I just read about how the UN is trying to provide health insurance
coverage for its employees that will also cover AIDS treatment.

It cited examples of employees in UN buildings in African countries.
These employees make about $50/month sweeping floors, scrubbing
toilets, etc., but now they are lobbying for full medical coverage,
including AIDS treatment, something of particular concern in a
region where over a quarter of the population is infected.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous! Even in the U.S. lower-income
workers are not entitled to medical insurance, and they make vastly
more than what the African workers in question make. If it is
available, a typical health insurance policy costs $200+ per month,
something that often puts it out of reach of lower-income workers.
So the $50/month African workers somehow think they are entitled
to medical coverage, at UN expense of course. I mean, doesn't it
seem odd to pay someone $50/month but then also give them thousands
of dollars per month in medical care?

The UN is always in a perpetual financial crisis. It simply does not
have the money to provide this service, nice at it may be. I can
already hear cries for the U.S. to contribute the money to pay for
it, though it bears no responsibility for the African AIDS crisis.
If the African workers want medical coverage, let them demand it from
their corrupt governments.

Oh, dear...giving them poor folks any help or medical care BECAUSE
they are poor. Thus, they don't deserve access to healthcare or
treatment.

Poverty = Death. And they deserve it, cause they are poor.

I think this is a not uncommon belief, although it has not been
articulated as bluntly as it has below. The argument seems rooted in
some sort of slanted view of economics that suggests treatment should
be reserved for those whose incomes are high enough.

What such a facile analysis fails to address is that:
a) labor rights globally have been seriously impaired, resulting in
over half the global population being paid under $2 a day, many much
less;

b) healthcare costs are driven by greed and "what the market will
bear" philosophies that kill people routinely by the millions
(specifically with regard to HIV/AIDS, as well, with PHRMA assiduously
assaulting the right to access generic medications);

c) treatment of human beings and healthcare can be a prevention for
much greater costs and strains to already fragile healthcare systems;

d) lack of treatment results in greater economic instability--and
hence, global instability;

e) there is another philosophy that states: "healthcare is a right."
Not a privilege for the few.

There are thus a plethora of reasons that, beginning from a simple
ethical standpoint which should be intrinsically adequate! but
extending to the economic and political underscore the need for access
to care.

George M. Carter

On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 16:58:15 -0500, "Poop Dogg" <nospam@nospam.com>
wrote:

"GMCarter" <gmc0@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message...
I'm speaking as someone who lacks health insurance himself. I would
love "free" healthcare but realize I will simply wind up paying for
it through taxes, and likely much more as government-operated
enterprises are notoriously inefficient. Many Western countries have
adopted the philosophy of a "right" to healthcare and created huge
bloated socialized medical systems that ration care. In other groups
I have read horror stories from these countries from people who need
treatment only to wait from 6 months to 2 years for an appointment.
In recent years, Canada has been unable to provide sufficient
chemotherapy services for its population and has been exporting cancer
patients to the U.S. for treatment.

My point probably is why should the UN employees in question get this
coverage when so many Americans lack it? After all, it will be America
that will be expected to cover the bulk of the bill for this.

On Wed, 1 Oct 2003 13:14:52 -0500, "Poop Dogg" <nospam@nospam.com>
wrote:

You and me...part of the 42 million lacking health insurance. And just
how has that marvelous system not resulted in "rationing" healthcare??
And for the many underinsured?

I have watched people DIE for lack of health insurance here. People
wait that long routinely in the U.S., too. This is a completely
nonsensical argument. With a pool of nearly 300 million people, the US
COULD have one of the strongest, best healthcare systems on the
planet.

Provide data.

LOL...right. Thanks, George Bush, for fucking up the economy, jobless
rate, deficit and then spending BILLIONS on a war based on lies that
basically just fucked things up for both Americans and Iraqis while
sacrificing global good will after 9/11.

Yet no money for healthcare, global AIDS, education....

The only ones who seem to benefit under this regime is the obscenely
wealthy.

George M. Carter