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Opinions Aug. 6, 2009 |
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—Editorial—
Shriners Always Welcome
The Shriners — they came, they stayed, they played, they entertained and they raised money for a worthy cause. We salute these fine men and their wives in their funny little parade cars and Fez clad heads. They are truly an inspiration and a testament to what an organization can do when they engage their minds and hearts to work together.
Al Kader Shriners, an all male fraternity that includes their wives in their activities, was founded in 1888, the first Shriners Center to be established in the Pacific Northwest. Their purpose it to have fun and support the Shrine Hospitals. Fun is obviously a side effect of knowing you are helping children succeed in life.
The Shrine Organization is international, with centers in Canada, Mexico, Panama and the United States. There are 191 Shrine centers with approximately 375,000 members.
Shriners Hospitals for Children is dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, innovative research and teaching programs. Every year, the 22 hospitals provide care for thousands of kids with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate, at no charge.
And while the Shriners are having all this fun and raising money, they are supporting our local economy by staying in our motels, eating in our restaurants and bringing hundreds of people to town, who are doing the same, for the East West Shrine Game. Visitors and the community are also treated to a parade.
We just can’t find anything wrong with this scenario, it’s a win, win proposition for everyone, especially the kids who need the services of Shriners Hospitals.
Kudos go out to all of the local people involved in making this event successful, especially Wayne Lewis and the local Shriners’ club, Randy Guyer for handling the finances, the Baker County Cattlemen and Cattlewomen Association, Quail Ridge and Buffalo Peak Golf Course for holding tournaments, and all of the local service organizations and individuals who held events and helped with activities during the weekend. And, of course, all of the East and West players, coaches, families and support members for putting on a great show.
We hope Baker City and those involved in putting on the East West Shrine Game will continue their efforts for years to come and people will continue to get involved in this very worthwhile event, that we look forward to every year. Your efforts are not going unnoticed — we appreciate you! (DS)
—Guest Opinion—
Health Care: You May Get What You Don’t Pay For
By: Katharine DeBrecht
While Congress and the Administration are scrambling to draft a catastrophic overhaul of our healthcare system, now more than ever is the time to step back and take a look at how citizens have fared in other countries under the guise of “free” healthcare.
Government-run healthcare systems in other countries are a painful example of how good intentions can produce dire results. Canadian, British, and European government-run health systems delay and ration care for citizens, limit access to cutting-edge diagnostic services and medications, and result in poor quality medical care, all while costs skyrocket.
It is no secret that there are tragically long waiting periods for patients to receive treatment in Canada and Great Britain. According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, 827,429 Canadians are awaiting some type of procedure, while 1.8 million people in England await hospital admission or outpatient treatment. At one point, waiting periods were so bad in Canada, that in 2005 Canadian citizens, fed up with being prohibited by law from seeking private care, took the matter to the highest court in Canada.
The high court found in favor of the plaintiffs, stating: "The evidence in this case shows that delays in the public healthcare system are widespread, and that, in some serious cases, patients die as a result of waiting lists for public healthcare. The evidence also demonstrates that the prohibition against private health insurance and its consequence of denying people vital healthcare result in physical and psychological suffering that meets a threshold test of seriousness."
In an attempt to avoid long waiting periods in Great Britain, the National Health Service (NHS) instituted “targets” using a carrot and stick approach with hospitals that have further exacerbated the decline of quality healthcare for all Britons.
This month the Daily Telegraph reported that emergency room patients suspected of having cancer are forced to the back of the line. These sometimes critical emergency patients do not “count” towards the targets as do other cancer patients referred by GPs and are therefore subjected to longer and often painful waiting periods.
This past spring the Daily Telegraph cited a report by Britain’s Healthcare Commission regarding the conditions at Staffordshire hospitals where between 400 and 1200 more patients died than expected during a three year period. According to the Daily Telegraph the investigation found “overstretched and poorly trained nurses who turned off equipment because they did not know how to work it, newly qualified doctors left to care for patients recovering from surgery at night, patients left for hours in soiled bedclothes, reception staff expected to judge how seriousness of patients arriving at A&E (emergency rooms), patients left without food or drink, others who received the wrong medication or none at all, blood and faeces left on lavatories and floors, and doctors diverted away from seriously ill patients in order to treat minor ones who were in danger of breaching the four hour waiting time target.”
In 2007 the Independent found that “annual performance ratings for every NHS trust, published today, show 44 hospital trusts out of 172 (25 percent) failed at least one of three core standards on infection control. Overall, hygiene was the area where compliance with the core standards set by the Commission for the NHS was lowest.”
