Steven Wells, 1960-2009
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Steven Wells, 1960-2009
Just when Philadelphia needed more voices, the city has lost one of its best, the British-American journalist Steven Wells, who found a home in the City of Brotherly Love and wrote frequently for Philadelphia Weekly. This is from his last column:
Life isn’t about grit and grime and squalor. Life is getting angry at destroyed cat jigsaws. Life is the amazement at seeing the Vanity Fair title erupt as a scarlet mohawk-cum-quiff across a dainty Johnny Depp’s forehead, and the drooling anticipation of watching a Brian McManus-recommended terror-comedy on my computer later tonight. And of course the sight of tireless, tie-less and tire-burning liberal rioters taking to the streets of Tehran.
I speak as someone whose greatest craving at this exact moment is not world peace and universal democracy or a rational and global redistribution of wealth, but a can of ice cold ginger ale.
He leaves us with a great body of work, and one more thing: His hellish tales of the American health care system where he did battle in his final years. That's a tale that our policymakers in Washington need to hear, so that the next generation doesn't have to endure what some of Wells went through.
(Photo from Philadelphia Weekly.)
So you observe the suffering of this man, trying to navigate the waters of Medical care, and you think it's a good idea to take our existing medical system and have it be managed by the inept tools at the Department of Motor Vehicles? Cruel. Why do you hate the sick and dying? Isn't their suffering enough? Now you want them to wait in line for months, to get approval for emergency care? Just cruel.— Mr. Smith
I don't understand...why didn't he return to England for his healthcare? We all know the U.S. system sucks - he could be alive today.— bird11
I read his account, harrowing situation, I hope the best family. At the risk of sounding cold hearted, why didn't he take advantage of the so called better system in England?— Tom813- AH, yes, clearly the best health care system which could ever possibly be conceived of by man... This is what the Hate Americans First crowd want our health care system to be. They don't want to change it. They don't want to fix it. They think it works. This is what passes for "analysis" among the marginalized minority. Beware.— E.Plebnista
Comment removed.- No doubt the 45 readers of the Philadelphia Weekly will miss his voice and his great body of work. You kidding or what, nobody ever heard of this guy. I assume you are busy cutting and pasting more Sanford stuff or watching soccer tapes, so this passes as news?— jimmymack
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- LJL, it is incredibly stupid to compare expenditure to outcome, unless you control for genetics, diet, exercise, smoking, risk, murder rate, accidental deaths, etc. The list could go on and on and on. Those life expectancy comparisons start looking a lot better when you take non-healthcare factors into account. For instance we have shorter lifespans because we have way more traffic accidents because we drive way more. Murder rate too, both take the young predominantly. To call the comparison simplistic is an extreme understatement. Another key reason as to why spending per capita isnt always the best measure is that it doesnt take into account spending done that while not prolonging life, does improve the quality of life. Hip and knee replacements have a much higher incidence here in the US vs. the usual suspects of comparator countries. Hip replacement surgery is very expensive relative to the alternative of ibuprofren and a cane, wouldn't you say. Of course, this leads to questions of whether 75 year olds should be getting hip replacements on the governments dime...but that is another post. In any case, what is the life expectancy of a black male in DC, Baltimore or Philadelphia? That has nothing to do with health care.— legatus
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- But we still don't need government run socialized medicine. 89% of people are happy with their insurance plan/health care. Why should I care about illegal aliens, people making over $75,000 who CHOOSE NOT to purchase insurance or people so young they think they won't get sick?— WriteWinger
"No doubt the 45 readers of the Philadelphia Weekly will miss his voice and his great body of work. You kidding or what, nobody ever heard of this guy." You're an idiot. - signed, one of the Philly 45— Hamlet
Are there any other details? I know he had insurance, and recieved hefty medical bills, but there are no specifics. What insurance company did he have? What plan did he have? This story is a poor substitute for real debate, but this is how the left gets things done. You can't just throw 1.5 trillion dollars of taxpayer dollars at a problen unless it has been thought through. Has Obama's plan been thought through? Not based on what I've heard. Obama hasn't given one direct answer to any question about this program. All we get are longwinded generalities that don't even address the questions asked. This bill should go down in flames, not because it's necessarily flawed, but because the President can't even articulate the details to the American people because he himself doesn't know.— jmc- Comment removed.
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