HEALTH CARE — U.S. HEALTH SYSTEM RANKS WORST IN PREVENATABLE DEATHS: In Saturday’s ABC/Facebook presidential debate, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said, “The reality is that, with all of its infirmities and difficulties, we have the best health care system in the world.” It’s a claim conservatives like to tout. Last month, President Bush insisted, “We have fabulous health care in America, just so you know.” He added, “[B]efore people start griping about the health care system here…compare it with other systems around the world.” Today, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine released a report that ranked the United States “worst among 19 countries in the number of deaths that could have been prevented through better access to timely and effective health care. … Had the United States performed as well as the top three countries — France, Japan and Australia — it would have seen about 101,000 fewer deaths per year.” All three countries have publicly-financed health systems. One of the study’s researchers, Ellen Nolte, “said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance…probably was a key factor” in the low ranking.

HEALTH CARE — NEW HEALTH CARE AD: ‘EVERY AMERICAN DESERVES CHENEYCARE’: Last month, the California Nurses Association and the National Nurses Organizing Committee ran ads in Iowa newspapers advocating for a single-payer health-care bill, highlighting the fact that Vice President Dick Cheney has benefited from his government-provided coverage. “If he were anyone else, he’d probably be dead by now,” considering his long history of health problems, claimed the ad. The group’s newest round of ads, which ran “in eight New Hampshire papers” last Friday and went “national” yesterday, dubbed a new name for “guaranteed, publicly-funded health care for all Americans”: CheneyCare. They ask “readers to go to CheneyCare.org and sign a petition in support of CheneyCare for all Americans.” Cheney’s office “did not respond to a request for comment” by the Washington Examiner, but in December, when the original ads ran, Cheney spokesperson Megan Mitchell said that “something this outrageous does not warrant a response.” As The Progress Report noted at the time, what is actually outrageous is the fact that there are roughly 47 million people in America without health insurance, including 3.2 million children. President Bush has twice vetoed legislation that would have expanded coverage to four million more children.

www.americanprogressaction.org

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in a parallel universe, one in which none of my feelings and beliefs are reflected in the media. I’m currently puzzled over the mainstream media’s love affair with Senator John McCain. The man who sold his soul to the devil (George W. Bush) to reach the White House is reportedly “surging” in New Hampshire. Despite his extremely unpopular views on Iraq, independents in New Hampshire, reportedly still love McCain. McCain said last week on Meet the Press that, “it would be fine with him” if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq for a “hundred years” or even a “million years.” Even though 59% of the American public want a time table for withdrawal, the vast majority according to Gallup believe the war in Iraq was a mistake and 66% of likely voters in New Hampshire want their U.S. Senators to “fund the safe and orderly exit of U.S. troops over a 12-month period.” (Lake, Snell Perry Survey of NH Voters, June 19, 2007)

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Some recent events including the death of a friend from brain cancer and the rapid physical and mental decline of an elderly friend have caused me to reflect upon the person that I want to be. More specifically the elderly person I want to become. My role model for this older person would be Sarah Gillespie Manley, who recently died of a heart attack at the age of 80. Sarah Manley died while on a mission trip to New Delhi, India. She died in service to others and that’s what I would like, a swift death, while working on behalf of others. What a fabulous legacy Mrs. Manley leaves behind not only for her family but also for all of us who had the pleasure of knowing her and admiring her from afar.

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