What a difference 35 years make. The original moderator of this subject sent this to me by email. HE was in England last week. It is followed by my response.
Read and see the future under Obama/PelosiCare:
Lazarus Long:
We got to sample their (England's National Health Service) 'health care'. My wife fell and injured her knee - a cut about 2 inches long, 1 inch wide, not very deep. About 1/2 inch gap between the skin that was intact and what had been torn loose. Surface wound. Still needed stitches though. Off to NHS. First you wait an hour. Then you see a nurse-practitioner who decides if you need a doc. Then you wait 2 hours for the doc to show up. Then cleaning, stitches, bandaging. Then the doc says you need to wait to see the nurse again to get wound care instructions. Why she couldn't give them is beyond me. Maybe she didn't know how. Finally you get to leave.
Now if you're ready to turn in your doc for a nurse, you'll LOVE this place. Because that's how they save money - use as few docs and as many nurses as possible.
NOW: Last trip she got pneumonia in Turkey. They have a public system and a parallel private system with docs, nurses, and hospitals. The private is supposed to be much better, so we went to one of those. They had no nightgowns, no sheets, no bars of soap, no .... You're supposed to bring those yourself. I find out the hard way.
After 3 days she's definitely worse. Delirious. The docs look at me like I've got 3 heads when I bring this up. Either they're not paying attention or are incompetent or both.
I decide it's time to get her the hell out of there while she's still alive. I arrange an emergency jet medevac to Basel, Switzerland for her. An ambulance meets the jet and takes us to the university hospital ER. They get a pulmonologist in (I'm not sure they've ever heard of those in turkey) and start finding the problem. Blood sample shows she has RSV - respiratory synctiatal virus, potentially fatal for someone with her lung problems. They counter-attack with anti-virals. She's in the hospital in Switzerland 9 days, but she comes out in good condition and alive. She still has to wait a week in Switzerland and see the doc again before they'll clear her to fly. We flew back on Lufthansa, a good airline, Good thing because she had to be rigged to a supplemental oxygen supply the whole way back to SFO.
Now Switzerland has socialized medicine - sort of. They require that all Swiss citizens and permanent residents have medical insurance. The Swiss gov't will subsidize such if they prove they cannot afford to buy a health insurance policy. The docs and hospitals are private.
Now that's a 'socialized medicine' plan that even a Republican or conservative or Libertarian can agree with. And the care is excellent.
Socialized medicine depends very much on where it is and how it is set up. You wouldn't want to go into a a Mexican Social Security clinica for care. You might not come out alive. I could tell you some horror stories about them you probably wouldn't even believe.
Peter:
My last experience with NHS was in 1975. What a difference 35 years of cost squeezing makes. I dropped in without an appointment. I probably waited a total of 30 minutes. I saw a doctor who patiently interviewed me. I suggested that I might have strep throat. That term was not in use there at the time. He took the swab sample and gave it to a nurse for testing. A few minuets later he returned to pronounce that I had a sore throat and he gave me a prescription for penicillin. No money was due even though I was a foreigner. I don’t recall if the prescription was filled at the clinic or a pharmacy.
I was left with a feeling that they provided very good care. It was as pleasant as can be expected.
End - my comment to readers here:
I understand that some people would not project the future to see the inevitable. If they see that this is what will become of the American medical system (under Obama/PelosiCare) it is difficult to understand why they would support such a plan. |
