Respecting Justin Bieber

Until today, I didn't really pay much attention to Justin Bieber,  beyond noting the phenomenon behind his meteoric rise to stardom, not least because it's been a long while since I've been a teenage girl. But, I'm impressed with the simplicity and accuracy of his US vs. Canada comparison regarding health care costs in the latest issue of Rolling Stone:

"You guys are evil," he says with a laugh. "Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home."

The guy's sixteen. Webwide comments on his interview response have ranged from respective support to condemnation that someone's indoctrinating him into Marxism (as only a millionaire pop-star can be indoctrinated, I suppose). But, Bieber doesn't need to back up his interview responses with a bevy of factoids, he doesn't need to know that the single biggest cause of personal bankruptcy in this country, even with the increase in foreclosures, is the out-of-pocket medical emergency expense.  His initial gut reaction says it all. Any of the record 47 million people in this country that don't have health insurance, or the millions that do, only to find that premium increases never translate to better coverage, and every medical bill has more and more holes that insurance doesn't cover no matter what one's deductible or premium or package, knows that the cost of health care is one of the scariest, most volatile components of one's basic needs budget.

When I lived in London for seven years, I never worried about the cost of health-care like I, and millions of others here, do now that I live back in the United States. The system in Europe isn't perfect, nor is it perfect in Canada. But, it's a damn sight better than what we have here, the health care 'reform' bill not withstanding, since mandated health insurance coverage through insurance companies is not just unconstitutional (as say the GOP and a number of State courts), but not remotely a step towards more general affordable health care. Unfortunately, none of the proposals from the GOP or the Dems gets us very far in that direction, because none of them touch the health insurance company's control over our health care system and thus, its cost to us. Maybe, that will change one-day, but it's increasingly unlikely. Still, as Bieber would say, 'Never, say never.'