🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 28 Sep 1993 20:25:50 GMT, pjk@netcom.com (Phil Koenig) said:

> In article <RLM.93Sep26104259@helen.surfcty.com> rlm@helen.surfcty.com (Robert L. McMillin) writes:

>>Dream on.  If we've had one big history lesson of this century, it's
>>this: large bureaucratic structures don't work.  Single-payer would
>>turn out to be a fiscal nightmare; eventually, as with all the five-
>>year-plans that the Soviets never believed in, it would collapse of
>>its own weight.  And in the interim, we'd all get subjected to the
>>kind of restrictions prevalent in HMOs.  Maybe this wouldn't happen
>>right away, but soon, and for a long time.

> OK, speaking of lessons, I suggest you do a little research into the millions
> of people on this planet who have been, or are currently happy as members
> of "single payer" systems around the world.  "Us" Americans have a nasty
> habit of forgetting that the rest of the world exists.  Talk to some
> Canadians, some Germans, Scandinavians, Czechoslovakians, etc etc.  Might
> surprise you.

I have and they're all cutting back benefits way past what I'd
consider reasonable, even from the worst HMO now.

>>> The largest HMO and probably the best has always let you pick your
>>> own doctor. Kaiser.
>>
>>For what that's worth.  You can pick *a* doctor, but it's not worth
>>very much, because they're pretty much all the same -- unconcerned
>>drones who look at you like a side of meat.  I am out of Kaiser and
>>happy to have escaped.

> I definitely agree with you here.  Kaiser seems to be one of the examples of
> what happens to people when capitalism runs amok.  Sorry, but when Profit,
> Profit, Profit is the driving force behind my medical "care", I don't get
> that warm and fuzzy feeling.  What ever happened to the Hippocratic oath?

It went out the door when the patient was no longer the customer.  As
it is now, the customer is the insured's employer.  This arrangement
will have to change if it's to get any better.  And it will get worse,
I guarantee it, under the Billary Clinton plan.
-- 

Robert L. McMillin | Surf City Software | rlm@helen.surfcty.com | Dude!
  "It's okay to stare at my ear.  I know you can't help it." -- Bongo