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A question

Posted on January 29, 2009

Last week I watched the inau­gu­ra­tion of the 44th pres­i­dent while sit­ting alone in my liv­ing room.  I watched as peo­ple looked up with hope, expec­ta­tion and joy.  I then spent the next week lis­ten­ing to report after report on how bad the global econ­omy is.  I read arti­cles on the econ­omy, one of them claimin it will be as bad as 1946– in the UK that is BAAAAAAD!

On Monday/Tuesday I watched Pres­i­dent Obama walk­ing the halls and shak­ing hands and try­ing to get Repub­li­cans on board with his eco­nomic stim­u­lus pack­age.  Yes­ter­day I watched the vote count as Repub­li­can after Repub­li­can voted against it.  Now I’m not liv­ing in the US so I’m not com­pletely knowl­edge­able about what the pack­age is call­ing for but it did make so sad that no one sin­gle Repub­li­can voted for it. With the econ­omy implod­ing it’s still pol­i­tics as usual.

I’ve also lis­tened to peo­ple say they don’t want social­ized med­i­cine.  On this issue I feel I am in a unique posi­tion as I am cur­rently liv­ing in a coun­try that has social­ized med­i­cine.  I am a BIG fan of the National Health Ser­vice, NHS.

I sup­pose my ques­tion is, what exactly do you not like about social­ized  med­i­cine?  What do you like about pri­vate health care.  Do you know that the UK has BOTH?

The other day I watched a panorama pro­gram where they showed peo­ple lin­ing up to be seen by a char­ity that was orig­i­nally set up to pro­vide health care to 3rd world coun­tries.  They now spend 60% of their time in the US.  I found myself get­ting angry.  How is it that the rich­est nation in the world allows some of it’s cit­i­zens to go with­out such a basic fun­da­men­tal human right.

I really am curi­ous to hear what every­one has to say.  I’ll put away my pinko-commie soap box now.



Leave a Comment

10 Comments so far

  • Travis Erwin says:
    January 29, 2009 at 4:10 PM - Reply

    You should get up on that soap­box more often. You make some great points.

  • habitual says:
    January 29, 2009 at 6:23 PM - Reply

    I don’t get it at all. It’s a basic neces­sity and as the world’s rich­est coun­try, it’s embar­rass­ing… but I have noticed more and more peo­ple chang­ing their tune as their cushy mid­dle class lifestyle goes down the crap­per. The cur­rent employer-funded sys­tem (aka “pri­vate”) is not sus­tain­able, and even the cor­po­rate world is start­ing to acknowl­edge this fact.

  • Rachel says:
    January 29, 2009 at 8:09 PM - Reply

    You have some excel­lent points.

    I’m happy that the NHS works well for you. But I don’t think all social­ized med­ical pro­grams are cre­ated equally. I hear not so good things from some Cana­di­ans regard­ing their program.

    I think my biggest prob­lem with US health care right now is the astro­nom­i­cal costs. I think it is hor­ri­ble that not every­one is get­ting the health care they need. It used to be so afford­able that no one had health insur­ance. Now pri­vate insur­ance has largely become a farce, my aunt and uncle own their own busi­ness and can’t get insur­ance. I have friends whose insur­ance won’t cover cer­tain ill­nesses because it isn’t impor­tant enough. I just don’t think nation­al­ized health care in the US would be a good solu­tion at this time. I want the cur­rent sys­tem exam­ined and work towards low­er­ing costs so it becomes more afford­able for all. I want peo­ple to be encour­aged again to become doc­tors. The mas­sive stu­dent loan debt, mal­prac­tice insur­ance, and cost of main­tain­ing a prac­tice is seri­ously turn­ing peo­ple away. I believe that were the gov­ern­ment to put social­ized med­i­cine in place right now, it would make a messy sit­u­a­tion so much worse. I’m really not try­ing to offend, I’m just try­ing to be pragmatic.

    Thanks for listening.

  • byrney says:
    January 29, 2009 at 8:38 PM - Reply

    I can only speak from a brit’s point of view but I’m very happy with the NHS. I very rarely use it thank God — only for preg­nancy and one bro­ken wrist really! I love the fact that I know Caitlin and Noah will get treat­ment if needed. Obvi­ously its not per­fect — my par­tic­u­lar health vis­i­tor is rub­bish — but in gen­eral its great.

  • Kim says:
    January 29, 2009 at 10:03 PM - Reply

    I do like the cost of pre­scrip­tions. I don’t like the post­code lot­tery. I didn’t like the fact that my GP was unable to give me a sim­ple wrist splint and I had to be referred to a physio. He didn’t seem to like that either. I don’t like that peo­ple think we get free health care liv­ing here. I pay quite a bit every month for National Insur­ance which helps fund the NHS. I don’t use the NHS very often either, so it’s been okay for me. I live with a nurse who works for the NHS and I hear lots of scary sto­ries, but that could hap­pen with a nurse at any hospital.

  • Vic says:
    January 29, 2009 at 10:51 PM - Reply

    I love the NHS. I agree totally with Byr­ney! It has its down points and I think a few Amer­i­cans would get a real shock if they saw the wards at the hos­pi­tal I am placed at. Thats not to say it is dirty, on the con­trary, its spot­less, its just a lit­tle shabby round the edges, in des­per­ate need of a cos­metic facelift. But, I main­tain that as long as the qual­ity of care is good, and hygiene is main­tained, I am happy.

    I have heard that in the UK, NHS care is far far supe­rior to pri­vate health­care in this coun­try, espe­cially in respect to mater­nity and ante­na­tal care. I know who I would rather look after me, when I have a (not to hap­pen, imag­i­nary) third child!!!

