Before we do anything rash, let’s stop for a moment and think.
That wonderful Canadian Health Care system that the politicians keep telling us we need to emulate isn’t so wonderful… patients admitted through an Emergency Department in a Calgary hospital have to wait an average of 16.6 hours to be assigned to a bed.
And in another “shining example” of Universal Health Care, a British hospital is so bad that conditions there have been called “Third World”. Receptionists are responsible for medical checks (!) and some patients have been forced to drink the water in their flower vases.
And if 80% of us are happy with our healthcare, why are we trying to redesign the entire system? (Ignore the headline and read the article… CNN focuses on the fact that as a whole we think too much is spent for health care, while ignoring the rest of the survey.) Dr. Wes looks around and sees that things here are really pretty good, despite the Gloom and Doom pouring out of Washington and your TV News. Yes, there are ways to improve our health care system, but aren’t anywhere close to drinking out of the flower vases yet. So let’s just tell the people in Washington to just calm down for a moment.
Tags: British Hospital, Canada, CHD, CNN, Congenital Heart Defects, Healthcare, United Kingdom, Universal health care, wait times, Washington DC
Adventures of a Funky Heart! 
March 27, 2009 at 10:37 pm |
AMEN STEVO!!!!! My Canadian friends end up coming to US and paying cash because their cancer can’t “hang out” for 9 months for surgery.
March 29, 2009 at 10:40 am |
Well, I have to agree and disagree with this. I think our health care system is one of the best in the world. However, our system is flawed in that insurance isn’t accessible to many people. While I am not in favor of Universal Health Care I am in favor of creating accessibility to health care insurance.
Let me explain. My husband is self employed and I am a stay-at-home mom. My husband and I are insured through Humana with a high deductible plan that will cover us if something catastrophic happens. My son Luke who has CHD was denied by all insurance we applied for because individual plans are medically underwritten and they have the right to deny anyone for their pre-existing condition… even a congenital condition. If we had access to a group plan (which we don’t) the insurance company wouldn’t be able to deny him coverage because of federal law. Our state offers a “high risk pool” insurance for the un-insurable which is our only option for Luke. However, they have a 1 million lifetime maximum benefit. So, basically after Luke has exhausted his lifetime maximum we won’t have any other options.
This means we will have to come up with the money to pay for what he needs out of our pockets and without the insurance network discount. It’s just unbelieveable what the medical community charges an individual without insurance compared to what they charge insurance companies. It is easily 60-80% less. Also, my husband and I are not able to get any kind of maternity insurance… it’s just not available to people on individual plans. So, unless we work for a company that offers a group plan we are out of luck and have to pay full price and out-of-pocket for any future children. The cost will be about $8,000.
So, I think something is broken. Don’t redesign the whole healthcare system but do fix the problem with accessability. Do offer the same “protection” from discrimination to individuals as we do to people who have access to group plans.
March 29, 2009 at 11:16 am |
I agree with you. The healthcare system we have is great. It’s the costs that are the problem.