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I`m a nurse in Canada, so I'm more than familiar with the quality of healthcare. I have no complaints.
I suffered a rotator cuff injury recently, and received cortisone injections, got a referral to rheumatology and had a nuclear medicine Gamma Ray scan, all within the space of about 10 days.
Is it perfect? No, of course not, but it beats what we used to have.
Your system, half a century ago.
About ten years ago, we were in Canada and my son became ill. Short version of it. He was hospitalized in an eastern province for three days, was treated, and was released. There was no delay getting a CT scan that was required. There was no shortage of hospital beds. The quality of care he got was every bit as good as he would have gotten in the United States. In fact, I wonder if in the USA, they never would have admitted him, out of fear that our private insurance wouldn't have paid for the admission.
My sense of it is that when it comes right down to it that a doctor is a doctor is a doctor whether he/she works in the United States, Canada, Australia, or any European country. I think quality of care is really pretty uniform. Although, some differences exist. The big problem with American health care is that it costs an arm and a leg.
However, my real point is that you'll never convince the diehards. This article presented the results of a survey. Many other surveys and studies have been done. The USA repeatedly comes up short when its a question of comparing cost vs. results in medicine. What's really intolerable though is how many opponents of universal health care just lie through their teeth. They are frequently called on their misrepresentations and yet they just keep going and going and going.
Its why I tune out most of what they say. Lie enough and you lose the right to be listened too.
The problem isn't the fact that medicine is largely private here (excluding Medicare/Medicaid). If the free market system actually worked, it'd be acceptable. The problem is that it doesn't - the price of treatment is often outlandish. When you ask to know the cost of something, invariably no one can give you a straight answer (because it's so convoluted they often don't know. So much for 'freedom' - being subject to the arcane)). It's also like walking into a convenience store, buying a can of soda and being charged a hundred bucks. As mentioned in an earlier post - a few years ago, I had two procedures done in Japan (I paid the full billing price because I wasn't inside the Japanese system). Each procedure cost, give or take, about ten times less than the average price in the US. Needless to say, the treatment I received in Japan was top notch. How can that be at all rationalized?
About ten years ago, we were in Canada and my son became ill. Short version of it. He was hospitalized in an eastern province for three days, was treated, and was released. There was no delay getting a CT scan that was required. There was no shortage of hospital beds. The quality of care he got was every bit as good as he would have gotten in the United States. In fact, I wonder if in the USA, they never would have admitted him, out of fear that our private insurance wouldn't have paid for the admission.
Just addressing this point.. And I think it's something that is important to discuss.. Much of the "Universal Health Care leads to long wait times" arguments are, indeed, bastardized in the US.. On both sides.
So.. What do I mean by that? Your example is a very good one.. Your son, based on the info you've given, had an emergency medical situation. Canada, the UK, Australia.. Any place that has a universal health care system.. Hell.. Anywhere in the world.. I don't think there's any wait time when you have a critical case.
Where there are, indeed, wait times in these places are on elective items. Things that are NOT critical. Someone presents with acute right side abdominal pain.. I think they're getting ultrasounded immediately to check the appendix, because that is critical. That is whether you're in the US, Canada, Cuba or wherever. (If I've screwed this up and the appendix is on the left side.. Reverse what I said.. If you can't tell, I still got mine, so.. I have no clue where it is.. Well, other than "still where it should be")
Someone from Canada/UK/etc can speak better than me on this and perhaps clarify.. But my understanding is.. If you have chronic knee or back pain or something like that.. Then it can take quite some time (6 weeks seems to be about the longest I have heard of) to get scheduled for scans? And then you may have wait times to get a needed surgery(based on the scans) done. I hate to call these surgeries 'elective', because I'm sure if you're suffering, it sure doesn't feel 'elective'.
I don't think either side is flat out lying.. Both of them are being truthful in parts. But, both sides are leaving out details. Which is probably the definition of politician. Supporters say there are no wait times.. Well, there can be.. Folks who say you die waiting for care.. that's not particularly true, either, because critical cases always go to the front of the line. You show up at a hospital anywhere in critical condition, you go to the front of the line.. Unless there's someone there more critical than you.
