Rosemary Haskell, a professor of English, had an op-ed piece on health care reform, "The Pain of Being Ill and Uncovered," published in the Raleigh News and Observer on Sunday, July 5, 2009.
From the column:
“Since immigrating to the United States 30 years ago, I have become more sympathetic to the distaste many Americans feel for government ‘interference.’ Now, when I hear my English sister’s incredulous response to the news that, No, not everyone in the USA is required to have a G.P. and that old people here don’t have to be periodically visited by a health worker to check on their well-being, I bite back a ‘Nanny State’ retort. But old National Health Service habits from my English upbringing die hard.
“In the end, I would argue that we in the United States now have to accept just that degree of government action and funding that will end the truly uncivilized and inhumane deprivation suffered by millions of uninsured fellow-citizens. There is no ideological queasiness on Earth that can justify such a huge gap in the social network that most of us profess to believe in.”
To read the full article, click on the link to the right of this page.