IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

miller wrote :

Quote:

We have Universal Health Care in Massachusetts, and one consequence is physicians are refusing to take on any more patients. They're booked to capacity so some folks have to run around trying to find an MD . They'll probably end up getting a new physician, fresh out of a residency and eager...

let me see if i understand this .
...physicians are booked to capacity... (after univ health care - right ?)

i can assume the physicians were NOT booked to capacity BEFORE univ health care - right ?

so i'm wondering were those new patients looking for a physician are coming from that now cause the overbooking ?

could some of them possibly be citizens that formerly could not afford health care because they either could not get insurance or did not have enough cash in their pockets ?

is it best to leave those patients who previously did NOT have health care out of the system - leave them without or marginal health-care or is it better for ALL citizens to have proper health care ?

imo providing proper healthcare for ALL citizens results in a healthier society and the many benefits resulting from that .

perhaps some might say that is is a good idea to leave some citizens WITHOUT proper health-care - personally i don't see any benefits in it , but i would be interested in the arguments for leaving some citizens WITHOUT proper health-care .
any takers ?
hbg

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hbg, I agree with you 100 percent!

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c.i. :
i guess that you've probably seen my post :
PRIVATE HEALTH-INSURANCE FOR CANADIANS ?

i did not think it proper to post the article in this thread , but hope there is nothing wrong to draw attention to it .
hbg

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Quote:

so i'm wondering were those new patients looking for a physician are coming from that now cause the overbooking ?

It's the law in Massachusetts, you have to have health insurance.
So after people enroll in a health plan, the next thing they do is find primary care physician. Too many people, now looking for too few MDS. Crying or Very sad

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Miller wrote:

So after people enroll in a health plan, the next thing they do is find primary care physician.

And that's a bad thing?

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We always hear about how long patients have to wait in Canada, but there are many stories about Americans too.

What Works: Improving ER wait times
Nov. 20: Across the country, the average wait time in the emergency room is 222 minutes. NBC's Tom Costello explains how some hospitals are doing far better than that average.Nightly News

Updated: 5:20 p.m. PT Nov 20, 2006
CHICAGO - Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack. The coroner says waiting in the emergency room helped kill her.

The 49-year-old woman's chest was tight with pain when she walked into the ER at Vista East Medical Center in Waukegan last July. A blood clot had lodged in her heart.

It was 10:15 p.m. when Vance checked in, a coroner's report shows. But she was told to wait for a doctor. So she sat and waited. And waited. And then at 12:25 a.m., she collapsed, her heart starved of blood flow.

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All of the plans require that you have a primary care physician.
If you don't have one, you could have problems with your health insurance company.

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in the last ten years we had to use the emergency department five times - it was at night and we could not reach our physician .
four times we were seen literally withing minutes of arriving at emergency .
the last time i was unlucky . just as we arrived at emergency - had fallen off the comuter chair and cut my chin quite badly Shocked

-
three ambulances pulled up !
the first one came from a rather serious traffic accident , the other two brought in about half a dozen students from our local university who NEEDED THEIR STOMACHS PUMPED ! (alcohol poisoning - they'd drank until they literally collapsed !)
all staff really had their hands full but the triage nurse applied a temporary bandage to stop the blood from flowing . it did take two hours until i got stitched up and i have a wonderful scar on my chin .
i don't know that the doctors really had any other choice - some people thought they should have taken the students to the city dump , but i guess that wasn't an option - it's closed at night !
hbg

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cicerone imposter wrote:

We always hear about how long patients have to wait in Canada, but there are many stories about Americans too.

What Works: Improving ER wait times
Nov. 20: Across the country, the average wait time in the emergency room is 222 minutes. NBC's Tom Costello explains how some hospitals are doing far better than that average.Nightly News

Updated: 5:20 p.m. PT Nov 20, 2006
CHICAGO - Beatrice Vance died of a heart attack. The coroner says waiting in the emergency room helped kill her.

The 49-year-old woman's chest was tight with pain when she walked into the ER at Vista East Medical Center in Waukegan last July. A blood clot had lodged in her heart.

It was 10:15 p.m. when Vance checked in, a coroner's report shows. But she was told to wait for a doctor. So she sat and waited. And waited. And then at 12:25 a.m., she collapsed, her heart starved of blood flow.

The "walk-ins" usually have a wait time of about 3 hours. Of course, quality of care depends on the specific hospital you go to. Also, order in which "walk-in" patients are taken is determined by the seriousness of their problem.

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The best time to go in is probably late at night. The busiest time seems to be around the noon time.

Laughing

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we have a walk-in clinic that operates from 7 am to 11 pm seven days a week ; it handles almost everything except surgeries and trauma .
it's part of our university hospital and has a variety of special departments : eye , GI , pain control etc. in addition to the walk-in clinic .
i didn't tip over in my chair until 11 pm Shocked

- so i was out of luck .
hbg

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So what happened when you fell off your computer chair?

You cut your chin or did you fracture your jaw?

Here in the US, the bad thing about calling the ambulance is, you might not be brought to the hospital of your choice. If instead you take yourself to the ER, you'll at least be assured of getting to the hospital of your choice.

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i was in luck : deep cut only ! the doc thought i had fractured my jaw for sure ! must be that german bonestructure - boneheadedness Shocked

hbg

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You have to watch out for infections in that cut, though.

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What Miller says is correct. When I was in Costa Rica last year, I slipped on a wet rock, fell, and bruised my knee. A doctor (a surgeon from Minneapolis) in our group told me to go wash it out good, keep it clean and dry, and keep my leg elevated. I told him I've been a klutz all my life, and have bruises all over my leg to prove it. He told me he has seen people having to get their legs amputated because of infection from a bruise.

I followed his instruction, and I still have my leg.

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Same thing holds true for a burn. If the burned skin gets infected, you could lose a limb.

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Another indicator of a great health care system in Canada:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20306323/

This from the above:

"The Jepps drove 325 miles (523 kilometers) to Great Falls for the births because hospitals in Calgary were at capacity, Key said."

Good thing they were near enough to the U.S., otherwise who knows if the triplets survive?

And in Australia, the hospital bed shortage continues:

http://www.medicalsearch.com.au/News/Elderly_man_denied_heart_surgery_due_to_beds_shortage-25769

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Well, okie, it's fascinating that your researches always came up again with some negative news.

However, when you consider how many countries have a universal healthcare (one hundred? more?), how many poeple live there, how many hospital, beds, operations are done under the various systems of universal healthcare ... well, it must be really hard to find anything positive.

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That is a valid point, Walter.

On the other hand, how many favorable comments have you made about free market health care systems?

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Well, to be honest: none.

What I've heard and seen in the USA and read - especially here by you Americans - about the US health care system makes me feel even better with our system, although I don't think it is really a very good one.

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IT'S TIME FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE

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