    I don’t know enough about the US sys­tem to crit­i­cise it, but I do know from T’s expe­ri­ence how expen­sive it is, and, like I say, I am happy with what I have.

    Good job really, as they’re likely to employ me for the fore­see­able future!!

  • Julia says:
    January 30, 2009 at 12:27 PM - Reply

    I don’t like the costs that come with the US sys­tem but I don’t like that my son’s back prob­lems still dont’ have an accu­rate diag­no­sis after 4 years with the NHS or that physio still hasn’t hap­pened 9 months after a refer­ral with the NHS.

    There’s good and bad to each but atleast in the UK pre­scrip­tions are cheap once the ill­ness is diagnosed.

  • Rachel says:
    January 30, 2009 at 1:43 PM - Reply

    I am also a big fan of the NHS and have had sev­eral excel­lent expe­ri­ences, includ­ing hav­ing a baby, a stom­ach infec­tion (strange, I know) and my hus­band hav­ing two expe­ri­ences with long hos­pi­tal stays. Its not a per­fect sys­tem, we live in a big city where the care hap­pens to be excel­lent, but my inlaws live in Bucks and they have noth­ing like the health­care we have here. My hus­band and I watched Sicko this week­end, and we were shocked. I appre­ci­ate its a Michael Moore Film and he does have an agenda, and he never really men­tioned the fact that we pay big NHS Con­tri­bu­tions every month. I feel lucky to be in a sit­u­a­tion where I can afford to help oth­ers, I can’t under­stand why Amer­i­cans don’t feel that way.

    From my expe­ri­ences many Amer­i­cans think that peo­ple with seri­ous ill­nesses are wait­ing for months and months for seri­ous treat­ment that will save their lives, I feel its sim­ply not true…Americans also feel like they will com­pro­mise qual­ity health care with a uni­ver­sal health care ser­vice, again, I don’t feel thats true.

    Its greed through and through in my opin­ion in America…but thats just my opinion.

  • beth says:
    January 30, 2009 at 4:06 PM - Reply

    I think it’s the lob­by­ists in the US that cause all of the prob­lems. Health­care has taken a huge nose dive in the last 10 years here.

  • tracya says:
    January 31, 2009 at 2:08 PM - Reply

    hope you don’t mind if i add my 2p here.…from a per­sonal per­spec­tive, i am sat­is­fied with my care on the NHS. which has included a hand­ful of GP appoint­ments for run of the mill flus/sore knees etc.
    i have had what i call “hands free” cer­vi­cal smears and a mammogram…never saw a doc­tor! just a few basic ques­tions from the nurse/tech.
    but hey, i’m healthy and if i thought there was a prob­lem i do feel con­fi­dent that my GP would lis­ten to my con­cerns.
    how­ever, i am also a nurse…a crit­i­cal care nurse…and guess where i work?? the NHS! i don’t think i have enough time to write all the things i have seen…but let me just think of a few…
    over the hol­i­days, i know for a fact that 10 wards within my trust were staffed by only ONE qual­i­fied nurse on the night shift…that’s one nurse for 15–25 patients. in this coun­try it takes two nurse to check IV drugs so chances are that none of those patients got their IV antibi­otics overnight.
    some of the nurses i work with started out on the wards, one told me that she was in charge of a ward 6 months after qual­i­fy­ing and was the only nurse on a night shift, she called the man­ager and was told that if the doc­tor wanted the IV drugs given he should give them him­self…
    most fam­i­lies love the ITU because we are absolutely over­flow­ing with nurses, but they usu­ally have a litany of com­plaints against the wards. one of our cur­rent patients wife wrote a let­ter com­plain­ing (among many things)that her hus­band who was vom­it­ing and unable to keep any­thing down being given a meal of fish and chips, she said she hoped the con­sul­tant enjoyed his christ­mas din­ner because her hus­band threw his up…
    one of the sad­dest things i ever heard was from a man whose sis­ter was with us a few times with liver failure…he said when she (30 years old) went to the ward (mixed sex, a big no-no) she was next to old men also with liver fail­ure vom­it­ing and poop­ing blood and the beds were so close together he couldn’t fit a chair between them. he would find her all slumped down in the bed, dirty and unwashed. i remem­ber him with tears in his eyes mak­ing excuses for the nurses say­ing “oh i know they are busy”…but she’s my sis­ter. we would bring her to ITU get her all tanked up, clean tidy, sit­ting in the chair, push­ing her to eat and then she’d go back the ward and crum­ble in a heap after a few days. she died.
    like i said i could go on forevever…and i admit all kinds of shitty care goes on in the states but here it is just accepted…and among the admin­is­tra­tion it’s just brushed off as..oh well, this is the NHS, we can’t afford more nurses…that’s crap because they have loads of spe­cial­ist nurses and nurses doing audits but no nurses to actu­ally take care of the patients.

    here’s some links just so you know i am not the only one who feels this way…

    http://leatherheadblog.com/2009/01/27/the-nhs-unfit-for-purpose-still-wasting-billions/

    http://nhsblogdoc.blogspot.com/

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7850907.stm

    just to add, i came to this coun­try because i wanted to see social­ized health­care at work, i com­pletely believe in the con­cept and would love to see the US imple­ment a plan that pro­vides basic care for all chil­dren and preg­nant women.…i DO NOT think the NHS is work­ing. i’ve done a lot of read­ing about other euro­pean health­care sys­tems and the dif­fer­ence is that they allow peo­ple to divert some of their tax/NI money towards obtain­ing pri­vate insur­ance. i think if more peo­ple had pri­vate insur­ance it would take some of the bur­den from the NHS. it’s a british mind­set that the NHS is FREE!!!! but as those of us who col­lect a payslip know it is far from free.…

    sorry, for being so long…