Wow......

Amazing? That takes courage! For your kids ... yeah!

Doesn't matter. If it saved her life that's all that matters and God bless those who did.

This is really an uplifting story, but medical procedures make me queasy. It's a good thing you're asleep when they're doing all that to you (well most of the time).

Even the public health system in Australia (strained as it is) is better than nothing.

Best regards,
Steven.

Actually there are programs. Even the private insurances aren't all that great. Insurance companies are showing big profits by denying care LINK. LINK.

None of that is big news, though. You put the cart before the horse: Imagine what could be done for the country/world if there was no war to support.

Unfortunately, there is. Also, expensive care isn't necessarily good care, nor is it necessarily desirable. Not everyone feels as you do...there are situations where it is better for the individual to have palliative care, and the individual might live a longer and life and have more quality that way. These things are best left to the doctor, patient and family to explore together in an informed manner.

Sorry, Uvah...no one is going to do that because no one gets a freebie on rent, food, clothing, etc. (like a college and medical school education)...it is simply not possible to expect such a thing, any more than to just walk onto an airplane to anywhere without buying a ticket or into a market and walk out with food without paying, or into a new car showroom and drive out without paying...

Nothing of value is free. In point of fact, nothing is free...period.

Put most simply, what's wrong is the upside down scale of values our society demonstrates and the hypocrisy of what it professes to value. There is an almost complete disconnect.

We 'value' education, but not teachers. We 'value' good health yet don't do what the doctor advises. The list is endless. We value entrepreneurs yet believe we have a 'right' to take IP without paying. We pay inflated prices for everything because the mass media peddles advertising and packaging more than content: We hear "Perception is reality." and believe it. Our culture is mercantile and price becomes equated with value. We "Save!" money by buying something for x instead of y yet wonder why we have no money in the bank....

Greed, "something for nothing" or "free!" pulls our eyes out of our heads and the money from our pockets. Husbands and wives both with jobs yet barely surviving because of the cost of living....and the children growing up without fathers and mothers to teach them values because they're working and exhausted by the time they get home, or bereft of them before the get go...that to drive a car you need a license yet to determine the future of the human race (have children) requires only a moment's desire. Responsibility is nil while entitlement soars.

War is big business. People are needed to fight wars. Most people who are doing fairly well in their lives won't volunteer for the army unless they believe that there is a truly serious threat at hand (i.e. not the Iraq war). If the money spent on war and unwarranted foreign aid was put into healthcare and education, there wouldn't be enough people willing to become recruits. For some people it's join the army, or live on the streets, or go to jail for something like drug dealing. That is a horrible situation that keeps the middle class grateful for their lot, and so they keep working, and keep honest, and keep paying the lion's share of the country's taxes, because the truly wealthy won't pay squat and the truly poor can't pay squat.

The point here is that none of this came about by accident, haphazardly, or as a result of overwhelming or even unforeseen circumstances. This is a business model like any other, only on a much larger scale, where every citizen is an unwitting employee of Uncle Sam Inc. Ever notice what tends to happen to presidents who don't sound too eager for war, and start talking too much about a real peace, or work on implementing actual action plans?

Anyway, I'm just glad for Janis Ollson that she was lucky enough not to become a part of the larger statistic.

Touché.