Comments on: Author David Sedaris shares a personal anecdote about healthcare

By: Midweek links (’cause it’s been a while!) at 10,000 Monkeys and a Camera

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:46:27 +0000

[...] Canadians again!! … How American Health Care Killed My Father… Heal or No Heal… David Sedaris weighs in (France vs. the US)… Do the Democrats lack passion?… and Barrel Fever (the slippery slope: [...]

By: Fran Johns

Fran Johns — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:40:07 +0000

We could get health reform very quickly and easily by injecting 50% of the opponents with kidney stones (OK, I haven’t perfected this procedure, but anyway…) and letting them choose a country to live in for the next 2 weeks. The other 50% could just watch.

By: Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:03:55 +0000

Brian – I have the same NYC plan. I wish more states would follow the model. However, I don’t think many people know NY is a right to healthcare state, and if they’re poor, they can essentially get free medical care. I remember a friend of mine told me I could get free healthcare because of my income bracket when I first moved to NYC, but he told me this like it was some fantastic secret only he knew about.

By: Brian In NYC

Brian In NYC — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:59:21 +0000

Allison kudos for posting anything from Sedaris, but he need not have suffered passing his stones at home. NYC has a very robust public health care option. Due to two very serious chronic illnesses I was forced out of the private system and now use a NYC funded system. 20 years ago when I had to have my gall bladder removed it was done at Metropolitan Hospital (a city hospital) and what I was charged was based on my income (600 dollars for the surgery and follow up care). NYS has been a right to health care state (only 3 in the nation I believe) for long over 20 years.

By: Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 12:01:17 +0000

He’s the Barney Frank of Paris.

Oh my God. This should be the title of his next book.

By: Allison Kilkenny

Allison Kilkenny — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:59:44 +0000

Agreed. I’m currently in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, and the British people I’ve met here are all very confused at FOX’s demonization of the NHS, since they get to experience their health system first hand, and highly value not going bankrupt whenever they get sick and need hospital care.

By: fleetlee

fleetlee — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:25:40 +0000

We need these real life examples to prove the GOP is just lying about the healthcare in other countries. I have a lot of friends in Germany and they are completely pleased with their system, same for England and it appears for France too. I have had several employees who were from Canada and they are outraged at how their system is protrayed. They feared getting sick and being bankrupted in the US.

By: Susan Toepfer

Susan Toepfer — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:23:12 +0000

I hope he got a steak dinner for that $5,800.

By: Vickie Karp

Vickie Karp — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:03:24 +0000

Yet another reason to love David Sedaris, right down to his Nazi kidneys and proletariat radio show. He’s the Barney Frank of Paris. But it’s not just pissed off old white people. It’s also pissed off young white people who look old because they can’t afford decent health care.