Yesterday on KCPO’s conservative windbag machine ‘The Facts’ they had on guest Professor of Law, Micheal Myers who used to work for Mayo clinic. They talked about the future of healthcare. Professor Myers was shockingly honest about medicine. He basically says that prescription drugs are poisoning us and America needs to get off of them. But the shocker of the program was when host Canfield kept pressuring Myers for an answer about socialized medicine. Finally Canfield got tired of dancing around the question so he just asks it, and Myers response was great. “Yes, I think the future of healthcare in America will have to be socialized medicine, that’s the only way it will survive (paraphrasing).” Then he went on to say it was the only way that makes sense BUT he also said that you have to take out the capitalistic / money making structure of the healthcare industry to make it work, which he concedes is what has made it so expensive.
Myers isn’t your normal fly by night windbag that they usually have on the program. He is 72 and worked in the healthcare industry most of his life for one of the top hospitals in the world. It was an incredible interview (basically Myers talking and Canfield sitting there dumbfounded by Myers’ honesty).
One funny part about the interview was when Myers says, “People are worried socialized medicine would destroy America’s high standard of care we have now  . . . really . . . we kill aproximately 200,000 people a year in our hospitals and we rate #27 in healthcare of industrialized nations.”
You can hear more on Myers website.
I’ve said it for a while now: The longer the economic downturn goes on and the more people discover how much COBRA coverage costs, the more likely it will be that we, as a nation, will demand national health coverage.
A middle class family with a mortgage and two kids to feed cannot afford to pay $1,200 a month for health insurance. Too many people are one sickness or injury away from bankruptcy.
He pretty much slams doctors who jump from job to job just make more money and the way they negoiate with hospitals. It was a very fascinating interview. He states the obvious, but it was refreshing to hear it from a professional in his field.