Piers Akerman, health, socialized medicine, and government not the solution except when it's the solution

(Above: eek, Mona Simpson, an activist hippie at one time voiced by Glenn Close. Say no more).

As always, the treasure that is Piers Akerman just keeps on giving, even when a few over-sated souls might shout enough already.

You might have already seen this item in the SMH (here), but just to keep it circulating here it is:

AKERMAN'S GAFFE

Newspaper columnist Piers Akerman is paid for his opinions, but they caused a panic in the Melbourne offices of the ABC yesterday. Appearing as a panellist on ABC-TV's Insiders program, News Limited's rotund reactionary began putting the case for a federal inquiry into the bribery allegations emanating from the murder of property developer Michael McGurk. When Insiders host Barry Cassidy questioned Akerman's logic, given the allegations were about ministers in the NSW Government, Akerman began spreading the web of suspicion, in the process mentioning a certain cabinet minister in the Rudd Government. The program was forced to scramble to delete any record of the comments from its website to avoid the possibility of a rather messy lawsuit.

What better way to introduce the subject of dementia, as outlined by Akker Dakker in Who will pay for the tragedy of dementia?

Well we resolute believers in the marketplace would have thought the answer was obvious. If you've got private insurance and can afford private doctors and expensive private help, then all will be well. And if not, surely you can just live in the street until you die, or perhaps we can offer you a blue pill that you can discreetly take somewhere, so that your body can be discreetly placed in a wheelie bin.

After all, the last thing we need in this country is government interference or socialized medicine or a nanny state. Or is it?

We now know that a huge crisis is rapidly approaching. Our current healthcare system lacks the ability to cope with the looming catastrophe but worse, the federal Labor Government also seems dementedly fixated on publicity-driven band-aid solutions when fundamental reforms are called for.

The cost to the nation, to families and to individuals is too great to be left in the hands of these mendacious snake-oil salesmen.

As for the actual reforms required, and who might pay for them, who might that be, if not the federal government?

Let me imitate the sound of a deafening silence ...

There's a crisis coming, no doubt about it, but mendacious double standards and breath taking hypocrisy aren't the sole province of politicians. When snake oil salesmen peddle private enterprise and the market place as the solution, then turn to government for funding and solutions, peculiar double standards abound ...

Well as someone heading at alarming speed into the target demographic for the disease, rather like Mona Simpson, here's hoping the politicians show more strategic sense than Akker Dakker.

Why? Because nothing the government does is a solution:

Meanwhile the Rudd Labor Government is embarking on grand social engineering experiment which would impose a new level of nanny-state laws on Australians which would include health surveillance to combat what it calls preventable illnesses, including diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

The budget for Health Minister Nicola Roxon’s sweeping program would be about $17.6 million - less than $1 per person. Seriously.

Sure, let's not worry about preventable illnesses, or nanny state thinking. Me, I'm working on building up to a case of diabetes as a distraction from complete mental collapse.

Now let me get this right. So if the government does something, anything, like a mild campaign in relation to preventable diseases, that's nanny state-ism at its worst.

But Akker Dakker seems to want a grand social engineering experiment for dementia, a nanny state solution to an increasing problem:

Next year’s federal Budget will be critical for people living with dementia. The Government will announce its response to the next phase of the 2005 study, The Dementia Initiative  Making Dementia a National Health Priority.

The year 2010 is also significant as it marks the first of the Baby Boomer generation turning 65 years of age. By 2020 there will be about 75,000 Baby Boomers with dementia.

The report also notes that with a higher retirement age of 67, more people will be unable to remain in the workforce due to dementia or the need to care for someone with the condition.

The Federal budget will be critical?

So government's not the solution, yet it is the solution? Go figure. I feel slightly demented and must lie down for a moment ...

(Below: out in the street with you, complacent demented socialist hippie, or as we like to say, the hippie the).