Medicare and go try to get coverage at a private health insurance company.

Of course that will be easy enough so long as they don't have any pre-existing conditions, or ever been to a doctor for any reason in their life, for that matter! The insurance companies will welcome them with open arms.

Oh yeah, and they'll pay a lot for the insurance too. But that's the free market, isn't it?

Watchmen...wtf?

Well, I endured watching "Watchmen" this week. I hope I am not offending but it only serves to reinforce my dislike of the recent trend of movies based on graphic novels.

I liked the effects in the movie and I even smiled at the "alternate history" where Nixon is a 5 term president fighting the Russkies.

But omg the plot was like a frankensteinian grafting of the brains of a savvy observer of human nature and a 25 year old geek-virgin who still lives in his parents' basement. It lurched sickeningly between the clever and the bizarrely naïve. Drooling as it went from politically clever concepts to stupid teen dreams all taking place in inane costumes replete with capes and headgear.

The smartest man in the world??? Oh that about killed me right there.

"Dr. Manhattan"? Really?

And "Rohrschach". Why not just call him "Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory" and have his alter ego named "Meyers Briggs"? (Although I did like the shifting face mask and the possibility of some underlying symbolism of his character reflecting society on some larger scale...when of course I wasn't distracted by Harvey Birdman having "relations" with Silk Specter II in an aerodynamically impossible craft high above the city.)

And the fact the movie went on for like 15 hours indicates that someone just KNEW they wouldn't be able to milk this for a sequel so they tried to cram it all into one movie. Blowing their lot all in one shot...not unlike the airship scene.

My brain hurts and not in a good way now.