Obama to fund mobile waterbirth clinics?

I don't know why I even bothered to read the comments to this article, Will Health Care Reform Include Taxpayer Funding for Abortion?. The comments were, by and large, completely hysterical and uneducated. But I found a hilarious quote by a certain "Scott Jeffries" on page 2 of the comments. Emphasis mine:

Should we cover ED drugs, fertility treatments so we can have octomoms everywhere, abortions, unlimited morning after pills, STD drugs handed out like candy, bariatric and lapband procedures, botox for "migranes", and the lists goes on and on....Are we going to pay for at home birth in mobile tub clinics?

Ooh, please sign me up for an "at home birth in mobile tub clinics," whatever that is! I'm glad to know that home births are perceived to be on par with Viagra and Botox and treating STDs.

The ignorance of the American public is so astounding as to be laughable at times. Just read through some of the comments--the standard stuff about teenage welfare queens and how D.C. is going to sink into the sea (because, you know, universal health care is SO EEEEVILLL).

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Gearing up

It's Canada Day tomorrow and this little town has been getting ready in full force. Flags are everywhere. I even saw one house with a huge red & white "Eh?" sign filling the picture window. We went to an annual town celebration complete with cowboy poetry, fiddling, and country music. It almost felt unreal because it was so...Western and folksy. But it was real.

In honor of Canada Day, I wanted to mention the article Debunking Canadian Health Care Myths. I've heard some people ranting and raving about how, if the US were to adopt national health care, "the country would become like the UK or even Canada!"

Myth: Canada’s government decides who gets health care and when they get it.

While HMOs and other private medical insurers in the U.S. do indeed make such decisions, the only people in Canada to do so are physicians. In Canada, the government has absolutely no say in who gets care or how they get it. Medical decisions are left entirely up to doctors, as they should be. There are no requirements for pre-authorization whatsoever. If your family doctor says you need an MRI, you get one. In the U.S., if an insurance administrator says you are not getting an MRI, you don’t get one no matter what your doctor thinks – unless, of course, you have the money to cover the cost.

Yes, such a terrible fate.

Thanks to Mom's Tinfoil Hat for the link.

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Amy Romano, a CNM who blogs at Lamaze's Science & Sensibility, has written a great response to two New Yorker articles by physician Atul Gawande. I've been wanting to discuss his articles, but haven't had the time to write up my thoughts. Mom's Tinfoil Hat, an OB-GYN-in-training, agrees that Romano's analysis is worth the read.

First, read his two articles, How Childbirth Went Industrial (2006) and The Cost Conundrum (2009), then read Romano's response: The Maternity Conundrum: One Thing Atul Gawande Doesn’t Get About Health Care Reform.

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