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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: frankw1900 who wrote (22935)	1/4/2004 4:31:05 PM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 793688

So, what's the hiccup in the US system? Litigation and fear of litigation? Is that an issue in your system? A lot of our costs are in the huge settlements and in medical practitioners doing unnecessary procedures to cover themselves so they don't get sued. It might also be that our medicine is not antiquated. New stuff is orders of magnitude more expensive than the marginally antiquated and everyone demands the newest stuff. That could account for much of the difference.

To: frankw1900 who wrote (22935)	1/4/2004 4:48:35 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793688

So, what's the hiccup in the US system? We have happy customers on one side - most people have health care and are fairly content with it. They will fight their Health care being turned over to a bureaucracy run by people recruited from the DMV. Bad deal for them. We have committed Liberals on the other side - they love central planning and National Health Care is the best issue they see out there. They will fight forever for it. So we end up extensions every year of various forms of Government run medicine. It drives up the cost of medicine for all of us. If the Republicans can get a working filibuster-proof majority in the Senate - 60 seats - it may get privatized and cost controlled. But our long term future looks like a very expensive version of yours.

To: frankw1900 who wrote (22935)	1/4/2004 8:31:48 PM
From: Little Joe	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793688

"Hiccup in US system" Here's my rant on American Health Care: I'm not sure I have the total answer, but a good part of the problem is that everyone wants and feels entitled to the best medical care and no one wants to pay for it. Under any system where insurance or the government pay for health care, it is likely to be costly and inefficient. Doctors and patients are quick to utilize medical procedures and drugs when the patient will not have to pay for them. Also, while the high tech end is getting better and better every day, the day to day medicine practiced in the US is getting worse and worse. My wife is a health care professional and of course I know a lot of people in the field. They will tell you that you should not let a loved one go into a hospital without someone to advocate for them. So while there are "miracle" treatments and cures which were not available a few years ago, I think the more mundane treatment is getting worse and worse in the US. I have a few andecdotal observations about the decline in professionalism in health care. In my wife's profession (med tech) there is growing pressure to relax standards and "play ball". For example the lab is not supposed to process a sample for a particular test if it was drawn more than let's say an hour ago. If she gets a sample that was drawn 1 1/2 hours ago, she will not process it. The powers that be will chastise her for following the safety rules of the hospital, if a doctor complains about his results. I might add with this regard that the well regarded hospital she works for cannot figure out how to get their samples to the lab in a timely fashion. Another thing many health care professionals will admit privately is that there is more malpractice committed than is ever discovered. The lawsuits are just the tip of the iceburg. I was in the hospital a few years ago and after the procedure my doctor prescribed pain killers for a particularly painful operation. When the time for my medicine came and went and after repeatedly pushing the button, my wife arrived and went to the front station. She was told by the nurse that the reason my medicine was not administered was that there was a shower for one of the nurses going on. This was stated matter of factly as if this was an adequate excuse. We have a problem with nurses down here and I cannot wrap my hands around it. For some reason, there is a shortage of nurses, even though wages for nurses are high and outpacing wage increases in other professions. Also, nurses no longer nurse, but they spend most of their time filling out forms and documenting. (I suspect in many cases they are in advertently documenting the hospital's malpractice.) The bottom line is all is not well in the lower 48 either. Little joe