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The Towerlight

Featured Letter to the Editor - 10/26

Conservative argument against public option lacks citations, support

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Published: Sunday, October 25, 2009

Updated: Sunday, October 25, 2009

Miss Corbett’s “Public Heath” article is deceptively broad and is difficult to take seriously when accusations are made with no references. Miss Corbett says it is a “fact” that “most” of our congressmen are criminals. I doubt that we, as citizens, would continue to elect such officials if we knew they were law-breaking individuals. If you do not trust our congressmen and women, then every few years, you are perfectly in your right (if you are eligible to vote) to elect someone different, someone whose opinions and beliefs match your own. The current population of our United States Congress was determined by the vote of the people, and can change over time. If you don’t like it, speak with your vote. As a person recently booted off his parents’ health care, I am lucky that Towson University provides its students with affordable health care. The public option is very important to me.

However, my favorite part of your article is when you mention that in Canada, the wait time “to see a special physician is a little over four weeks with 89.5 percent waiting less than three months”. What you failed to mention is that you seemingly lifted this citation directly from the Wikipedia article entitled “Health care in Canada.” Being a college student, we all know how “reliable” Wikipedia is, and that you should go directly to the source, which is in fact, a 124-page report from 2008. Reading the report (which I’m sure you have also done), Figure 8 mentions “Self-Reported Wait Times for Specialist Physician Visits”. My first concern is that the number you cited is “self-reported”, meaning there is no central facility to actually record these wait times. My second concern is although 89.5 percent of patients waited less than three months, that number is actually a sum of 46.2 percent who waited LESS than one month, and 40.3 percent which waited ONE to THREE months. Third, waiting lists in Canada are for ELECTIVE procedures only. Emergency procedures do not have a waiting list in Canada; these patients are seen immediately.

Allow me to summarize: Almost half of all patients on wait lists for elective procedures are seen by a specialty physician in LESS than one month.

As I continued to read this report, Figure 12 mentions that 85.4 percent of patients were “very satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with the health care services provided. This is not a physician care rating (which Figure 14 puts at 89.8 percent, by the way).

I would love to be part of a system where 85 percent of the population was satisfied with it’s health care. Wouldn’t you?

Public debate is what drives us forward, but it’s hard to have productive conversation when conservatives are simply slinging mud.

Matt Gahs

Senior, theatre

Comments

7 comments
Matt Gahs
Wed Oct 28 2009 00:45
Ashley-

In response to your links regarding criminals in Congress: The site lists 34 congressmen and women, out of 535 total. I doubt this is "most". In response to your spousal abuse article, there are timestamps on the submissions which date back to the year 2000, almost ten years ago. I do believe we've gone through three presidential elections, and at least one full round of senate elections.

I have conservative friends who also inquire me to "just open my eyes and look". I am looking, and I clearly do not see what you do, so i'm asking for help. Although I lean towards the left, I am less interested in pushing an agenda and more frustrated when "facts" are presented that aren't supported, or when the evidence clearly condradicts the "facts". What further debt will this put our country in? I read a report the $800 billion would be saved by cutting waste in private healthcare. the $500 billion proposed for the new healthcare plan will come from cutting waste in the system, and that $500 billion is spread out over TEN years. President Obama recently withdrew 20,000 troops from Iraq, in addition to cutting $30 billion in defense spending accordingly. I don't think we'll have a problem paying for this.

When I do open my eyes, and I find that the "facts" are not what you say, then i'm shouted down and told to "look harder". I am looking harder. I'm providing evidence that counters what you're saying. SHOW ME what you're talking about, let's have a proper debate, and stop telling me to look harder and "open my eyes".

Fact Checker
Tue Oct 27 2009 09:42
"I'm right because I said I was right." This is the kind of circular logic we've come to expect from the conservative right. When asked to support claims with facts and hard evidence, they quickly cave under pressure. But I guess that's what we get when Republicans gather "facts," such as "half of of all congressmen are criminals" from "news" stations like Fox News
Your name
Tue Oct 27 2009 08:16
I have cited more than one, or did you not care to take a look at those sources?
I said nothing about republican/democrat. I'm sure there were republican criminals in congress too.

Do a little research or open your eyes before you accuse me of being closed minded/ proving nothing.

I'm tired of arguing with you because you obviously have no idea what you're talking about.

Go ahead, write back.

I won't respond.

Fact Checker
Mon Oct 26 2009 16:43
Ashley, you still have proven nothing. You have cited one case of Pelosi giving Kratovil money and declared "most congressmen criminals." Would you make this accusations several years ago when the Congress was dominated by Republicans? Or is this a sudden revelation regarding crooked politics since Democrats now have a stranglehold on the legislative branch due to a decade of Republican incompetence?

You clearly did "pull these things out of your ass." You have yet to give any substantive argument that would prove that they are in fact guilt of crimes. Care to enlighten us further?

Ashley Corbett
Mon Oct 26 2009 13:00
Excuse me?

I was at least being civil.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that some of the congressmen are criminals.
But, because you're not somewhat intelligent, let me help you out.

http://www.wwco.com/~dda/criminals.php
http://www.ontheissues.org/AskMe/spousal_abuse.htm (a part of what I used for my article)

Your name
Mon Oct 26 2009 12:43
Ashley,

Your comment makes you sound like even more of a crazy bitch. I'm still waiting on the list of the well-known criminals in congress, too. 268... we know you're reading this stuff, so please go ahead and list them. In our country, it's innocent until proven guilty - not "criminal if crazy person thinks they're a criminal."

Your name
Mon Oct 26 2009 11:57
Mr Gahs,

This is Ashley Corbett
Thank you for informing me of things that I already know. I, like you mentioned, have read the already also. You'll see that my editorial does say that they waited less than three months which goes right along with your quotes too. I never said that the patients weren't satisfied, I merely commented on the what I feel to be a long wait time.

I didn't just pull these things out of my ass. It is a well known fact that most politicians are indeed criminals. All you need to do is merely look. Voting doesn't help when we have illegal acts such as Nancy Pelosi giving millions of (illegal) dollars to Frank Kratovil for example. They are underhanded and sneaky.

I notice that you mentioned nothing about the further debt that this would put our country in.

You accuse me of mud slinging and then you say absolutely nothing to defend your position.

Thank you for a great laugh,

Ashley