And, not to beat the dead horse.. But to mention my position again.. I'm not flat out against UHC in the US.. But I don't like the idea of it being politicized or the thought of the US Government running it. For me to accept it, I think that it would have to be independent of the government to an extent.. Perhaps elected positions (yeah, that's sort of talking out both sides of my butt, isn't it?).. What I mean is it couldn't be political appointees running it. And I don't buy into the 'base it off xxxxx' because that won't work. Put some thought into it, come up with a GOOD plan that works in the US, then implement it.
Just addressing this point.. And I think it's something that is important to discuss.. Much of the "Universal Health Care leads to long wait times" arguments are, indeed, bastardized in the US.. On both sides.
So.. What do I mean by that? Your example is a very good one.. Your son, based on the info you've given, had an emergency medical situation. Canada, the UK, Australia.. Any place that has a universal health care system.. Hell.. Anywhere in the world.. I don't think there's any wait time when you have a critical case.
Where there are, indeed, wait times in these places are on elective items. Things that are NOT critical. Someone presents with acute right side abdominal pain.. I think they're getting ultrasounded immediately to check the appendix, because that is critical. That is whether you're in the US, Canada, Cuba or wherever. (If I've screwed this up and the appendix is on the left side.. Reverse what I said.. If you can't tell, I still got mine, so.. I have no clue where it is.. Well, other than "still where it should be")
Someone from Canada/UK/etc can speak better than me on this and perhaps clarify.. But my understanding is.. If you have chronic knee or back pain or something like that.. Then it can take quite some time (6 weeks seems to be about the longest I have heard of) to get scheduled for scans? And then you may have wait times to get a needed surgery(based on the scans) done. I hate to call these surgeries 'elective', because I'm sure if you're suffering, it sure doesn't feel 'elective'.
I don't think either side is flat out lying.. Both of them are being truthful in parts. But, both sides are leaving out details. Which is probably the definition of politician. Supporters say there are no wait times.. Well, there can be.. Folks who say you die waiting for care.. that's not particularly true, either, because critical cases always go to the front of the line. You show up at a hospital anywhere in critical condition, you go to the front of the line.. Unless there's someone there more critical than you.
And, not to beat the dead horse.. But to mention my position again.. I'm not flat out against UHC in the US.. But I don't like the idea of it being politicized or the thought of the US Government running it. For me to accept it, I think that it would have to be independent of the government to an extent.. Perhaps elected positions (yeah, that's sort of talking out both sides of my butt, isn't it?).. What I mean is it couldn't be political appointees running it. And I don't buy into the 'base it off xxxxx' because that won't work. Put some thought into it, come up with a GOOD plan that works in the US, then implement it.
Again, my rotator cuff injury, while painful, was hardly life-threatening or urgent.
Clinic to X-Ray to cortisone shots to specialist to Nuclear medicine - about ten days.
I won't be complaining.
Most Canadians are quite happy with the system.
If it's urgent or life-threatening, the care is immediate and of excellent quality.
And the US still manages to land lowest in Health Care.
WTF is wrong with the health industry?
Doctors create for-profit clinics to milk insurance like a cash cow. That's one reason costs are out of control. On the other hand, insurance to some extent limits what tests can be ordered, so some patients aren't able to get the tests they need unless they find a doc who doesn't accept insurance, and they can pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars out-of-pocket. Then you have doc Continuing Education classes run by Pharma to sell product, rather than to educate doctors, so docs are poorly-informed about some of the remedies they recommend, and the physiology behind them.
The list of what's wrong with health care in the US is very long.
Again, my rotator cuff injury, while painful, was hardly life-threatening or urgent.
Clinic to X-Ray to cortisone shots to specialist to Nuclear medicine - about ten days.
I won't be complaining.
Most Canadians are quite happy with the system.
If it's urgent or life-threatening, the care is immediate and of excellent quality.
Nuclear medicine? In the US, they perform surgery for rotator cuff problems. Many can be healed with massage, but insurance doesn't pay for massage. It does pay for surgery.
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