Those fortunate enough to find a sanitary medical facility, may still be denied treatment, or even forced to administer treatment themselves because of rising costs, something that many believed socialized medicine would cure. In January 2008 the Daily Telegraph cited a British Department of Health plan to encourage patients who suffer from arthritis, asthma and even heart failure to resort to self-treatment, which included monitoring heart activity and lung capacity, self-administering drugs and utilizing relaxation techniques to avoid panicked visits to medical professionals. According to the report, “an internal Government document seen by the Daily Telegraph makes clear that the policy is a money-saving measure, a key plank of DoH plans to cut costs.”
Cost-cutting also affects the effective training of medical personnel. According to the Guardian, this spring two Healthcare Commission reports on the care of children “found serious inadequacies despite the high priority the commission had tried to give children over the last five years. Many staff were not trained to spot abuse, give pain relief or resuscitate a child who had stopped breathing.” The Daily Telegraph also reported that a review of 154 hospital trusts, three out of ten “don’t meet basic minimum level of child protection training to key staff.”
Cost-cutting may also affect how physicians view the treatment of their patients. In 2002, the Independent cited an April 2001 report on an inquiry into whether doctors in top heart hospitals in Britain were refusing children heart surgery because they had Down Syndrome. The Independent reported that the inquiry report “revealed a culture of paternalism among doctors with outdated medical practices and concluded, as a result, the treatment offered was construed by parents as discriminatory.”
Canadian children do not fare much better. In 2004 two pediatric hospitals in Montreal had a backlog of 5,500 children awaiting surgery up to a year because the surgeries, such as tubes for chronic ear infections which can cause hearing loss, crooked eyes which can cause lost of sight, and disfiguring facial tumors which can become a subject of cruel teasing was considered “elective”.
The elderly, obese and those with unhealthy lifestyles also have the propensity to be denied treatment in Great Britain, according to a survey by Doctor magazine cited by the Daily Telegraph. According to the survey, British doctors are “calling for NHS treatment to be withheld from patients who are too old or who lead unhealthy lives.”
According to the Daily Telegraph “among the survey of 870 family and hospital doctors, almost 60 percent said the NHS could not provide full healthcare to everyone and that some individuals should pay for services.” One out of ten hospitals already refuse some surgery to patients who are smokers or obese in Great Britain.
If you are old and have cancer, you are even worse off under the British healthcare system. According to a report cited by the Daily Mail, 15,000 elderly die each year unnecessarily from cancer because focus is directed mainly to patients under 75 years of age.
Those under the age of 75 diagnosed with cancer, don’t fare much better. According to The Times, in 2005 bureaucratic red tape denied over 20 licensed cancer treatments to British cancer patients, with another 23 treatments awaiting appraisal. These included treatments for breast, colon, bone marrow and lung cancer as well as non-Hodgkins lymphoma and brain tumors. Such delays can last as long as three years.
Because of increasing costs, British cancer patients are also denied more effective cancer-fighting drugs. In 2008 The Times highlighted the story of a 68 year old man with kidney cancer seeking to purchase a more effective drug out of pocket. He was told that if he privately purchased the drug, which promised two times the survival rate than the one administered by the government, the government would drop his healthcare coverage. The man purchased the drug anyway and is now no longer able to receive follow-up tests, treatment, etc. Another 71 year old cancer patient opted for the same thing, and was subsequently billed by the NHS £11,500 for his medical care after he was dropped by the government system. Only after the media publicized the incident did the NHS rescind the bill.
Rising costs also create a shortage of doctors. In Japan, where the government controls the healthcare market including price and compensation, many citizens flee or refuse to enter the medical profession. A shortage of obstetricians led to the 2006 death of a pregnant woman who was turned away from 20 hospitals for treatment. The following year, another pregnant woman lost her child after traveling 45 miles only to miscarry in a crashed ambulance after being turned away by eight hospitals.
Pregnant women in Great Britain also experience shortages. In 2008, the Guardian reported that 10 percent of hospital trusts closed their doors to pregnant women at least 10 days in 2007 and 42 percent of trusts reported to have turned down a pregnant woman at least once.
The mentally ill or disabled have fared even worse. In 2007 The Independent cited a Lancet medical journal which found British mental health wards to be “at best untherapeutic and at worst unsafe” and access to psychological treatment “pitiful”. After an investigation into six deaths of mentally disabled patients in Great Britain, the Health Service Ombudsman stated “the recurrence of complaints across different agencies leads us to believe that the quality of care in the NHS and social services for people with learning disabilities is at best patchy and at worst an indictment of our society.”
