Trick or trick?

It's not just that Rudy Ghouliani lied about the odds of patients in Britain surviving the kind of prostate cancer he had, in the controversial radio ad and message of the day he's offering this Halloween.

It's not just that Rudy asserts the big lie, that "we have the best healthcare system in the world," better than the "socialized medicine" practiced by scary countries like Canada, Taiwan, France, England, etc.  Or even that he is willing to pimp out his own cancer diagnosis, while dismissing the healthcare inequality that shames our nation.

We'll look at what's really scary after the fold...cross-posted at the National Nurses Organizing Committee/California Nurses Association's Breakroom Blog, as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED healthcare on the single-payer model.

What Rudy's Halloween health care moment highlights is just how scared American patients should be of any of the Republican candidates, and their "it's your problem" approach to healthcare.  The lot of them are against universal healthcare--let alone guaranteed healthcare.  

We'd be back to square one: the debate would not be over how to guarantee every American can access the health care they need--but whether poor people really need or deserve healthcare.  The debate would no longer be over whether to replace or regulate insurance companies--but instead how to ensure their ongoing profitability.  The debate wouldn't be about we--it would just be about he.  We wouldn't be on a path to guaranteed, single-payer care--we'd see be on a fast track to more pain, suffering, and heartache.

What may be even scarier than Rudy this Halloween? The trend towards health care credit cards.  Already half of all bankruptcies are medical-related...now you can get all that and 19 per cent interest, also!

The good news is that the activist docs at Physicians for a National Health Program continue their sharp advocacy...and nurses striking in Appalachia over patient care issues are still on the picket line.  Go nurses!