Something for the Ladies...and some of the guys

Viggo Mortensen, many consider him rather easy on the eyes and a renaissance man.

I think they are right.

According to the journal Health Affairs, the U.S. spent two and a half times more per capita on health care for its citizens than the average industrialized country did in 2003, and it lagged at least a dozen years behind all other industrialized countries in adopting electronic health records. Just last week, a study in the journal of the American Medical Association reported that, although our per-person health care cost is nearly double that of England, Americans, regardless of income, have more diabetes, heart disease, respiratory problems and many other diseases than do the English.*

The fact that millions of Americans cannot afford health care insurance and therefore do not seek regular necessary medical attention surely is partly to blame. If you try to save money in the short term by not regularly servicing your car, you will find that it won't function very well in the long term, and that you will incur great expense trying to fix the situation. The same goes for your body. Lack of political will and leadership is the reason our health care system has not evolved and kept apace of those other industrialized countries – not logistics, as many politicians and health care industry lobbyists would have you believe. A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 80 percent of Americans regard universal health care as more important than holding down taxes. You don't hear this reflected much in political discourse on Capitol Hill or by the health care industry. Enormous profits go to drug companies, private medical administration businesses and insurance companies in the U.S.A., from overpriced drugs, superfluous bureaucracy and other inefficiencies.*

Among the most revered of teachings in any religion or spiritual code of ethics, including those attributed to Jesus Christ, is the admonition to care for the least fortunate among us. This lesson seems to have gone unheeded by any in the health care and insurance business, and, most tellingly, by the politicians who do their often uncharitable and obstructionist bidding. This is especially galling in light of how many of these same politicians regularly trumpet their avowed Christian values as badges of honor and electibility.