While “free” healthcare may seem enticing to some Americans, it is critical to realize what other government-run healthcare systems have actually provided and truly denied their citizens. There is a reason why Americans are not flocking to Europe for quality medical care. There is also a reason why so many flock to the United States for the best healthcare in the world. Perhaps we (and they) realize you get what you don’t pay for.
Katharine DeBrecht is a graduate of Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame and the mother of three. She is a freelance writer and the author of the popular Help! Mom! children’s book series. She is a regular political commentator on several national news networks as well as national broadcast and print media. She has also written opinion pieces for newspapers across the country, including The Los Angeles Times.
—Letters To The Editor—
Let Us Revive The Use Of Common Sense
To The Record-Courier:
As individuals who make up our society, it seems like the application of common sense, which should be the norm, is becoming a rarity in many situations.
When it comes to making decisions by those in our city government, common sense should be easily found in each decision.
When it comes to making decisions by those in our federal government, common sense should be easily found in every decision.
Political affiliation and/or any kind of personal agendas by those in any level of government should have no bearing on the use of common sense.
I refer you to an obituary – “The Death of Common Sense,” written by Lori Borgman. Although first published on March 15, 1998, it is very applicable to today. Lori Borgman contributes articles to many newspapers throughout the United States and Canada.
Simply do a Google search for: the death of common sense then look for her name, or go to loriborgman.com.
A quote from one of the last lines in her article, in reference to Common Sense:
“He is survived by two step-brothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.”
Let us revive the use of common sense. And demand it from those in any level of government.
Kim Kimberling
Baker City, Ore.
Obama Shoots From The Hip
To The Record-Courier:
President Obama has confirmed my fear of having a president with terrible judgment.
His recent accusation that the Cambridge, MA police “acted stupidly” in the arrest of a black college professor shows Obama makes decisions without gathering all the facts and analyzing the situation. He automatically took the side of a fellow black, and berated the police, without any knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the event. He should not be commenting on local police matters. This only weakens the office of President of the United States.
President Obama has trouble thinking correctly and makes poor decisions when he is away from his aides, is not reading from a prepared speech and does not have a teleprompter in front of him. Also, he has exhibited a tendency to “shoot from the hip.” Do you trust him to take the 3 a.m. call? I don’t.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, NH
Crossing Bridges
To The Record-Courier:
You know how many times have we been there and done that in our life time of crossing bridges, kind of like stepping on toes? But whose toes are we stepping on if that not our own to begin with?
I know this is unusual to write this kind of letter. But wanted to see how much I could make out of it at that. You know in my last letter I mentioned we had a garter snake, so now I am calling him or her “Snake Eyes.” A very dear friend of the family stopped by one night to give me a taste of nice fresh beans from a neighbor’s garden, and all and just had to show her my 4 ft. tall tomato plants and she inquired about Snake Eyes, and whether or not he would be out to greet her and said we hadn't seen him for a few days. So assured her that she would be fine and noted that she would not be stepping on Snake Eyes’ well being. You know they say that crossing bridges in our lifetime can teach us whatever we are to learn and apply the truth to no matter and make the best of whatever the issues are of those we face. So here it is with the issue of beans and not to mention they were very good, and now I can hardly wait for mine to come on, a few have but need enough to make a meal or two out of them. It is interesting to note that when we have a taste of something good in our lives we run with it and then it catches up with us—whether it be for the good or bad. In this case for the good.
Now, remember as kids how our parents would try to convey whatever the message to us with their eyes, and somehow we just seemed to have gotten the drift no matter what? Laugh a little it will do you just fine. To them we could really let them believe that message was well conveyed but not always did know if they made a point—nothing like make believe. Ha. Nowadays you can almost look a person in the eye, like Snake Eyes, and have their character figured out one way or another. Crossing bridges can have the same effect as well, well anyways, in reference to my last letter about huckleberries, I wanted to thank the individual who called me and now I believe I am back in business with my huckleberries...this family of ours when picnics are in store for the summer like cobblers, etc. but then since then heard that other family members have them to, so maybe I can hold on to mine for a change, who knows.
It has been a couple of years to have some nice huckleberries and all. The comment was made about milkshakes etc. so wonder if my pickles and milkshakes, would go down the hatch well. Hmm. He was very familiar with the family name and all. So yes that was another bridge crossed. Smile. Told you so.
Coffee Anyone,
Brenda Dickison
Baker City
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