The twin who refused to die

Though the doctor tried his best to make it happen. A woman who was pregnant with twin boys was advised to terminate one of the babies because he was underweight and his heart was enlarged. The doctors believed he would die in the womb and that would threaten the life of the other baby. The doctors tried to cut the umbilical cord but it was too thick, so they separated the babies and were shocked to discover a heart beat the next day. The baby probably thrived because of the separation. I hope the doctors remember this the next time they advise a mom to terminate her pregnancy.

Go check out the picture of the babies, they are so cute!

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Canadians delivering their babies in the USA

Yes, socialized medicine is such a success. This is what we can expect during the reign of President Clinton.

Mothers in British Columbia are having a baby boom, but it's the United States that has to deliver, and that has some proud Canadians blasting their highly touted government healthcare system.

"I'm a born-bred Canadian, as well as my daughter and son, and I'm ashamed," Jill Irvine told FOX News. Irvine's daughter, Carri Ash, is one of at least 40 mothers or their babies who've been airlifted from British Columbia to the U.S. this year because Canadian hospitals didn't have room for the preemies in their neonatal units.

[...]

Canada's socialized health care system, hailed as a model by Michael Moore in his documentary, "Sicko," is hurting, government officials admit, citing not enough money for more equipment and staff to handle high risk births.

Sarah Plank, a spokeswoman for the British Columbia Ministry of Health, said a spike in high risk and premature births coupled with the lack of trained nurses prompted the surge in mothers heading across the border for better care.

"The Canadian healthcare system has used the United States as a safety net for years," said Michael Turner of the Cato Institute. "In fact, overall about one out of every seven Canadian physicians sends someone to the United States every year for treatment."

Mark Horne's has a particularly funny headline:

Perhaps in four years they will fly over us to deliver in Mexico

I suggest that all our Canadian readers pray that Clinton isn't our next president or you will have a long trek to find relief from your overburdened healthcare system.

But Canada is not alone, in Brittan a couple is forced to have their baby at home due to overcrowding at the hospital:

But on the day of the birth, she was twice turned away from the hospital because it was full - forcing her partner to deliver the baby himself at their home.

Miss Jones, 24, and her partner Anthony Jones - who coincidentally share the same surname - dashed to their local maternity unit when she started to have strong contractions.

However, their excitement at the prospect of the birth soon turned to horror when staff on the ward told them: "Sorry we are full. Come back later."

Medics at the Princess of Wales Hospital in Bridgend, near Cardiff, insisted the baby would not arrive for hours and suggested the couple go and have a cup of coffee while they tried to free up a bed.

Three hours later, they returned to the hospital when Miss Jones's contractions became more frequent.

This time she was given a thorough examination by a midwife who confidently sent them away for the second time, telling them the baby was still "hours away".

[...]

"You hear so much about the NHS being under pressure but you would think that maternity would be a priority. Many things can wait for a later appointment - but never a baby.

Edwards: Limit Frivolous Lawsuits

I suddenly feel like I've been thrust into a parallel universe and Satan must be in parka:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, who made his fortune as a trial lawyer, says attorneys should have to show their medical malpractice cases have merit before filing them.

He also said attorneys with a history of frivolous suits should be barred from filing new cases.

Edwards' proposal is similar to "certificates of merit" laws that have been adopted in several states in recent years. Those laws usually require that an independent doctor assert the validity of a malpractice case before it is filed.

"Sicko" Hypocrite

What? A Democrat who accepts campaign contributions from the healthcare industry helping Moore with research? I'm shocked!

Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) accepted more than $1.3 million in political contributions from health insurance and health care companies between 1996 and 2006, according to campaign finance records. Nonetheless Stark and his staff served a key research resource for agitprop filmmaker Michael Moore's attack film on the American healthcare system, Sicko.

Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko

For those of you who support universal healthcare

Why don't you think this will happen here (via)?

I don't see the left addressing these issues and I wondered if Moore addressed the healthcare problems in Canada and UK in his movie? Evidently, he did not. From a Canadian reviewer:

Sicko is also completely lacking in journalistic rigour, presenting only the negatives of for-profit U.S. health care and only the positives of the government-run Canadian, British, French and Cuban Medicare programs. As always, Moore makes unsupported assertions and uses out-of-context edits. The film is not a documentary, if that term is to mean anything more than unvarnished propaganda.

Moore's many apologists, including journalists who should know better, give him a free pass under the "greater good" argument. Who cares if he's careless about the details or ruthless about his accusations? He's got a good heart! And he's funny!

These same apologists don't extend such courtesies to Moore's chief nemesis President George W. Bush, whom the filmmaker manages to present as both the dumbest man on the planet and a diabolical schemer. When Bush and his cronies fudge on the facts, it can only be due to the vilest of motives.

A hilarious Bush malapropism opens Sicko, but this time the U.S. president isn't the focus of Moore's animus, as he was in the terror satire Fahrenheit 9/11. The millionaire filmmaker is out to expose the "powerful forces" of American health insurers and their political allies, whom he charges exploit pain for profit. (They include Sen. Hillary Clinton, Medicare lion turned HMO tame tabby, one of the few non-Republicans whom Moore skewers.)

As violins wail on the soundtrack and Moore's hushed voice drips sympathy, we gape in horror at travesties of corporate medicine. A bankrupt Denver couple, drained of their life savings by hospital bills, is forced to move into a daughter's home. A car-accident victim, having been knocked unconscious, is refused compensation for an ambulance because she thoughtlessly neglected to get advance approval for the ride. A man with a severed finger chooses to lose the digit rather than pay the $60,000 it would cost to have it sewn back on.

These and many other sad and shocking stories are contrasted with scenes of the enlightened Utopias in other countries, where Medicare is "free" – if you ignore the fact, as Moore does, that high taxes and long wait times pay for that "free" care.

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Maybe Moore should have included these stories for balance. Tell me that the Canadian system is better and more compassionate than ours. Both have their problems and it's disingenuous to ignore that fact.

Michael Moore, Sicko