Judy Says What?

Now that President Barack Obama has declared that the U.S. will indeed undergo a reform of its health care system… Everyone must be dying to know exactly what those changes will entail.  Unfortunately no one can determine in advance what the outcome will be concerning any possible adjustments to U.S. health care policy; we can only speculate.

It seems strange that the media is illustrating Obama as saying that the health care system will remain private; and on the other hand he is saying the government will have their own health care insurance system.  The president said that if private companies have to compete with the services of the government as insurance providers, it will keep them honest.  Critics say that government entering the health care system in this manner is clearly the first step towards a public health care system - But who knows?

Authors Comment: I am Canadian… I didn’t tell you on purpose until now.  The reason this hasn’t been disclosed is because Canada doesn’t have near as much going on in terms of Internet activity as does the U.S.  Therefore to gain immediate acceptance by a largely U.S. audience it is not good strategy to announce the fact that I am Canadian, and was born in U.K.

You may first think that this makes me less qualified to comment on U.S. news events and headlines, but NOT!  You may be surprised to discover that I see more of what goes on in the U.S. than what happens in Canada when watching TV.  There is plenty of Canadian news too; but American news programs are a lot better; and those are what I watch.  

Now that I have been ’busted’; back to the topic - U.S. health care.  It looks as though it’s possible that eventually the U.S. system may possibly be taken public.  I am not suggesting that this is where it’s going, but it is possible.  I live in a country with public health care, and it righteously sucks! 

Here are some things that commonly happen with our public health care system that you don’t want happening to you:

• Long waits for necessary surgeries

• Long waits in hospital emergency rooms

• Rescheduling of necessary surgeries

• Waiting for available beds for hospital procedures 

When looking for a doctor:

• Doctors in your area aren’t taking any new patients

• The only doctors left that will take new patients are in the seedier parts of town

• All that is left to choose from are walk-in clinics where you will likely wait hours before seeing a doctor

• If you have a number of health issues, as in my own case; you may be turned down by doctor after doctor before finding one that will bother to help you.  It appears that when there are so many patients and so few doctors, they can just pick and choose.

You would find that when paying through taxes, as opposed to your insurer directly paying fees on your behalf as in private health care - there are many drawbacks.  Lack of respect from physicians is not rare in Canada; such a shame when they expect so much in return… How does that work?

A common scenario is that when running into situations that require you to exercise some authority to advocate your situation or to press a point - Many doctors in public health will treat you as if you are not entitled to an opinion.  They don’t need to impress you when they don’t have to collect money from you or your insurer!  There is also someone in line right behind you waiting for your spot; so don’t let the door hit you in the back on the way out! 

Another biggie here is that in our system where doctors may do basically as they please; many doctors have become pharmaceutical ‘drug pushers.’  I don’t know if you have that problem in your medical system or not (my brief research excursion says that you do).  But here doctors are given impressive rewards from handing out prescriptions.  One physician friend of mine once admitted that he had received an all expense luxury vacation in return for prescribing a certain recommended amount of product.  Yikes!

Then lastly I wanted to comment on this one thing that I am a little reluctant to mention… Our system is always short of Canadian doctors; and often foreigners are brought in.  I have to say that I hold no prejudices to any nationalities; but when doctors are thrust into our medical system from countries where there customs may differ considerably - Some bad scenarios become possible… For example, there are countries where women are commonly treated as second class citizens, and that is the norm - I don’t want that from a doctor, yet have experienced it.  It is all that is left of our system; it is all that we have.  I must therefore put it in my pipe and smoke it…

Just sharing… Just figured this is stuff that you might want to know!

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