Letters to the Editor
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Politics Aside, this is the fact
"One of the big myths is that the private sector is the way to go, because there's less red tape and it's more efficient. In fact, the opposite is true, especially with health care. Health Care companies spend upwards of 25 percent of their budgets on paperwork, administrative costs and other red tape, while Medicare and Medicaid only spend around 3 percent for administrative costs."
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I'm convinced though the govt can't run healthcare
I was arguing with a conservative friend about the ethics and feasability of a single-payer healthcare system in America, or even full socialized medicine. I laid out some pretty good arguments, including that Europe and Canada have a greater doctor to patient ratio and patient to bed ratio than the free market American system.
But my friend shot down my argument with one word - Katrina. If the government can so badly bungle a simple evacuation, do you really want the feds to have absolute control over your access to life-saving healthcare?
The missing piece in this puzzle is that countries with socialized healthcare often have a far more efficient beaucracy than America. Yes I know that beaucracy is never 100 percent efficient, but having lived in Japan I know that the top Japanese college graduates often go into govt service rather than the private sector. In America, many government posts are filled with also-rans or political toadies who got their theology/accounting degree from Jerry Falwell U.
Not to mention that the European and Japanese beaucratic systems are far more insulated from the political shakeup that happens every 4-8 years when a new president comes into office.
Finally, American government cannot keep lobbyists and corporate interests out of any public sector endeavor. We have for-profit charter schools, corporate prisons, mercenaries fighting alongside our soldiers, oil companies setting energy policy, etc. Even if the govt was successful in overhauling the private system, medical insurance companies would weasel their way back in within months.
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I just opted out of Germany's public health plan...
I'm sure there's a lot to criticize in the US health care system, but let's fix it -- not replace it with socialized medecine, and not glorify other systems without revealing their massive drawbacks. Here in Germany, infant mortality is lower than in the US because not as many preemies live long enough to become infants -- so, the number actually reveals better care, not worse. And, what's more, you have virtually no recourse against incompetent doctors here -- and I have experienced more indompetent doctors here than I ever did in the US. Also, for every low-cost treatment practically given away, there are scores of diagnostics now allowed under the socialized system. I know, because I suffer from a condition that would have been easily diagnosed (but perhaps not treated?) in the US. It was only discovered after I finally opted out of the socialized public health care system here and got myself insured with a for-profit insurer.
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I've experienced Cuban medical care
I know first-hand that it's basic but excellent.
On my first visit to Havana in 1993, I became violently ill with a stomach bug. The neighborhood doctor and her assistant came to the house, checked me thoroughly, brought me hydrating salts, etc., then came back the next day to check on my progress. No charge.
On a 2000 visit to family, my 2-year-old daughter caught strep from her cousins. We walked around the corner to the family doctor (there's one for every 144 families), she did a quick checkup, then sent us to the hospital (2 miles away), where we waited for 20 minutes, then they gave her a throat culture, sold us penicillin powder for 5 Cuban pesos (about 50 US cents at the time), and we brought it back to the neighborhood doctor who injected my daughter with one shot for the next 5 days.
True, she didn't like the injections. But it was basically free.
But Cuban kids don't die of secondary bacterial infections the way kids in other Third World countries do.
I could tell you more stories about family members (grandfather has free surgery that would have cost $80K here, etc.).
I wish it was that easy in the US.
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Here's when something will be done...
...after the day comes when polaticians have their FREE FOR LIFE healthcare benefits cut off. Untill that happens they'll be delighted to fill their pockets with donations from the insurance companies, drug companies and medical organizations...and a big "fuck you" to the rest of us.
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Personal Hell
It's about time someone made a film about the horrible state of "health care" in the USA. As person who had no insurance and needed emergency surgery, I went through that special HELL set aside for the uninsured where I had to declare bankruptcy, after I had a mental breakdown of course. (An interesting side note is as soon as I did, I was receiving 2-3 credit card offers each day in the mail.)
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The US system: most other countries won't touch it
2. Right wing governments outside of America which seek to dismantle or disable universality of health care point to the US as the example of what works.
Actually, that's quite rare. When the UK Tories did a healthcare policy review, they travelled to a number of countries to see how their systems worked, but the US was notably missing from the resume.
Outside the US, it's a system known for its stratification: revolutionary top-end care, with massive numbers of uninsured and atrocious up-front costs and bureaucracy. When travel shows tell people planning to visit the US that they need at least $3m in travellers' health insurance, that makes an impression.
And Tony Benn's right: when people are scared to leave a job because they lose their health insurance, it creates a de facto serfdom.
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Health Care Needs Fixing, But Now How You Think
The biggest problem with health care today is that there's no direct connection between what customers pay and what they get. We'll never fix the system until we establish that connection, and that means high deductibles and risk-based pricing. Smoke? Pay more. Fat? Pay more.
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It is unseemly to talk money in the exam room.
There is a comment here from a doctor that indicates patients who have bragged about their ten million dollar stock portfolio but then balk at paying for some aspect of healthcare. I can certainly understand how that would be frustrating. There was a day in New Orleans about five years ago and I’d had a low grade fever for a couple weeks, wasn’t eating much and generally as weak as could be. Having to rely on public transportation, I made the 45 minute six mile trip on the bus. Not bad while I was on the bus but the walk from the stop to the doctor’s office in the August heat of New Orleans in my condition...every step was an effort and I can’t recall too many times I’ve had to exert more will over my body to keep from lying down right there on the sidewalk. I can still recall cutting through the parking lot and seeing my doctor’s parking space neatly marked near the entrance and the beautiful new Lexus (the big one) that occupied it. Once inside, I waited almost 40 minutes past my appointment time. Really it wasn’t such a big deal that day because though I wanted nothing more than to go back home and lay in my bed, I knew I had to walk through that heat again, past the lovely new Lexus, to get back home. So I was content to sit in the heavily air-conditioned waiting room. Once in the exam room my doctor made small talk with me, something I generally appreciate as it makes me feel human, but then she went on a rather long (considering our allotted time together) talk about the weekends she spent at her “fishing camp” (in the Gulf South that’s rarely a fishing camp but a vacation home on a river or lake…it’s a bit of a status thing for many) and how relaxing it was, etc. I’ve never forgotten that. Or her offhand comments about expensive new shoes. Or the amazing appetizer she had at Emeril’s Delmonico. I think about all those things every month when I write my check for $561.24 for my PPO coverage. I thought about that the time I went to pick up a prescription for Mepron at the pharmacy and they told me my insurance didn’t cover it and my total was $648.50 for a two week course. I thought about my doctor’s nice car, vacation house, shoes, fancy dining and then thought about maybe skipping the Mepron. The thing is, my insurance company would pay for all my hospitalization costs related to pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) just not the medication to treat it in the short window of time where it isn’t advanced enough to require hospitalization. But PCP is a dance with death when you’ve got HIV, a very short dance where you don’t lead. And time in a hospital would mean job loss. So I put the $648.50 on a credit card and paid it off five months later at 15.99% interest. Then I switched doctors. I really didn’t want to hear about how she blew my $648.50 on a single meal with friends at Delmonico’s.
Ok, sure. My doctor didn’t work for the pharmaceutical company or my insurance company. The problems with how they each function played their own unique part. But you get my point. Doctors maybe shouldn’t start casting stones about financial priorities to their patients. I mean, how many patients, really, have ten million dollar stock portfolios and bitch about the cost of healthcare? Doctors playing public financial scold to any of their patients opens up a can of resentful worms they probably don’t want to deal with.