Why do Americans claim they have never lost a war, when they lost invading Canada and lost invading Cuba?
I've never actually heard, or read about, any Americans claiming they've never lost a war. However, if 'Vietnam, Korea, etc. were "police actions"' as someone here claims, what the heck DO they call a 'war'?? At least they can't pretend Iraq wasn't a 'war' - it was called one repeatedly, although I'm still not prepared to accept that "America" (or her allies) won, it looked to me more like a successful invasion which has caused civil unrest!! Not quite the same thing as a 'war'! And why does America (or her government) think it's acceptable to compensate all those 'nice' soldiers for the damage caused to them by Agent Orange - but that it's okay NOT to compensate the Vietnamese, who are still suffering to this day, and who were mass-murdered by a bunch of Americans?!???? America DELIBERATELY poisoned Vietnam! Those were civilians!! Even if America DID have the right to poison the land (which it DIDN'T!!!) they should STILL give HUGE amounts of compensation to the Vietnamese who are SUFFERING!!
What are the major problems with the healthcare system in America today?
Insurance companies are middlemen between the hospital and or your doctor and you. They od nothing but try to make yo pay the most for the least amount of service so they can take a big cut of the cost as profit. Also, in this country as opposed to most developed countries and some not so developed counmtries, profit has become our number one motive. Therefore a doctor and/or a hospital might want to help people, but they also wnat to make big money. If you need a heart operation in order to live, they can charge whatever they want thinking you will pay it. In Europe and Cuba, Venizala and more countries, their thinking is that good health is the job of all citizens to each other. Therefore in England if you need a heart operation, or in Canada you have a serious disease, or in Germany you suffer a bad accident, or in Norway you are going to have a baby, or in Cuba if you're loosing your eyesight, your doctor recommends the proper treatment and you have it and go about your life without the crushing debt. The insurance companies, who profit from your illness, spend millions trying to convince you that an insurance run capitalistic health care system is in your best interest when it clearly is in their best interest, not yours.
Is the US healthcare situation today worse than ever?
Not yet.The quality of healthcare in the US for those who can afford it is constantly increasing as medical knowledge and technology improve. Moreover, at this particular moment, we’ve got more people covered by health insurance than we have in some time. In short, we’ve got good health care and an improved number of people with access to it.That said, there are problems on the horizon. A program covering children’s health insurance has gone unfunded for a few months now and, with little or no activity to fix that lapse, a bunch of kids may be losing their coverage in the next few months. And tax legislation currently working its way through congress may undercut one of the critical legs of the Affordable Care Act, which will lead to millions of recently covered people losing their coverage and may take some more conventionally covered people with them, leading to an overall decline in the quality of health care as lots of people lose access.So, then, the current state isn’t that bad, but things may get a lot worse quite soon.
What is the biggest problem with the U.S. health care system?
There are two big problems, one in the system, one out. The biggest problem in the system is that it is geared to curing, not preventing disease. If more attention were placed on prevention, not nearly as much would be spent throughout the system in curing. And this is made worse by the fact that many insurance companies will not pay for prevention, only curing. The second big problem is that insurance companies make their entire effort to prevent paying claims. There are hundreds of people working for them, and their job is to deny, not pay, claims. This makes doctors and hospitals charge more to cover the claims which are eventually denied despite their validity and the money lost on the time lag between filing and payment on those claims which are eventually paid.
The banks have failed....?
As most oil fields' extraction rate is decreasing faster than expected, a possible economic recovery is likely to run into a shortage of oil. The bad response to this fact would be to use more coal and oil shale, thus accelerating global disaster. The good response is to accelerate efficiency measures and construction of renewable energy facilities. Amory Lovins has identified many opportunities for large increases in energy efficiency in trucks and buildings. The most effective way to reduce your long-term contribution to global warming is to have fewer children. All of humanities global problems are exacerbated by population growth. For example, population growth in Brazil creates people who demand jobs, and they give political support to the rich people that want to cut down all the rain forest to grow soybeans and cattle. Population growth means more cars, more plastic, more oil burned. And since Americans typically use more resources per capita than everyone else, one less child born in the US does more to reduce all these problems than it would anywhere else. Given the problems of population growth, it is a good thing that the UK national health service is making in-vitro fertilization somewhat harder to get. But this policy does not go far enough. Health care programs should never cover IVF, because that makes the world's most dangerous threat more dangerous.