(313) TO EVERYTHING, THERE IS A SEASON
Wow! Donna has hit the nail on the head again. She has flashes of brilliance that inspire me.
*****
Imagine a government that controls every aspect of the human experience. Recently, the Joint Commission (an agency of which I had never heard) that accredits United States hospitals, stated that their goal of having a more accurate childbirth-mortality rate set by the Commission was four times higher, at 550 per year, than the hoped-for rate set for the year. What?! We have a government commission that decides how many mothers should die in childbirth each year?
Also, the Recovery and Accountability and Transparency Board, which oversees government largesse, designed to rescue banks, has been attacking a bank in London, Kentucky. The chronology: the government offered the bank in London $30,000,000 in bank-bailout money. The bank in London did not need to be bailed out and declined the offer. Since then, the Transparency Board has been hounding the bank to file the forms explaining what it did with the bailout money. Since it did not take the money (one of the reasons being that they did not want to go through the red tape), there was nothing to report. Have they given up getting the bank to file the necessary forms? Of course not! What does the bank do? If it dummies up some forms, it will be prosecuted for perjury. If they don’t file some kind of form, they will be chastised by the Transparency Board. To date, the bank has written many politicians and government agencies, including Senators and Congressmen, advising that they refused the money. However, all of this has been to no avail.
Imagine the bureaucracy taking over health care in the United States.
This has been a great week for my roadies. My friend JFS sent me some statistics that were originally posted in Investors Business Daily. It seems that the percentage of men and women who survived cancer for five years after diagnosis: US 65%, England 46%, Canada 42%. Percentage of patients with diabetes who receive treatment within six months: US 93%, England 15%, Canada 43%. Percentage of seniors needing hip replacements who received it within six months: US 90%, England 15%, Canada 43%. Percentage referred to a medical specialist, who see the specialist within one month: US 77%, England 40%, Canada 43%. Number of MRI scanners per million people: US 71, England 14, Canada 18. Percentage of seniors 65+ with low income who say they are in excellent health: US 12%, England 2%, Canada 6%.
Also included in JFS’s memo was a quote from Senator Harry Reid who said that elderly Americans must learn to accept the inconvenience of old age. That brings to mind the question that I frequently ask to myself, and out loud, ‘How did this idiot get elected?’
Yours for more credit,
TS Frecklebelly

