the dissident frogman

14 years and 9 months ago

Examples to ponder while Obama crafts his socialized healthcare plans

Disclaimer: I have an acquaintance within the French national health care insurance system. This is my source. What you're about to read is true.

the dissident frogman

Necrothreading much?

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Socialized health care is just one step on the Road to Serfdom—though a dramatic one. And a deep dive down the Bureaucratic Twilight Zone of the Absurd. Take France for instance:

The much vaunted1 French “free”2, mandatory, state-run health care insurance may reimburse any patient’s second hearing aid if, and only if he is blind.

Get that? Socialistzed health care means that you will be allowed to hear only if you can’t see3. I mean, hey, you can’t have it all—there are other people waiting, you know. Selfish bastard.

And of course, the poor deaf and blind soul may get that if he first obtained the bureaucrats’ authorization to get said second hearing aid. We can’t have any sort of self-medication going on, can we?

  1. By the French state and it's lackeys. Oh, and by the myriads of civil servants who get paid off of it.
  2. It's not free, of course—quite the contrary actually, as soon as you realize that you, your family, friends, employers and every single working citizen pay for it every month, all their lives and for a ridiculously small return, unless you happen to be deaf and blind, or terminally ill. (the amount you'll get for dental or ophthalmologic care is so low that it's insulting—I personally won't even bother returning the required forms to get reimbursed)
  3. Provided you happen to have two ears, and be afflicted by deafness congenital or acquired. One should note that in this particular context, one-eyedness doesn't seem to make a difference in the State's health care arithmetic. Whatever the affected side.

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the dissident frogman

I own, built and run this place. In a previous life I was not French but sadly, I died.

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Comments thread (4)

4164 - Proof

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  • Proof Stockton, Callifornia, USA

It is well said that the only thing socialism is able to spread equitably is misery. This seems to be yet another sterling example.

We shall try to hold onto liberty for as long as we can here, Monsieur Frogman, but things look bleaker than they have in a long time!

4168 - DaToad

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A socialized health care plan modeled after the French plan will help about 52% of Americans. They are both blind and deaf.

PS: Log-in would not work for me today.

4169 - the dissident frogman

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  • the dissident frogman France

"A socialized health care plan modeled after the French plan will help about 52% of Americans. They are both blind and deaf."

Heh. Reminds me of a Lovecraft short story. I think it was called "Deaf, dumb and blind".

"PS: Log-in would not work for me today."

Damn, sorry about that. I must investigate that issue, as you are the second one reporting trouble with the login in too short of a time span for this to be accidental. Bloody web software will be the end of me.

Time to take sides

4180 - Spiny Norman

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  • Spiny Norman California

Mark Steyn:

"And once government health care's in place the game's over: Socialized medicine redefines the relationship between the citizen and the state in all the wrong ways, and, if you cross that bridge, it's all but impossible to go back."