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"Socialised" vs "private" medicine doesn't have to be an either/or situation.
Here in Australia we have a universal heath care system, and it's true there are sometimes waiting lists at public hospitals for non-urgent surgical procedures - depending on what operating times your local hospital specialists have available at the time. However, we also have a private hospital system which you can use whenever you are not in an "emergency" situation* if you choose to take out health insurance. My health insurance costs about A$200 a month (for the highest level cover) and pays 100% of the cost of staying in private hospital and pretty much covers most specialist services (surgeon, anaesthetist and any required non-hospital post-operative services). I also have cover for dental, physio, optical and a raft of other medical and quasi-medical services. That adds about A$40 a month to my premium costs.
I needed a colonoscopy and endoscopy a few weeks ago - I went the private hospital route and was booked in a week after calling the hospital (you need a few days to do the diet and the prep). My handyman also needed one a few weeks earlier - he doesn't have private health insurance. He had to wait 2 weeks (including prep time). So not much difference there. Neither one of us required the procedure urgently.
Of course if it's an emergency you will be treated straight away. * In an emergency almost everyone goes, or is taken to, the closest public hospital, as few private hospitals have an ER. You will be fixed up there - and if there are on-going requirements and you have private insurance you can be treated as a private patient (ie your preferred specialist etc) at the public hospital or be transferred to a private hospital after you are stabilised.
Our outcomes compare very well to those in the US. Our life expectancy is a little longer, and infant mortality a little lower. And no I don't pay a bucketload of tax. I don't pay any income tax actually as I am retired, but when I was working (self employed consultant - grossing six figures in a good year) I never paid more than about 25% tax on my net taxable income.
I don't think it's ever been proved that our health care system is inferior to any other country. Just because a country doesn't have socialized medicine, doesn't mean it has a bad system. People are covered by employer paid insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, self paid insurance etc. Even without insurance, hospitals are still required by law to care for those who come through their doors. The large number of people who come to the USA for medical care from other countries with socialized medicine proves we have a pretty good system
If a morally obligated person doesnt have a job or ineligible for medicare, in case of a major illness he is going for bankruptcy. And hospitals are required to treat emergencies, not the regular illnesses.
Sorry, Shane, but you're wrong. My wife, who was a hospital RN saw many cases of illegals and others with no insurance, admitted to the hospital, had the surgery they needed, and normal hospital care in a private room, before they were released.
Is this a sign of a nation in decline? Why? Obesity increasing, drug OD on the increase. Suicides on the increase. Birth rate in decline, all are probable reason for life expectancy to decrease, but are they also signs of a society in decline?
Certainly not a good sign. We need to work on our obesity and propensity to take pills.
In nearby southwest Virginia, there are several "remote area medical" clinics available several times a year. That region has few jobs, and fewer jobs with health insurance. Poverty is extremely high. Providers are not going to locate in a region with few insured patients and a lack of adequate medical infrastructure.
It's a vicious cycle where the nice areas and people with jobs have good coverage, while those without those luxuries suffer.
If you ask me, life expectancy is going down because people are never happy about anything any more. There was a time, believe it or not, when people were generally happy about life. Now days, thanks to the media, we are all negative, miserable, unhappy and expecting the worst. This kind of environment is not very conducive to living a long, happy life.
I don't think it's ever been proved that our health care system is inferior to any other country. Just because a country doesn't have socialized medicine, doesn't mean it has a bad system. People are covered by employer paid insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, self paid insurance etc. Even without insurance, hospitals are still required by law to care for those who come through their doors. The large number of people who come to the USA for medical care from other countries with socialized medicine proves we have a pretty good system
And what about medical tourism to other countries from the United States?
Providing more information and researchable references helps.
Regardless and assuming it true, take a good look at the food industry. There is plenty of incriminating evidence there. Add to that the growing tendency towards online time consumption, TV watching, and video game playing, and we are often a nation of slobs and slouches. There are some at the other extreme - exercise nuts - but not enough belonging to moderate and balanced realm in between.
Worries over health insurance, bills, and politics doesn't help either. That's the sour frosting on top.
Well, this is the GD forum, so I’m going to stick my foot in the door & go get my links together, because if you really want some insight; you have to go way deep in to the data.
Not the glossy press-releases, not “fast”-stats, nor “highlights” but the incredibly large volumes of US mortality/morbidly files that tabulate, by year, age, gender, race, state, etc ... ALL causes of death. Not top 10 or 20 but all: Everything from lightning strikes to “assassinated by hit-man” (I kid you not; it’s in there).
So, I’m a geek & I have many of them downloaded already & will link to them for specific points but to make a broad, sweeping generalization?
What I think is weighing down our numbers is a Boomer cancer phenomena that actually started back in the 1960’s.
The post WWII birth rate was high enough to disguise a lot of the cancer prevalence & to this day; a population “bubble” can still be seen on a population pyramid graph but when you really look at the shift from the pre-1940’s decades of cancer cause of death rates vs cardiac conditions, infectious disease, accidental death, etc ... You can see the shift occurring during the 1950’s & see how it increases by the decade.
Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of the coding & adjustments in reporting resulted in confounding the final incidence reports that made it to the media but it didn’t change the raw data that is available, back to I think 1890 & available online.
A person in their 70’s+ May recall certain concerns over the decades, such as the scary rise in pediatric brain cancers starting in the 1960’s, the frightening rise in incidence of bone cancers, especially in young people in the 1979’s-1980’s, The debut of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma 1980’s-1990’s, etc ...
Heck, here on CD there have been several threads about anecdotal observations of cancer rates in people over the age of 50.
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