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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (18585)	8/3/2010 11:16:05 AM
From: dybdahl	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

It is very interesting to study Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe, destroyed through a century of communism. They have a government-run health care system where doctors are almost not paid, so you need to bring "gifts" to the doctor in order to get treated. In reality, their system is "pay as you go" except for some services. You cannot simply call a government ambulance from a village, you need to find a person with that authority, first. There are lots of private options for health care, and very little control over these. The most interesting part is, that they often distrust governments and companies so much, that they would normally always choose cash over insurance, i.e. they don't care much about health insurance. There are many results of this: * Emigration (because they think that other systems work better) * They are very careful about their health. Being in a car is seen as very dangerous, and many try to avoid that. * Health advice counselling are often handled in very structured ways. Health care students are often advising others, but you can get access to any kind of advisors with clever or stupid advices. If a woman wants to give birth, it is often seen that the woman travels to her parents to give birth, so that the parents can help out (= not going to a hospital). * There is a huge focus on the usefulness and price of drugs. * Medication drugs are not automatically in-store at the pharmacy, so you need to make some phone calls to figure out where to buy it. My overall impression is, that the focus on taking charge of own personal health is great, and the competition on drugs is great, too, but the system feels extraordinary unsafe.