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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (52152)	7/1/2002 5:22:19 PM
From: Original Mad Dog	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

The analogy I like to draw in this context is with the health care system. We have a hybrid system here -- county hospitals and veterans hospitals for the indigent and veterans, and a patchwork of nonprofit and for-profit hospitals for paying customers. Retirees are given what are in essence vouchers for their health care needs through Medicare....they can use these vouchers for their care at any participating provider or institution. What strikes me about this system is how much better the care tends to be at the private institutions than at the government-run ones. I also personally know numerous people who come to the US from Canada and the UK and pay out of pocket for medical care because they have no effective way around the government run systems there, which are increasingly unresponsive to their needs. These are not wealthy people, either. One lady I know is 80, lives in the UK on a small pension, has a daughter and son in law who work here and make maybe one and a half times the average family income (not rich by any means), and she felt so unwell that she has come here for her last four doctor visits over a two year period, and marvels at the quality of care received. I know doctors in this area who have a dozen or more patients from countries with national health care systems who are told back home to wait for care, or that it is unavailable, or they are too old to have this fixed or that fixed. Unburdened by competition, these systems adopt over time a "take it or leave it" attitude toward the consumer. I see schools in many areas doing the same thing, and vouchers may well be an imperfect solution. But the "no voucher" system has resulted in a state of affairs that is clearly not working for millions of young people.