Following up from my recent post on the national health care situation...
The July issue of the Minnesota Women's Press carried a wrenching story about a young woman's death at the hands of our de facto policy of uninsurance. Nora's Story should be read by everyone in Congress and a special highlighted copy should be slipped under Tim Pawlenty's door. What happens when you're just post-college, in jobs that offer only underinsurance or no insurance, and you develop cancer? This could be my daughter in 10 years if things don't change.
And tonight's Daily Show was dedicated to the health care issue (I'll post links to clips tomorrow when the videos go live on the Daily Show site).
Stewart provided a classic skewering of all the hysterical, anti-public-option ads and talking heads. Despite the satirical spin he put on it, though, it was pretty depressing to get a glimpse of how much disinformation is out there.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Drag Me to Health | ||||
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The sequence featured this brilliant background graphic...
...and was followed by a three-pronged standup by Canadian Samantha Bee, Brit Jon Oliver and American Wyatt Cenac, each riffing on the exaggerated horror stories they have experienced at the hands of their countries' medical systems.
Finally, the show concluded with a two-part interview with Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (part 1 here, part 2 here), which touched on many of the thorny issues involved. She was very clear about the fact that doing nothing is not an option, which I liked, and she acknowledged that part of the solution is our own behaviors, which lead to chronic conditions that drive up cost.
Americans need to accept some personal responsibility for their health, she said. To which Stewart responded, "Good luck selling that. I've been an American all my life, and we like sitting. And things that taste good."
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