>>>>You elect a government to govern not court public opinion
>>>>
>>>>Someone should have told that to Obama, then. He has been in office almost 7 months and he is still campaigning. His face is plastered all over the television - he is on it in America more than Hugo Chavez is on in Venezuela. From where I sit, it appears that he is unable to govern because he is never in the White House.
>>>>
>>>>We elect a government to represent all of our citizens. Our government should not be representing only the left wing loonies. Historically, this country is a center right.
>>>>
>>>>If voters don't like it they can say so at the next set of elections.
>>>>
>>>>I hear that they are getting ready to let the labor government over there get this message. It's about time.
>>>
>>>Well the American right attacking the NHS might be helping "labor" quite a lot so we can live in hope.
>>
>>Can you verify, is is true that Health trusts in Suffolk were among the first to announce that obese people would be denied hip and knee replacements on the NHS or that if you smoke you will not be treated for heart disease under the NHS?
>>
>>I also read this by Mark Steyn (can't verify its accuracy):
>>
>>amazingly, millions of freeborn citizens’ exercising their own judgment as to which of the latest drugs, tests, and procedures suits their own best interests has given Americans a longer, better, more fulfilling old age to the point where there are entire states designed to cater to it. (There is no Belgian or Scottish Florida.) I had an elderly British visitor this month who’s had a recurring problem with her left hand. At one point it swelled up alarmingly and so we took her to the emergency room. They did a CT scan, X-rays, blood samples, the works. In two hours at a small, rural, undistinguished, no-frills hospital in northern New Hampshire, this lady got more tests than she’s had in the last decade in Britain — even though she goes to see her doctor once a month. He listens sympathetically, tells her old age often involves adjusting to the loss of mobility, and then advises her to take the British version of Tylenol and rest up. Anything else would use up those valuable resources. So, in two hours in New Hampshire, she got tested and diagnosed (with gout) and prescribed something to deal with it. It’s the difference between health “care” (i.e., going to the doctor’s every month to no purpose) and health treatment — and on the latter America is the best in the world.
>>
>>
>>http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTAxYzFjODdiN2E3OWUyNzY1MDU1ODM1ZjZjYmY3YjM=&w=MQ==
>>
>>I'm trying to figure out what is fact and what is fiction.
>>
>>Mark Steyn appears to be a pretty staunch conservative (even for a Canadian or Brit/whichever he is!) :o)
>
>House is one of my favorite series. Diagnostic Medicine is the way to go, as I see it. But is House representative of the US's system????

I think you're being sarcastic, but jic, no, not at all. I love watching House, but I have trouble with suspension of disbelief in a number of areas, including:

- doctors wouldn't be the ones performing all those tests;
- no way would 4 or 5 doctors in a hospital have a caseload of 1;
- except in dire emergencies, things wouldn't happen as fast as on the show. There'd be waits for insurance permission for some of that stuff.

That's not all, but it's enough.

Tamar