Healthcare in America ......?

[iMikeT]

Originally Posted by VulchR

To me the solution is simple: Make the US Public Health Service a public health service; in addition to having military academies institute a medical academy (NIH); enlist potential doctors to the PHS on the basis of providing training without cost (like the Army), but requiring service for a given number of years once they earn their MD; give all punitive damages in medical malpractice suits to a fund that helps finance the PHS; and use the leverage of buying for a nationwide health service to buy bulk medical equipment and medicines at lower prices. The US is such a great country that I fail to understand why people think we can't do this.

I, like you, believe in the simple solutions to solve what seem to be complex problems here in the USA in regards to healthcare. However, like our political system, it has been corrupted by money. Instead of purely being a service to the populace it's supposed to serve, it's an avenue for the middleman to make a buck. The solution is to take money out of both politics and healthcare and make these programs serve the people.

I love my country and I really hope for a brighter future here. It's unfortunate that so many people here are easily duped into thinking programs that are supposed to benefit them are bad things and these very people vote away their own self-interest. If there's anyone to blame, it's the extreme hard-right libertarian nut jobs that have hijacked the Republican party and turned it into the party for the angry, hateful, and selfish.

[samiwas]

Originally Posted by VulchR

The US is such a great country that I fail to understand why people think we can't do this.

I don't think it has anything to do with whether they think we CAN. It's whether they WANT to. Some people have deeply-rooted issues with paying for anything that benefits anyone but themselves. Some people make good money from the current system and don't want it changed. Some people have been fed line after line about death panels and are scared of any such system. They simply don't want to change.

[MuddyPaws1]

Originally Posted by eawmp1

You need to look at your sources. The flawed study you cite is more political than factual from a right of center libertarian think tank. A critique can be found here.

As for your flip response about knee surgery, it is elective, not emergent. The need for vast majority of knee replacements are foreseen months or years before they happen and can be planned for.

Ok, read on

[eawmp1]

Originally Posted by MuddyPaws1

Ok, read on

But does the wait result in worse outcomes?

The infant mortality rate is lower and the life expectancy is higher north of the border.

[VulchR]

Originally Posted by ugahairydawgs

There are a good number on Brits living here in north GA and the ones that I have encountered are unanimous in their disdain for the universal system across the pond too, with the most often reason cited being the same waits for care that you mentioned.

I can confirm that where I live in the UK there is no waiting when it comes to medical emergencies, for I have suffered a series of medical misfortunes in my time. Procedures like non-emergency MRI or PET scans sometimes are delayed by months, and in general the waiting time for getting treatment for chronic conditions can be even longer. However, it is always possible to see a GP in the mean time, very often minor medical conditions resolve on their own, and if one's health worsens the NHS does a good job of expediting things.

British people like to complain about everything... the weather..their politicians...the royal family...etc. Still, overwhelmingly the UK public support the NHS and the approval ratings of actual patients is even higher. I wonder whether people living in the US are as favorable about their health care system. I honestly do not know.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Originally Posted by VulchR

To me the solution is simple: Make the US Public Health Service a public health service; in addition to having military academies institute a medical academy (NIH); enlist potential doctors to the PHS on the basis of providing training without cost (like the Army), but requiring service for a given number of years once they earn their MD; give all punitive damages in medical malpractice suits to a fund that helps finance the PHS; and use the leverage of buying for a nationwide health service to buy bulk medical equipment and medicines at lower prices. The US is such a great country that I fail to understand why people think we can't do this.

I agree 100%. This is the only financially viable solution given the faux-Libertarian ethos in the U.S.

Originally Posted by VulchR

British people like to complain about everything... the weather..their politicians...the royal family...etc.

Whatever happened to the stiff upper lip?

[VulchR]

Originally Posted by jnpy!$4g3cwk

... Whatever happened to the stiff upper lip?

They like to complain about everything but themselves perhaps?

[daveathall]

I have worked full time since I was 15 in the UK, I have, throughout 40 odd years paid taxes and national insurance. Recently I have had operations and radiotherapy for prostate cancer, treatment for a minor stroke and other things that have gone wrong with my body, I have never been asked for any money and felt that the care offered and conducted by doctors, nurses, and health workers has been top notch.

I have never, ever been asked any financial related questions while waiting or seeing a doctor, nurse, health worker or while in an ambulance or hospital or by any health workers visiting me at home for treatment.

When I had a chest pain I was seen straight away, no queue, straight to a doctor, hooked up to machines and a night in hospital. No charge.

I know that part of my taxes will have been used to pay for the care of someone who hasn't done a days work in their life. Not bothered TBH, the taxes and nat insurance were taken at source so I have never had, nor missed it.

When I wait in a waiting room there are rich people that choose the NHS, they do not get any special preference, they don't go to the front of the queue, they are treated like everyone else, even the poor and unemployed.

I have known no other system so will not comment on others, but TBH, Im very happy with my lot.

I have been a soldier since I was 15 until the present, so until I was 40 my treatment, if any was done in military hospitals, since 40, until present 15.5 years I have been seen exclusively by the NHS although I am still serving.

[GermanyChris]

You just don't realize how broken the US health care system is until you live abroad.

The need to be a rather large amount of cost control in the states and thy can start by controlling the cost of education. It should not cost 6 figures to become an MD.