[CF Alliance]Prof Hawking: I am alive because of UK's gov't health care....

[Guest guest]

Speaking of government sponsored health care systems in other

countries.....

I just heard a " holy mackerel " story (a Maddow segment) related

to health care reform about physicist, Professor Hawking who

suffers motor neurone disease more commonly called Amyotrophic Lateral

Sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease after the baseball player, in

the US.

Professor Hawking is in the news because he was awarded, yesterday,

the highest honor in the US, The Medal of Freedom.

http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/2009/08/hawking-receives-us-medal-of-f.h\

tml

(8/12/09)

Hawking was also incorrectly used as an example of the superiority of

non-government competition/intervention in health care compared with

national health care countries such as the UK/Britain's National

Health Service (NHS), quote:

" The controlling of medical costs in countries such as Britain through

rationing, and the health consequences thereof, are legendary. The

stories of people dying on a waiting list or being denied altogether

read like a horror script … People such as scientist Hawking

wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service

would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical

handicaps, is essentially worthless. "

Investor's Business Daily editorial, July 31, 2009

Statements and editorials opposing US health care reform such as IBD's

(above) presume US health care is completely free of government as it

stands now in US, which it is not, ie: medicare/medicaid/regulations

concerning family planning/regulations of insurance companies by US

federal, state, county, city, commonwealth governments.

Investor's Business Daily's editorial statement concerning Professor

Hawking has been deleted from IBD's website with a misleading

" correction " of their editorial issued

beeecaaaauuuuuse:

Professor Hawking was born in Britain, has lived in Britain

his entire life, is a professor at Cambridge in Britain and has used

Britain's NHS all his life.

Investor's Business Daily " correction " misleads by stating Professor

Hawking is British without mentioning this fact renders the entire

argument of their July 31 editorial on dangers of national health care

- or " socialized medicine " hinting at communism in order to demonize

national health care - completely bogus.

Hawking issued a statement when asked by Hugh Muir, Guardian.co.uk,

also a Brit, about Investor's Business Daily's anti-US health care-

reform editorial :

" I wouldn’t be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received

a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not

have survived.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/12/birthers-stephen-hawking-paul-row\

en#history-byline

a of a's Blog at Talking Points Memo-Muckraker further reports

of asking Hawking about IBD's trashing of Britain's NHS:

" ........on the subject of " Death Panel " medicine, so I went on

(Hawking's) Web site and sent him an e-mail asking him about it. His

personal assistant was kind enough to forward his response (see Hugh

Muir's reporting above, same statement). "

" She also said (Prof. Hawking) didn't want to do interviews on the

subject but does feel quite strongly about it.

" So there you have it. The world's smartest sick guy isn't at all

worried about his " socialized " medical care. Maybe the rest of us

shouldn't be, either. "

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/erica/2009/08/stephen-hawking-li\

kes-his-deat.php?ref=recdc

Personally, I, toni, bristle at the word " should. " People have

concerns because of media coverage of outrageous lies as news,

perpetrated by vested economic interests, not to mention the personal

experiences of many of us with today's US medical system, often

disappointing, afraid it could become worse for them/us. These are

legitimate concerns, especially when being mucked around in by US

congressional committees run by legislators needing loads of money to

win their office again the next time.

I would say, rather, it's possible the rest of us can afford to trust

the representative government process to come up with health care

reform that won't further bankrupt the country while providing care

for everyone by becoming more competitive because new businesses/

manufacturers (think cars, honda, toyota) establishing themselves in

the US will no longer carry the whole load of the most expensive

health care system in the world.

Sources of info for this " holy mackerel " story:

Maddow Show (see medals of freedom awarded)

- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32396083

Hugh Muir, Guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 August 2009 19.42 BST:

-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/aug/12/birthers-stephen-hawking-paul-row\

en#history-byline

a's Blog, Talking Points Memo Muckraker:

-

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/erica/2009/08/stephen-hawking-li\

kes-his-deat.php?ref=recdc

Atlantic Journal Constitution:

-

http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2009/08/10/it-doesnt-take-stephen-hawking-\

to-figure-this-one-out/

Columbia Journalism Review:

- http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/investors_business_daily_short.php

Washington Post's Ezra Klein:

-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/08/twitter_stephen_hawking_and_\

br.html

For conservative reporting on IBD's mistake re: Professor Hawking,

followed by anti-US health reform spin, there's always

The National Review:

-

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZTgyMmYxNTEzODUyMmY3ODU2MzdlNTkwMDRjZTc\

3NDE=

Investor's Business Daily's original editorial is no more, but you can

use links in articles above to go to their website if you want.

For more perspectives, google some of the keywords from the quotes

above.

toni

nr annapolis md

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/CFAlliance/