And I know many people who state they do not want a socialized healthcare system in this country. Ours maynot be the best but it beats waiting some times days to get in to see adoctor who could care less whether he sees you or any one of the other 100 people trying to get in his office.

 

http://www.investors.com/editorial/e...&secure=27
A Canadian Doctor Describes How Socialized Medicine Doesn't Work
BY DAVID GRATZER[/align]
Posted 7/26/2007
I was once a believer in socialized medicine. As a Canadian, I had soaked up the belief that government-run health care was truly compassionate. What I knew about American health care was unappealing: high expenses and lots of uninsured people.

My health care prejudices crumbled on the way to a medical school class. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute.

Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care.

I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic — with a three-year wait list; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks.

Government researchers now note that more than 1.5 million Ontarians (or 12% of that province's population) can't find family physicians. Health officials in one Nova Scotia community actually resorted to a lottery to determine who'd get a doctor's appointment.

These problems are not unique to Canada — they characterize all government-run health care systems.

Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled — 48 times. More than 1 million Britons must wait for some type of care, with 200,000 in line for longer than six months. In France, the supply of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave — when many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity — 15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs aren't available. And so on.

Single-payer systems — confronting dirty hospitals, long waiting lists and substandard treatment — are starting to crack, however. Canadian newspapers are filled with stories of people frustrated by long delays for care. Many Canadians, determined to get the care they need, have begun looking not to lotteries — but to markets.[size=2]

Dr. Jacques Chaoulli is at the center of this changing health care scene. In the 1990s, he organized a private Quebec practice — patients called him, he made house calls and then he directly billed his patients. The local health board cried foul and began fining him. The legal status of private practice in Canada remained murky, but billing patients, rather than the government, was certainly illegal, and so was private insurance.

Eventually, Chaoulli took on the government in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Representing an elderly Montrealer who had waited almost a year for a hip replacement, Chaoulli maintained that the patient should have the right to pay for private health insurance and get treatment sooner. A majority of the court agreed that Quebec's charter did implicitly recognize such a right.

The monumental ruling, which shocked the government, opened the way to more private medicine in Quebec. Though the

 

I'm in the broke class now.

 

GPD,
Thank you for making the arguments against socialized medicine. As a physician, the idea scares the crap out of me- the idea of seeing 60+ patients a day and not having time to really help any of them makes me sad. The thought that most of my patients may not be able to get needed diagnostics, treatments, or even office visits, in order that a few more may be technically "covered" makes me physically ill.

As the son of aging parents I worry about the access to care issue on a personal level.In our current systemit's true that some don't have insurance, but even those people have safety nets. With socialized medicine, the government will assume thatIT IS the safety net and disallow any other systems.Access to care and quality of care for most Americans will suffer.

 

Sorry but isn't it?

Look at the insurance benefits most companies offer employees now. Few are any good at all. The company is too worried about keeping it's 75% profit margineso to make any cuts backs they start with employee benefits. Upper management sure doesn't want to make any sacrifices. They all want to keep their 20 million dollar contract buyouts.

 

Facts -- WORLD BANK -- Household Incomes World Wide:

