Global Warming News

[IH3444]

What a health care system! When in doubt, ship it out! Hopefully he'll get to the United States operating table before he dies! This is too funny!

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Don't think so. I have no idea what medical issues this patient has, but some procedures are rare enough that the doctors who know how to do them are few and far between.

You wouldn't think anything of flying halfway across the US to have a medical procedure done by a specialist in your issue. In doing so, you would be flying across all of the EU and flying over easily two or three times the population of Canada (34 million).

I think the article is deliberately ignoring medical realities to denounce Canada's health care system. So, I do understand the premise of the article, it just doesn't hold water.
Dave.

I will leave it to others to decide, what the premise of the article is, but please inform me when you last heard of a Medicare/Medicaid patient being flown across the country to receive care?

 

[dave1949]

Please inform me when you last heard of a Medicare/Medicaid patient being flown across the country to receive care?

I don't know if that happens or not, guessing not commonly. How is that relevant? Is there a rule against that? People in this country go long distances all the time for specialized treatment. The point is, they do so for good reasons, which you have not addressed.
Dave.

 

[Chuck52]

Actually, if you do a search, you will find that Medicare does have a mechanism for reimbursement of at least some travel expenses. Will they fly you across the country to have your special procedure done? Don't know. How about your VA coverage? If you need a treatment only available through certain VA centers, do you get travel expense reimbursement? I'll have to ask my brother who got extensive treatment though the VA for hepatitis C. Of course, he was within driving distance of the Asheville VA center.

BTW, everyone with private insurance knows you can't get just anything done and have it paid for. Is that rationing?

Chuck

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

I don't know if that happens or not, guessing not commonly. How is that relevant? Is there a rule against that? People in this country go long distances all the time for specialized treatment. The point is, they do so for good reasons, which you have not addressed.
Dave.

The relevancy is that in a socialized system of health care, there is ALWAYS rationing. Hence you are not going to receive the BEST health care. If you want the BEST health care, you have to pay for it(or have someone else pay for it) Basic economics: The allocation of scarce resources, with alternative uses)

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Actually, if you do a search, you will find that Medicare does have a mechanism for reimbursement of at least some travel expenses. Will they fly you across the country to have your special procedure done? Don't know. How about your VA coverage? If you need a treatment only available through certain VA centers, do you get travel expense reimbursement? I'll have to ask my brother who got extensive treatment though the VA for hepatitis C. Of course, he was within driving distance of the Asheville VA center.

BTW, everyone with private insurance knows you can't get just anything done and have it paid for. Is that rationing?

Chuck

Yes it is rationing, By price.
The only fair way to apportion "scarce resources, with alternative uses"
And if you are referring to VA coverage as "socialized" I will disagree with you. A number of people who served in Viet Nam with me and others wars, have left body parts and more in sort of a "pay in forward" plan

 

[dave1949]

The relevancy is that in a socialized system of health care, there is ALWAYS rationing. Hence you are not going to receive the BEST health care. If you want the BEST health care, you have to pay for it(or have someone else pay for it) Basic economics: The allocation of scarce resources, with alternative uses)

Well, I see you still have not addressed the real issue of medical realities, but if you wish to make socialized health care relevant, these are my thoughts:

If Germany, with it's rationed, less than best, inefficient socialized healthcare, can afford to fly patients to specialists - we should be able to also. It's just another example of how our healthcare costs are high and results are low - no matter who is paying. Other countries are providing healthcare 'smarter' than we are. We will keep on paying a 30% US citizen healthcare surcharge for less than the best results until we wise up.

I lived in Germany for almost 10 years, I didn't notice any lack of healthcare, nor did I ever hear of much that would cause me to think it was substandard or required much waiting.

From wikipedia:
Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, with origins dating back to Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883, Accident Insurance Bill of 1884, and Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889.

Only in a utopian world does everyone get the best of everything without limit.
Dave.

 

[Loren49]

Hi all,

Interesting table
http://zfacts.com/metaPage/lib/National-Debt-GDP.gif

Easy to find evidence of this trend also:
As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas at SmartMoney.com

As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas
WHEN SHE WAS diagnosed with a fibroid tumor last year, Kathleen Dodds found herself in a bind. She didn't have health insurance because she couldn't afford it. With no insurance, the surgery she needed was prohibitively expensive.
"They were quoting me $30,000, tentatively, paid out of pocket," says Dodds, 42, a Portland, Ore.-based horse trainer. "There was no way I could afford it here."

But 7,200 miles away in India was an affordable solution. Through IndUSHealth, a company in Raleigh, N.C., that arranges medical care in India for U.S. citizens, Dodds flew out to the Apollo hospital in Delhi, where she had a successful hysterectomy that allowed her to return to her horseback riding students just two-and-a-half weeks later.
The total cost: just under $10,000, including round-trip airfare, transportation to and from the hospital, a one-week hospital stay where she says she was treated with more care and attention than she had ever experienced in the U.S., capped by 10 days at a "gorgeous hotel."


Read more: As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas at SmartMoney.com As Health Costs Soar, More Find Care Overseas at SmartMoney.com

US has some of the best care that MONEY can buy but to say it isn't rationed hear is not true. We have more easily avoidable deaths than most industrialized countries. Remember that about 50% of our expenditures are public money's now.

On a personal note - spoke with my 78 year old uncle who did very well with the local utility for about 40 years and also started and ran a heating business in his spare time. Financially he's way better off that me. His wife Alzheimer Disease and he has had some heart issues. I've always considered him very conservative so I was surprised when he told me that he didn't know how he would make it without Medicare.


Loren

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

What a health care system! When in doubt, ship it out! Hopefully he'll get to the United States operating table before he dies! This is too funny!

If you want a real chuckle, read the column on that page by
Diane Francis.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Well, I see you still have not addressed the real issue of medical realities, but if you wish to make socialized health care relevant, these are my thoughts:

If Germany, with it's rationed, less than best, inefficient socialized healthcare, can afford to fly patients to specialists - we should be able to also. It's just another example of how our healthcare costs are high and results are low - no matter who is paying. Other countries are providing healthcare 'smarter' than we are. We will keep on paying a 30% US citizen healthcare surcharge for less than the best results until we wise up.

I lived in Germany for almost 10 years, I didn't notice any lack of healthcare, nor did I ever hear of much that would cause me to think it was substandard or required much waiting.

From wikipedia:
Germany has the world's oldest universal health care system, with origins dating back to Otto von Bismarck's social legislation, which included the Health Insurance Bill of 1883, Accident Insurance Bill of 1884, and Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill of 1889.

Only in a utopian world does everyone get the best of everything without limit.
Dave.

Please furnish me the Percentage of patients that are flown/moved/in some other way furnished with advanced care , that they wouldn't haven't gotten, if not for socialized medicine.
Please furnish me with names of the countries that have a better result in outcomes of treatment, and have "smarter" systems.
Further question: Define "smarter system"
When living in Germany, did you notice the price of gasoline, when you were receiving your "free" health care.
That "you didn't notice" any problems with?
You are absolutely correct that only in a "Utopian World"
does one receive does everyone get the best of everything without limit. Lets see, which set of Politicians are promising that. Hmmmm?