🚀 go-pugleaf

pjk@netcom.com (Phil Koenig) writes:
| In article <27o2fs$qh3@bmsrs.usc.edu> degennar@bmsrs.usc.edu (Ray) writes:
| >Two points:
| >
| >1) Do you really want a health care program like Canada's?
| >
| >2) Do you really feel that the governmet is capable of effectively
| >   adminstrating a health care program without raising the cost or
| >   decreasing the quality of service?
[reformatted for easier quoting]
| The people I have informally interviewed who come from countries
| which have "socialized" health care dismiss the argument that it
| doesn't work as a smoke-screen by individuals or groups who either
| A) have never lived in a similiar system and can't imagine anything
| other than what they're "used to" 

My grandfather is a Canadian citizen.  He has been suffering from 
some sort of spinal/back problem for the last eight months.  Not 
life threatening, I don't think.  But completely debilitatinging.  He 
can't really walk about or even stand up without assistance anymore.  
The pain in his back is just too great.

His general practitioner doctor thinks he needs an MRI.  My grandfather
is on the queue for an MRI scan.  He has been for the last six months.
His GP has referred him to various specialists, hoping that *someone*
can put him on a faster queue towards an MRI scan.  No one can.  Facts
are, he is old, and his back problem isn't life threatening.  Mental 
anguish and personal well-being be damned.

The solution?  He came to the Bay Area for his MRI.  He has visited 
specialists, and it looks like his back pain may be relieved with 
some sort of steroid injection.  He has been seeing a physical 
therapist, and he seems to be in much better spirits now. 

Oh yeah... He is still on the list for an MRI scan in Vancouver. 

Or how about my mother.

She belongs to the Kaiser HMO in the Bay Area.  Last year, she had
some pain in her shoulder when she moves her arm about.  She set up
an appointment with her "personal" doctor at Kaiser Redwood City.
No problem, they tell her, we can give you an appointment 3 months
from now.  Fine, my mom said.

But the pain was persistent.  She tried to move her appointment up,
but Kaiser cannot accomodate her.  She was so bothered by her shoulder
that she finally went to see a doctor outside of the Kaiser system. 
A couple of shots, some pills, and some physical therapy, and her 
shoulder is now without pain.  Her doctor tells her the condition of
her shoulder was deteriorating without treatment, and had she waited
for her Kaiser appointment, treatment would have been much more 
drastic.  Surgery might have been required, and perhaps there would
have been some permanent impairment.

I switched my insurance carrier out of the Kaiser system after her
experience.  That the Clintons are using Kaiser as their model just
fills my heart with joy, let me tell you.

| or B) who have a vested interest
| (i.e.  insurance companies) in seeing the current system prevail.

Nothing so convenient for me, unfortunately.

| The generally consensus is, it works, and well.  These opinions come 
| from Canadians, Western Europeans, and Eastern Europeans.  

Gee, you must not have talked to my Grandfather. 

You know, I bet you are right that the Canadian system works most of
the time.  So do the European systems.  The US System works most of 
the time too.  (If memory serves, all the polls claim that a large 
majority of Americans are quite satisfied with their current health
insurance.)

| The favorite argument
| that it would stratify the levels of care available to the "haves" and the
| "have nots" was firmly refuted in all cases.  Sure, if you're a Rockefeller
| or a Dupont you'll _always_ get special treatment *anywhere*, but who
| would ever doubt that?

Sorry.  Just a bunch of hardworking white collars in this neighborhood.

-- 
Gary Tse, tse@apple.com		T'have seen what I have seen, see what I see!	
(408) 862-5452