COUNTRY_NAME20042005RANK

Luxembourg56380 656301
Norway51810595902
Switzerland49600549303
Denmark40750473904
Iceland37920463205
United States41440437406
Sweden35840410607
Ireland34310401508
Japan37050389809
United Kingdom336303760010
Finland328803746011
Austria322803698012
WORLD High Avg335473671513
Netherlands321303662014
Belgium312803570015
WORLD Top Ctry321323513116
France303703481017
Germany306903458018
Canada283103260019
Australia270703222020
European Union279213191421
Italy262803001022
Hong Kong,China 27130 27670 23
Singapore247402749024
New Zealand195502596025
Spain215302536026
Greece167301967027
Israel173601862028
WORLD Dev Avg163411765629
Slovenia148201735030
Portugal142201617031
Korea, Rep.140401583032
Malta121001359033
Saudi Arabia101701177034
Antigua/Barbuda101301092035
Czech Republic 91701071036
Trinidad/Tobago 90701044037
Hungary 83701003038
Estonia 7080 910039
Seychelles 8170 829040
St. Kitts/Nevis 7750 821041
Croatia 6820 806042
Slovak Republic 6480 795043
Palau 7120 763044
Mexico 6930 731045
Poland 6140 711046
Lithuania 5840 705047
WORLD AVG 6338 698748
Latvia 5460 676049
Lebanon 6040 618050
Chile 4930 587051
WORLD Uprmidinc 4731 562052
Libya 4560 553053
Mauritius 4640 526054
Botswana 4380 518055
Gabon 4080 501056
Malaysia 4520 496057
South Africa 3670 496058
Venezuela/RB 4030 481059
St. Lucia 4410 480060
Turkey 3750 471061
Panama 4310 463062
Costa Rica 4470 459063
Argentina 3580 447064
Russian Fed 3410 446065
Uruguay 3890 436066
Europe/Ctrl Asia 3307 411367
Latin Amer/Carib 3584 400868
Grenada 3770 392069
Romania 2950 383070
Dominica 3670 379071
St. Vincent &
the Grenadines 3400 359072
Belize 3460 350073
Brazil 3000 346074
Bulgaria 2760 345075
Jamaica 3300 340076
Fiji 2870 328077
Serbia & Monten 2700 328078
Namibia 2380 299079
Marshall Islands 2810 293080
Kazakhstan 2300 293081
Tunisia 2650 289082
Macedonia, FYR 2440 283083
Iran, IslamRep. 2330 2770

 

 

Since we are getting political, I think every Republican should vote for the true Republican values (not those phony "Family values" they spout to get votes): Write in CRAIG/FOLEY '08!!!! Sex with a woman is an impeachable offense, but hey, trying to have sex with a 16 year old boy, or even better, in a public bathroom with another man, now thats values!! "Clinton is a dirty, dirty man, and I'll go even further, he is a dirty, Nasty man..." Sen. Larry Craig.

Yep, sex with a woman is a dirty, nasty thing, but sexwith another man in an airport bathroom....now that's class!

 

things like that are my only problem with the Republican party.... i think our founding fathers would have thrown up at the thought of gay marriage, but i believe they would believe that the right of these people must be protected if all "normal" people are to have their rights. therefore, i believe Congress should make no law nor should any amendment be made to the Constitution concerning restriction of marriage.

 

rj,

It's true that employers are looking for cheaper ways to insure workers, and cutting the quality of the plans offered is one way to do that. I work for a hospital and buy the best plan available, but even that is not as good coverage as what I could've afforded ten or fifteen years ago.

Unfortunately, as our population ages, and more noncitizens without any tax burden get covered, and more and better technology and medicines become available, the average worker will pay more and get less from their health insurance. It's really simple supply and demand. We can only train doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals so fast, and the number of people needing services is simply outstripping supply. This trend will continue for the foreseeable future.

Happily, there is of late a shift toward primary care based health caredelivery. This means people will choose a 'medical home' through which all care can be coordinated (note I did not say regulated or limited). Studies show that people with a designated family doctor and an established medical home spend less money, less time in the ER, less time in the hospital, and less time waiting for diagnostics and procedures. They receive better care, are more likely to hit established targets for chronic disease care, live longer and are more satisfied with their care.

As we move toward medical homes and as hospital systems and physician offices become more electronically adept and efficient, we'll see a shift in the quality and accessibility of care for all patients (even those without coverage will have improved access through safety nets already in place becoming more efficient).So, the future of medicine in America is not as bleak as some would lead us to believe. It's still the best system in the world when you compare apples to apples.

Now, as for fixing the greed and corruption in corporate America, don't think I can help ya there....