I generally don’t get political here, but I ran a cross a great story about a program at the University of Washington’s medical school. A friend works there and passed the link on to me.
In short, students have the opportunity to intern for a month in a rural or underserved area between their first and second year of med school. They go to Idaho, Montana, Alaska and Wyoming because UW helps educate students from those states, none of which have a medical school.
As you can imagine, these students see a ton of stuff. They see overworked doctors and a messed up system of payment vs. care. They learn just how precarious things can be for people out there. Personally, I think these kinds of programs should be more prevalent in many fields, even though I’m a wuss and couldn’t handle it.
All of this becomes more clear, however, because of the national debate on health care. One piece of the article bothered me a little bit and kind of underscored why things need to change.
Other students, like Kylie G. Boggess, 24, witnessed how integral a federally qualified health center could be to a community like Nampa, Idaho, and became all the more committed. “This just sold it to me,” Ms. Boggess said. “You get to have a very personal relationship with your patients. You get to know them.”
(snip)
There were differing opinions among the students about critical components of the plans being discussed by President Obama nd Congress, like whether health coverage should be mandated and whether the government should create a public insurance option. But even those favoring the Democratic approach said they felt momentum had stalled.“I really like Obama, but I’m a little bummed,” Ms. Boggess said. “He has yet to really strongly make the moral argument for providing health care to our citizens.”
My dear Kylie, he has tried to do that, but the other side has ACCUSED HIM OF TRYING TO KILL BABIES AND OLD PEOPLE! I’m not saying the Dems are perfect, but it’s kind of hard to complain that the President hasn’t made the moral argument for health care when the other side is literally making stuff up to demonize him.
That’s why we need you to try and make the case, Kylie. Sadly, they might listen to you. Or they might accuse you of being a Nazi. Or call you a liar on national television.