Canadian Health Care
Mood:  suave
The Canadian health care system, Medicare, consists of 10 provincial health plans that must follow certain national standards and are funded together by federal and provincial governments through corporate taxes, personal taxes, property taxes, and taxes on gasoline, tobacco, and liquor.

All Canadian physicians participate in the health plans. The Canadian system charges nominal fees for medication and has administrative costs that are lower than the US.

Health Care
Mood:  on fire
It has been said that approximately 45 million people in the US are uninsured, most of whom are in the 18-35 age range. The health care system of the US, an advanced capitalist nation, has inadvertently reestablished the structures for class relations. This idea can be applied to the US even today, those who are fortunate enough to be insured are those who have stable, full-time jobs. The people who need health insurance the greatest, for the most part are the poor, who cannot afford to visit doctors regularly, and are consequently rendered powerless within the health care arena.

Should the access to health care be a human right? Many countries like Canada, Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Japan, and many European countries all attest to the idea that health care should be a human right. However, the access to health care in the US is a privilege. In the US, nationalized health care is looked at as "socialized medicine." This idea of "socialized medicine" would prevent drug companies from making money, therefore "socialized medicine" is viewed as a threat to capitalism.

According to Rudolf Virchow, "politics is nothing but medicine on a grand scale." In other words, similar to government, the medical system is filled with power struggles and attempts to control individuals and groups. He has also said that "the improvement of medicine would eventually prolong life, but improvement of social conditions could achieve this result even more rapidly and successfully." Basically, the health status of a group can be improved if the status quo of a society changes for the better, rather than depending solely on the health care system and access to medicine.

Education
Mood:  mischievious
Today's group presentation on education was certainly interesting, yet I believe their ideas to be, as mentioned by a fellow classmate, to be Utopian fantasy. Sure it would be great if higher education was free, like it was decades ago for CUNY students, but it would increase taxes, basically it would be a trade-off. Pick your poison. Another issue brought up was standardized tests, like everything else it has it's pros and cons. A positive to standardized tests is to make sure the student is indeed learning something. As much I as hate taking tests, I know that it will always exist and therefore serves as motivation on those cold/snowy/rainy days, when getting outta bed is the hardest thing to accomplish, and get myself to class. In other words knowing that a test is inevitable prevents me from slacking off. A negative to standardized tests is that it is at times redundant, like the CPE for example. I had the great pleasure of taking that test a couple months ago, and what a waste of my time! As if I didn't have enough school work to do (aside from my other daily demands), I had to read that extremely torturous reading selection. During the test I felt like I was in high school again, taking a regent. Only in high school the student can leave when they are finished taking the test. I, on the other hand, had to sit for about hour staring into space until allotted time was up. Do other colleges other than CUNY have something similar to the CPE? NO!!! It shows the faith CUNY has in it's students.

Abortion
Mood:  on fire
Roe v. Wade ruled that a woman has a right to privacy of her body, right to abortion during the first six months of pregnancy. The ruling broaden women's rights. The issue of abortion is mixed with control of the government imposed on women's rights and a woman's individual control over her own body.

As aforementioned in class, I strongly believe that before an abortion can be performed on a minor her parents should be notified. I also believe that the father of the child should also be notified, but this area become very muddy because only the woman can say who the actual father is.

Abortion is a perfect example of disregard to separation of church and state. The state is heavily influenced by religions on this issue. I think that abortion rights are very limited because the government conforms to religious doctrine.