By Ellipses
Opponents of health care reform often cite the fact that some Canadians come to the U.S. to take advantage of our fantabulous health care system. Those same opponents would literally shit a fork if you even mentioned a universal coverage policy that would include illegal aliens. Fuck, you might as well suggest putting a sombrero on the Statue of Liberty!
So, why is it that when Pierre comes to the U.S. for 6 hours to get cataract surgery, it is a testament to the greatness of our system... but when Jorge goes to the emergency room after dropping a pallet of mortar on his feet, it's the greatest travesty since... well... the last travesty that didn't make any fucking sense, either? I mean, really, Jorge actually lives here. He works long, hard hours, for which he is underpaid. He contributes to his local economy and his employer probably pays some semblance of federal tax.
But his seeking care is what's wrong with the greatest health care system on earth... but some French-Canadian who doesn't want to wait 3 weeks for Lasik is proof positive that the current system needs no fixing?
You really don't have to look hard to find latent, but obvious racism just about everywhere, do you?
4 comments:
Reminds me of yet another snippet I heard on NPR over the weekend. Apparently, a Canadian citizen claimed to major news sources that her grandmother was dying and couldn't get care in Canada, so she brought her to the states and got her the lifesaving operation she needed. Well, a Canadian journalist heard about it and thought it sounded fishy. She looked into it and it was apparently and outright lie. This person didn't even exist. These are the people against healthcare reform: people with no valid arguments who make shit up.
Yeah, if I get a few minutes today, I need to look into this whole claim that Canada runs out of health care money in November, so no one gets treated for the last month of the year... I mean, why not just raise the 8.3% of revenue you'd need to finish out the year? Seems better than people dying of strep throat, no?
A couple weeks (months?) ago, I got into a back and forth with someone about Canadians coming to the US for treatment... If I remember correctly, it's considerably less than 1000 people in a heavily populated metro-border area... I bet more Americans go to south america for vanity surgery than do Canadians coming to the US... I will put it on my list to investigate these numbers.
Thats a great observation.
Although I don't see it as racism as much as it being class warfare. But, I rarely recognize racism unless its blatant... so you're probably right.
I'm just on an "I hate whitey" kick this week :-)
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