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I wouldn't go that far. It's just not as easy to find a good personal physician on the BI as Oahu.
But that misses the point that my health has improved significantly since I moved here. Several chronic issues just fell away as I settled into a low stress lifestyle, got more excercise, began to eat better with lots of inexpensive fresh local produce available.
Not as easy is the understatement of the year. My good physician alas, moved to TX where she had done her residency because she could not make a decent living here. She had even added esthetics to her practice in an attempt to make ends meet. I have now been through 2 or 3 w/out any real satisfaction. Thank God I haven't had any complicated issues since waiting 1 to 3 weeks for routine blood test results was considered "normal". She's been gone over a year and I'm still looking.
It took me 3 or 4 years to find a dentist who had any kind of reasonably advanced training and expertise, and assistants with the same, and a professional attitude. I was seriously ready to fly back to LV to have some work done there at my old dentist.
My husband went to 2 or 3 specialists before we found the current one here that is ethical, knowledgeable and available most of the time when needed.
Part of the problem is the low payments the doctors receive from insurance companies and Medicare, as I understand it. Josh Green is trying to improve this. Combine that with the high cost of doing business in Hawaii and it's not hard to see why quality physicians won't stay. And I'm sure many leave for the same reason other mainland transplants leave - education for their children, different amenities that they desire for their families, etc.
This is a serious issue and one that needs constructive help.
Someone made the following comment on another thread:
I inquired what they meant but so far no response so I thought I'd ask out in the open:
In Honolulu, where my wife & I plan to move, is there a problem with the quality of the medical services being delivered, even though Honolulu has two major hospitals and even though many of the residents are wealthy?
I believe this quote was from us a few years back. This statement is absolutely true now and was 15 years ago. My wife had not one, not two but three surgeries go wrong on Oahu! We had to use every penny we had to fly to the main land to see the best specialist in the country to try and resolve what happened to her. Needless to say, she is now disabled from these surgeries and never received a dime of compensation.
Our youngest boy also needed surgery for an hernia and the hospital on Maui told us they could not handle it! This coming hours after we called the paramedics to our home and they told us to put some ice on his pain site and he would be FINE! We did not feel good about what they told us so we brought him to Maui Memorial on our own.....the doctors there treated him and said he needed to have surgery right away but they could not do it. We packed our things and left everything with friends and our church and went back to the main land within 48 hours. All is good now. Hawaii is a beautiful place to live with lots of adventure and we enjoyed our 15+ years there. But when something like medical care arises, you are basically out of luck unless it is the common cold.
We went to a garage sale of someone who was leaving for the mainland. She was a doctor who had to go to the mainland to work her last decade of her career so she'd have enough money to retire on. Apparently too many of her patients were Medicare and they pay less than half of what other forms of insurance pay.
Has anyone else noticed there's this huge hue and cry about "health insurance" and very little about "health care"? Seems it would be a lot more efficient to have the hospitals subsidized by everyone with health care for everyone instead of payments made to insurance companies. All I see is insurance companies making a lot of money and doctors having to move away because they can't afford to practice here.
* living in the rural environs of the BI may be good for the BP but the vog, as I understand, is murder on residents' lungs and respiratory system.
* Maui, given the number of wealthy living there, should have a MUCH better medical system than it does (one mediocre hospital and an almost non-existent 911 system)
* if the state government doesn't step in (forget about Obamacare or any other "Care" that comes along from the Feds) Hawaiian residents and especially the wealthy (who have the political clout to demand a better system) will have to take to the streets or just vote with their feet, those that have the financial mean. Those left behind will be too poor to provide any sort of tax base for the local governments and Hawaii will likely descend into third-world conditions like Guam or the Marianas.
* living in the rural environs of the BI may be good for the BP but the vog, as I understand, is murder on residents' lungs and respiratory system.
Depends on the location. Where I live, just above the volcano, VOG is an occasional problem. Most of it blows the other way because the prevailing winds are from the NE. Once in a while I get a little taste of sulfur in the air and know it's a good day to avoid strenuous exercise.
Frankly, I have more issues with "seasonal allergies," because there is ALWAYS something blooming here. And I have to be diligent about attacking mold and mildew that shows up around the house.
Depends on the location. Where I live, just above the volcano, VOG is an occasional problem. Most of it blows the other way because the prevailing winds are from the NE. Once in a while I get a little taste of sulfur in the air and know it's a good day to avoid strenuous exercise.
Frankly, I have more issues with "seasonal allergies," because there is ALWAYS something blooming here. And I have to be diligent about attacking mold and mildew that shows up around the house.
One big benefit of Hawaii vegetation is that there aren't many pine trees. In SE Texas, during the pollen season every car would be coated in a thin yellow layer, but not Hawaii. I read somewhere that the biggest allergy issues here are with dust and mildew, vs pollen.
We might also be more isolated from diseases like bird flu. Being so remote we'll be safe from the inevitable zombie plague too. We just have to wait for zombie hordes in the population centers to die off.
* Maui, given the number of wealthy living there, should have a MUCH better medical system than it does (one mediocre hospital and an almost non-existent 911 system)
Maui only has about 125,000 people. That simply is not enough to support major facilities for health care, which is why they transport you to Oahu.
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