Today some righties are hyperventilating about a story in the Daily Mail — “Father delivered baby after partner was turned away from NHS hospital - TWICE.” A laboring woman in the UK was sent home because, she was told, there were no beds available in the hospital. Eventually her husband delivered the baby at home.

The British National Health Service has big problems that, as I understand it, stem less from the system itself than from massive underfunding of the system. Brits have been trying to get by on the cheap, and it shows. To illustrate, here is Figure One from the University of Maine’s “The U.S. Health Care System: The Best in the World, or Just the Most Expensive?” (PDF).

The figure shows spending for health care per capita in various nations, in 1998. I added “USA” and “UK.” In 1998, the U.S. was spending $4,178 per capita and the UK was spending $1,461 per capita. I understand that in recent years the Brits have been increasing their spending on NHS, but it takes a long time to make up for years of underfunding.

I bring this up because one cannot fairly compare the U.S. and U.K. systems without considering the funding issue. This does not, of course, stop righties from comparing them.

Click here for more.

We'll let Michelle Malkin debunk herself on the issue of health care and and her attacks on the Frost family. I hope with some deep reflection she can come to grips with her callousness: (from 08/24/04)

After my husband quit his job earlier this year (to become a full-time stay-at-home dad), we had a choice. We could either buy health insurance from his former employer through a program called COBRA at a cost of more than $1,000 per month(!) or we could go it alone in Maryland’s individual market. Given our financial circumstances, that “choice” wasn’t much of a choice at all.

We had to go on our own. We discovered that the most generous plans in Maryland’s individual market cost $700 per month yet provide no more than $1,500 per year of prescription drug coverage–a drop in the bucket if someone in our family were to be diagnosed with a serious illness. With health insurance choices like that, no wonder so many people opt to go uninsured.

Oppps. Barbara O'Brien responds:

What they haven’t yet realized is that if they face a medical disaster similar to what the Frost family went through, their insurer will drop them like a hot calabasa unless state regulations say otherwise.

TREX has much more...

The WSJ editorial board has jumped in and called the Malkinites: "The Internet Mob"

Unfortunately, that narrative was bolstered this week by some conservative bloggers. After the Schip veto, Democrats chose a 12-year-old boy named Graeme Frost to deliver a two-minute rebuttal. While that was a political stunt, the Washington habit of employing "poster children" is hardly new. But the Internet mob leapt to some dubious conclusions and claimed the Frost kids shouldn't have been on Schip in the first place. As it turns out, they belonged to just the sort of family that a modest Schip is supposed to help.

EJ Dionne, Jr: Meanies And Hypocrites

Some items of interest
(1) One of the most significant though under-discussed political issues is the Bush Administration's ongoing exploitation of terrorism fears as a self-serving political tool. Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog has an exceptional post examining some of the psychological aspects of this cynical fear-mongering. The whole post is really worth reading, but she quotes one psychological study which found a correlation between one's level of fear and the likelihood that one will be a Bush supporter, and the study's authors made this point:

Allegiance to charismatic leaders may be one particularly effective mode of terror management. In Escape from Freedom, Eric Fromm (1941) proposed that loyalty to charismatic leaders results from a defensive need to feel a part of a larger whole, and surrendering one?s freedom to a larger-than-life leader can serve as a source of self-worth and meaning in life. Ernest Becker (The Denial of Death, 1973) posited that when mainstream worldviews are not serving people?s need for psychological security, concerns about mortality impel people to devote their psychological resources to following charismatic leaders who bolster their self worth by making them feel that they are valued participants in a great mission to heroically triumph over evil.

Isn't it about time for some more orange alerts? And I heard Newt Gingrich announcing last night on Fox News that Iran's President is the New Adolph Hitler (I thought that title was already taken by the other Axis of Evil member, Saddam Hussein). The President's State of the Union speech will undoubtedly be scarier than Halloween and Friday the 13th combined. Fear is the only weapon they have.

(2) Peter Daou has a new essay describing the relentless dynamic by which the establishment media propagates GOP narratives.

As usual, Peter's analysis is a must-read for anyone who is interested in having the blogosphere have an actual impact on events rather than exist merely as a therapeutic though ultimately inconsequential venting ground. Right now, that is the central challenge of the blogosphere -- to find a way to channel its intense and growing resolve, energy, anger and activism into a force which actually influences political events and dialogue, and Peter insightfully describes the process which needs to be overcome:..

Continue reading »

Jane passed the ball to me. Roy, to Kevin Drum, to Digby, to Peter Daou, , Barbara O'Brien, Yellow Dog

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: bank teller, computer parts sales, musician, music teacher.

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Godfather, Casablanca, Chinatown, Psycho

Four places you’ve lived: Brooklyn & Queens, NY, San Jose & Los Angeles, CA,

Four TV shows you love to watch: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Homicide, "Life on the Streets," Lost, The Daily Show.

Four places you’ve been on vacation: The Bahamas, Paris, Italy, Germany.

Four websites you visit daily (I'll name a few different ones): Jesus General, Talk Left, FireDogLake, WaPo

Four of your favorite foods: penne pasta with red sauce, popcorn, Ice blended Mochas (that's a food group as far as I'm concerned), anything on a barbeque grill.

Four places you’d rather be: New York, Fitzgerald's office, Hawaii, Lake Tahoe.

I'm passing to JC of Jesus General. Blogger's- I'll add more as I see them.

Update: David E's Fablog's Four-SteveAudio has his Four-Talk Left has her Four.

Mike from the Blog Round Up joins the Four :

Four jobs you’ve had in your life: newspaper boy, caddy, locker room attendant, musician

Four movies you could watch over and over: Lawrence of Arabia, Double Indemnity, On the Waterfront, Citizen Kane

Four places you’ve lived: Troy,Ohio; Wichita,Kansas; San Francisco, Los Angeles

Four TV shows you love to watch: Monk, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, NHL Hockey

Four places you’ve been on vacation: Caribbean cruise, Hawaii, Cape Cod, Ireland

Four websites you visit daily: Think Progress, The Poor Man, War and Piece, Bushwatch

Four of your favorite foods: Barbecued Ribs, Pork roast, Pasta, Ice Cream

Four places you’d rather be: Rome, Paris, Quebec City, Greek Islands

The great frenchman-JC has his list of FOUR----Matt Stoller---SeeingtheForrest--Effect Measure--