Glenn Beck on the health care system and “the tape”…
The AP’s David Bauder interviews Glenn Beck…
When he got a concerned call from the hospital’s chief administrator, Beck knew the tape had spread beyond his Web site. Sure enough, the Drudge Report had picked it up. It has reached nearly 800,000 views on YouTube.
Now that he’s more coherent, Beck doesn’t want to forget the things that really upset him during his medical nightmare.
He said he and his wife were made to feel less than human when he came to the hospital’s emergency room in intense pain (Beck isn’t naming the hospital). As his wife struggled to carry him, a triage nurse “was actually drumming his fingers on the door and sighing, like ‘come on,’” he told The Associated Press. “He never made eye contact with me during the whole thing. He never talked about pain. He left my wife and I in the dust.”
It took more than two hours to get any medication for pain “and it wasn’t a busy night at all,” he said.
Then there was the nurse who casually dismissed his request for oxygen, and a shower stall littered with old bandages. Several people treated him with compassion, but enough didn’t that Beck believes there’s a wider problem there.
Beck probably expected “special treatment” because he was on TV. Had he ever been to an emergency room before? Waiting for hours, when in serious pain, is nothing new. Good luck to him on his crusade-but would he give a damn if it hadn’t happened to him?
Comment by Alison — January 15, 2008 @ 11:33 am
Hey, give him a break, Alison. He’s been part of the ‘America has the best healthcare in the world’ brigade for years. Tell yourself something enough times and you start to believe it - until you get smacked in the face by the reality of the thing.
Rude awakening? maybe, but at least it’s an awakening.
Comment by Arthur — January 15, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
I still believe we do have the best system despite people trying to screw it up. At least we still have the choice to go to a different hospital. Hospitals still compete with each other. This is a good thing. Now if we could only reverse the trend for government intrusion into health care. We also need to detatch health insurance from the place of work. This happened because of government and it needs to stop. It causes people with existing conditions to be denied when they move jobs.
Comment by Jeff — January 15, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
ah, so now a rich guy with a microphone has had trouble in the ER and we should all pay attention…get in line buddy ‘cause most of us have been there or know someone who has.
Comment by CAUNE — January 15, 2008 @ 2:12 pm
I still believe we do have the best system despite people trying to screw it up.
Nineteenth out of nineteen industrialized nations in preventable deaths? Leader of the first world in infant mortality rates?
The only way we outrate the rest of the world is in the percent of GDP we SPEND on healthcare. Everyone else gets more for their money. A LOT more, and more people get it.
Comment by Arthur — January 15, 2008 @ 2:33 pm
I feel for Beck, but this is how A LOT of people are treated. I have ongoing medical problems and most of the time the medical people (especially in the ER) could careless if you are in pain. If you’re uninsured it’s even worse. This is not a unique problem and over the past 10 years it has gotten worse.
Comment by LR — January 15, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
Arthur and others!
You have good points but what is the solution,socialized medicine? Do we want the government running our health care system? Have you been to the post office during your lunch hour only to find a line of 20 people in front of you and one employee on duty,we need a solution to the problem, but socialized medicine is not it!
Comment by Millie — January 15, 2008 @ 3:08 pm
Millie - you can scare some of the people with your codewords (eeeek! socialized medicine!) but it doesn’t work with everyone.
Tell me what’s wrong with everyone having access to healthcare? to spending significantly less per capita and getting more for it? To lowering rates of preventable deaths and infant mortality?
Please notice this table:
Life Expectancy (years):
Men Women
Japan 76.2 82.5
France 72.9 81.3
Switzerland 74.1 81.3
Netherlands 73.7 80.5
Sweden 74.2 80.4
Canada 73.4 80.3
Norway 73.1 79.7
Germany 72.6 79.2
Finland 70.7 78.8
United States 71.6 78.6
United Kingdom 72.7 78.2
Denmark 72.2 77.9
Notice something funny? TPeople in those ’socialist’ countries live longer than we do.
Leaving healthcare delivery up to the private sector gives us higher costs and earlier deaths. Yay for capitalism.
Comment by Arthur — January 15, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
Arthur,
I did not say that there was not problems with our health care system, I said that a government run health care system is not the answer!
If government run health care is so great why have 2 of my neighbors who lived in Canada under a government run health care system have nothing good to say about it? Or are they the on two former Canadian families that feel the system is a nightmare. I repeat a government run health care system is not the answer to our health care problems!
Comment by Millie — January 16, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
I repeat a government run health care system is not the answer to our health care problems!
say it all you want, but it doesn’t alter the fact that those nations with ‘government run healthcare’ actually are healthier than we are. Coincidence?
Comment by Arthur — January 16, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
The USA has a shorter life expectancy because of the high murder rate in this country. It has nothing to do with the lack of Government intrusion into healthcare. The United States is WHERE the Medical breakthrough’s and all the life saving drugs come from because of the free market. Take it away, and you will kill life saving advancement that other countries steal from us because they could never develope it on their own - there is NO incentive. Healthcare costs SO much as it is BECAUSE the government is interfering. If I could just get the insurance I need and not Government mandated AIDS coverage, Mental Health, Chiro, etc. then we could all afford Health Insurance just like we buy car insurance. When we get the government OUT of it - it will be affordable and it thrive. If Hillary gets her way, you will have a major healthcare crises in ten years. Where do you people get your idea that some paper pusher can take beter care of you than your doctor? If they get out of the way your doctor can do his job. If you want to have some guy with a law degree directing your healthcare - good for you. Have at it. As for the rest of us, We’ll take the people who have studied all their lives. When something is free, it has to be rationed.
The free market ALWAYS out perfroms government if left alone. Let me repeat that for you and I challenge you to find a business that the Government has done a better job at than the Free Market. The free market ALWAYS out performs government if left alone! For God sakes have you not heard of the USPS? Good Lord, what else do I need to say?
Comment by Jim Mapston — April 23, 2008 @ 4:32 pm
How can you possibly critisize a country’s healthcare system where EVERY man woman or child, employed or unemployed, rich or poor, middle class or homeless can have a broken arm repaired, surgery preformed, or essential tests performed with absolutely no money out of pocket? The issue with the american, insurance company driven system is that healthcare is profit based. Are the police forces expected to turn a profit? The fire departments? Do they check the status of coverage on a particular building before deciding to fight a fire? Healthcare should be an absolute basic right in an industrialized country? Get rid of the profits and the whole thing just works better. I agree that the research and innovation need to be well funded in order to have an incentive, but not at the cost of someone not being able to afford to have required medical proceedures performed.
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