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"L'audace, l'audace, tojours l'audace! (Audacity, audacity, always audacity!) motto of Frederick the Great of Prussia (1712-1786).Â
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. Â John F. Kennedy (1917-63), U.S. Democratic politician, Thirty-fifth President of the United States. Inaugural address, 20 January 1961, Washington, D.C.Â
"To save all we must risk all.
Friedrich Von Schiller(1759-1805), German dramatist, poet, essayist. Fiesco, in Fiesco, act 4, scene 6.
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The fight over healthcare in the Congress is reaching a crescendo. The iniquitous servants of the healthcare industryincluding the Congressional Republicans and blue dog Democratsare doing everything within their power to prevent any meaningful reform of our broken system, which represents one-sixth of our nation's economy, and before the end of the next decade, one-fifth.
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This is not a sustainable economic model. It is not (despite the media  propaganda) the fault of the lawyers, and the massive costs involving lawsuits over malpractice and bad reactions to drugs that drag on for years. The lawsuits instigated by private individuals represent fewer than twenty percent of the total heard by our courts. Most lawsuits are corporation versus corporation. This in turn is the reason that lawsuits have become so expensive, because the corporate behemoths try to spend each other into submission, rather than try the merits of the case.
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So where did our healthcare system start going wrong? I would say that it began to go wrong in the moment that the practice of medicine took a backseat to profit.
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I know, from personal experience when I was a kid, that finding pro bono, or any sort of reduced cost healthcare, was at best hit or miss proposition, especially in metropolitan areas. The newest treatments (including radiation and chemotherapy) were routinely denied to the poorest Americans. Prescriptions and other treatments for various illnesses were often limited, both in utility and availability, but especially in the area of mental illness. Â
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