by juni 11 Replies latest jw friends
Some countries that have universal healthcare also have to ration it out, with the result that there are long hospital waiting lists, and people die while waiting. New Zealand and Canada, for example. In fact, it's gotten so bad in NZ that the Govt has changed the way such statistics are reported: people don't die on waiting lists anymore, their "patient circumstances change"!
You may go bankrupt paying a hospital bill in the US, but at least you'll live to start over.
So the average American does not know that there are countries that have universal health care and they are not warming themselves by oil drums in the middle of the street. I think universal health care would be wonderful for the States. I don't believe it will ever happen because beside the oil companies getting rich off of the average joe's back, the insurance companies are doing the same as well.
Bingo! I remember seeing on 20/20 or Dateline a few years ago, about American seniors whose monthly income is about $1200.00/month, but their prescriptions for the month total $1,400.00 or more!! Instead of paying the astronomical fees for their medication, a busload of seniors from Virginia (another other States) come up to Canada once a month and get their prescriptins filled for about 1/4 of the price. Naturally the American insurance companies and doctors try to stem this problem by insinuating that Canadian drugs aren't "safe" and are really "inferior" to the American brands. Which of course, is total horseshit-----our drugs are just as safe as the American brands but they've got to have some feeble excuse for ripping the public off.
I think the reason the USA doesn't have a universal health care system, is not so much because of the insurance companies, but because of the doctors and the pharmaceutical industry. The doctors know full well that what they charge for their services is a rip off and they don't give a shit. While I have no problem with doctors making a good, even excellent wage for their services, there's a big difference between that and the gouging that's going on. Some family that makes $30,000 a year with no health insurance and their son needs an operation or he's going to die, should not have to figure out how they're going to come up with $200,000 for an operation to save they're kid's life.
Didn't Clinton try getting health reform passed when he was in office? The medical industry in the States is a rich and powerful industry and they don't want anyone coming along to upset their life-style, even if it would benefit the public. I personally know of a guy I went to school with who's a Anaesthesiologist in the States. I asked him why he moved there and he freely admitted it was because of the money. He's making over $1,000,000 a year there, while over here, he'd have to somehow survive on about $250,000/yr. Private health care is wonderful for the doctors and insurance companies themselves-----lousy for the general public.
