Mental

Prompted by a highly charged mid term election, many people in the last few days have asked me how it is possible that there is such a high concentration of lunatics in the US. My guess is as good as anyone else's, but my suspicion is it has something to do with the shear size of the country. Luckily I am from the West Coast, so even if I still were residing in States, I would be protected by water, blue mass and lots of distance from the blood red middle. As are the mostly sane on the Left Coast as well.

One of the hot topics, as I understand it, (mind you, I've a significant amount of distance both geographically and mentally from it all) in this election was health care reform. A colleague asked me yesterday, why Americans took such issue with National Health care like we have in the UK (or Social Health care as it's referred to in America). I can't speak for others, but I can say that in my numerous conversations on this topic with people from all over the globe, I have come to a few of my own conclusions:

1. Health care is a very socially influenced concept. I grew up in America, so to my mind, I should have choice in who my health care provider is, I should have a level of care that represents what I pay in to the system and I should also have continuity of care for myself and my family. That said, none of that is the reality of my health care on the NHS (plus private) but I am fine, my children are fine and none of us have suffered as a result. My point is that what I expect is simply a product of the society in which I was brought up. Nothing more, nothing less. As a person who has never known a Britain without NHS, CB expects exactly what he gets. If we were ever to move to America, I am sure the cost of prescriptions and other medical necessities would have him scratching his head till the day he died.
2. People like to talk about the weather when they live in climates where it isn't predictably sunny 360 days out of the year, people like to complain about government and people like to moan about the health care system in their country. The only country I have found exception with on this is Australia.
3. There really isn't a one size fits all approach to health care. It is intrinsically a very very personal thing and I think it's rare that everyone will be happy with any one approach.

For what it's worth, that's my .02. Take it or leave it.