Phil_C's Profile

Located in: Rochester, MN

Current Status: (Offline)

Total Comments: 24

Latest Comments

• Don't say Bachmann opposes health care reform

  This is a Letter to the editor at the Japan Times

  Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010

  READERS IN COUNCIL
  Absurd claim by U.S. lawmaker

  By ERIC HILTON
  Saitama

  Speaking at a health care forum Feb. 1, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, held up Japan’s health care system as a cautionary tale for Americans. She claimed to have learned from an American man who had lived in Japan that “in Japan, you have a card all right, but to get health care is almost impossible. You get on a list and wait and wait and wait. . . . There are things that are wrong with Japanese health care, but people [aren’t] voicing their opinion, because they know that would get them on a list and they wouldn’t get health care. They wouldn’t get seen. And so people are afraid to say anything.”

  I don’t have to tell anyone who has any experience with Japan’s health care system that the congresswoman’s claims are patently absurd. They certainly are contradicted by the end results, as the Japanese enjoy one of the longest life expectancies and lowest infant mortality rates in the world.

  What is especially inflammatory is her depiction of the Japanese government as one that would blacklist and withhold treatment from anybody who criticized the health care system. Besides being utterly paranoid, this assertion falsely and unfairly denigrates Japan.
  The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

  02/08/2010 8:21 AM
• Bachmann stirs crowd as she slams Dems' health care plans

  For those who are wondering why we Democrats attended this event, it was because it was billed as a “Town Hall” Meeting, rather than the anti-President Obama, anti-Democratic Party rally by a Republican Congresswomen.

  02/03/2010 8:30 PM
• Please attend your precinct caucus

  Atilla: It is NEXT Tuesday 2-2-10

  01/26/2010 8:37 PM
• Bill O'Reilly: Person of the Year? McCain, not Bernanke

  Mr. O’Reilly must not have read the Record of Mr McCain objecting to then Senator Mark Dayton having 30 additional seconds in a speech in 2002 objecting to the invasion of Iraq

  01/01/2010 12:22 PM

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