1115.org

Uncanny how unerringly we manage to do this.

France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday. If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of those top three countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs.

Socialized medicine anyone? For the masses too, that is, not just for Cheneys and Congressmen and Senators.

Maybe someone should sit Bush down (tying him to a chair if necessary), and explain to him (in words of two syllables or less) that if he conspired with Congress to keep these people alive (talk to the Democrats, dude!), they would contribute to the economy (allowing him to use the word “strong” more often than the word “resilient”).

They would be just like an economic stimulus package, really, wouldn’t they? Increasing demand, boosting employment. Increasing tax collections. Pharmaceutical company profits too, of course. (That’s how you sell something to Bush.)