OPERATION POLYPS

Saturday July 21, 2007 Bush had a 31 minute colonoscopy by an elite team of doctors under the supervision of his personal physician Dr Richard Tubbs. The procedure was done in the state-of-the-art National Naval Medical Center at Camp David in Bethesda Maryland. They removed five polyps from Bush’s large intestine.

He had several other colonoscopies while governor of Texas, and this was his second as president. Dr David Weinberg, director of gastroenterology at Fox Chase Cancer in Philadelphia said the surest way to prevent cancer is to follow Bush’s example and have a colonoscopy as often as the doctor deems necessary. But to do this, most people need insurance.

Fourty-seven million Americans lack medical coverage and more than 52,000 Americans are expected to die this year from colorectal cancer and more than 153,000 will be diagnosed with the disease, according to the American Cancer Society. A large percentage of these people will have been either uninsured or insufficiently insured.

The good thing about this is that I’m sure Bush didn’t have to worry about this because all this first-class treatment: the hospital, the doctors, the nurses and all others were government-funded. That’s the way it should be for everyone. But I guess that government-funded health care is only good for Bush because he has threatened to veto any such legislation that reaches his desk.

"Such a health care bill would lead the nation down the path to government-run health care for every American,” Bush said.

I think the real reason is that 15.2 percent of the U.S. economy comes from health care spending and Bush has to tread lightly and avoid stepping on any health-care corporation’s toes.

In 2004, Canada, Australia and France all spent around $3,100 per person, England spent $2,508 and every citizen was covered. By comparison, the U.S. spent an average of $6,100 per citizen and life expectancy in the United States lower than any of these countries and infant mortality was higher. We rank number 37 among the industrialized nations of the world in the quality and cost of health care.

Tests on Bush’s polyps showed no sign of cancer, so Bush can rest easily for the next several years thanks to all that taxpayer-funded health care he enjoyed.

Now let’s talk about universal health care for the rest of us.

The California Curmudgeon