Re: MD pleads politicians instead of courts

From: Lictor (ghostmlNOSPAM-REMOVE_at_online.fr)
Date: 08/27/04 

Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 14:42:52 +0200

"George Conklin" <nilknoc@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:MmFXc.83$JT3.37@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> Robert has irrational fears about his health. The USA system is hugely
> expensive and is set up for the benefit of providers, who are very well
> organized and constantly post their complaints which never end.

That's actually the amazing part about the US system, that it is one of the
most expensive in the world *and* manages to cover only part of the people
and badly. This is despite the American population being one of the youngest
of the western world, and as such one of the less expensive to treat.
Americans keep telling us that the French system will collapse because of
old people. Well, our population is already much older than theirs, and life
expectancy is longer. And we have a lower GPD. Yet, it's still less costly
than their system and it's behaving better. The US healthcare is already
collapsing, under strains that are nowhere near as intense as ours. In the
meantime, ours is still holding.
In any other country, people would have *demanded* such a system to be
changed and made more efficient. That's exactly what we are seeing in
Canada, France and the rest of Europe. People do complain. Not because the
system is bad, but because they have a very high level of expectation. Like,
when my brother went through the diagnosis and preparation of his brain
surgery, he met no wait line at all, he had all the scanners he needed,
without reguard to cost, he was examined by the head of the neuro-surgery
dpt himself. All this for free. Yet, my father complained. Because he was a
bit rushed through the process, because my brother was frightened by the
whole process and cried, because the neuro-surgeon was a foreigner and had
difficulties explaining things in layman terms. In other word, he wanted
humane treatment (which he got a few days later with the appologies from the
surgeon) on top of all the rest. Because we expect as much from the system.
That's the same reason Canadian doctors attack the system, even if they love
it.
All the talks about failure of our system and need to change it doesn't lead
to abandonning it, it just leads to fine tuning it to make it more
efficient. Sure, it's always on the "verge of collapsing". Hell, there were
already these talks when socialized healthcare started one century ago.
That's a very slow collapse for sure... And that's exactly how you want it.
If it's on the verge of collapsing, but not collapsing, it means that it's
getting just the right amount of money and is at its peak efficiency. Just
like using just-in time stock management is optimal for a company.
On the other hand, Americans have accepted that their public system is
worthless. They see bills for $50 nails and $2,000 hammers, and it's all
normal to them, it's "what you get with public systems", it's not like they
could improve the system. They have accepted that it can be both underfunded
*and* costly. For them, it's a given that a public system will behave this
way. They don't really ask anything from it. At best, they want to drop the
whole thing. And the end result is that they get exactly what they were
expecting : a bloated innefficient system that wasted an enormous amount of
money to accomplish nothing. To think that 10% of the GPD could go to fund
such a system and accomplish nothing is mind blowing to anyone ... except a
Republican.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: MD pleads politicians instead of courts
    ... expectancy is longer. ... it's always on the "verge of collapsing". ... already these talks when socialized healthcare started one century ago. ... Americans have accepted that their public system is ...
    (sci.med.cardiology)
  • Re: MD pleads politicians instead of courts
    ... expectancy is longer. ... it's always on the "verge of collapsing". ... already these talks when socialized healthcare started one century ago. ... Americans have accepted that their public system is ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)