I'm sorry for your brother's condition, but let me offer a (admittedly-anecdotal but personal) counter-point.
First, I have insurance, it is very good insurance, it is very expensive insurance. Everything I will speak about below is completely covered by my insurance. So, my wife tells me that she's been concerned for some time that I'm not breathing right when I sleep. Between the loud snoring and the stopping thereof, gasping for breath, etc. it's literally keeping her up at night--not to mention worrying her. I called my local clinic for an appointment, wait a couple weeks for the schedule to clear, go see my doctor, tell her about my symptoms, she recommends that I see a sleep specialist. I go with my referral to the appointments desk and find that they can schedule me for a consult with a sleep specialist in a month. 1st available appointment. My insurance doesn't play a part in making doctors more available. So I go to the appointment, describe my symptoms and my doctor says, "we will schedule a sleep study as soon as possible." So I go to schedule a sleep study. It's a month out, first available time slot. Again, having insurance doesn't get me to the front of the line... I go to my sleep study and they hook me to the machines, lots of wires and whatnot. My sleep study goes pretty well but I have to wait another three weeks to get my results/follow-up consult. Again, insurance is no help getting my results quicker. At my follow-up, my doctor my doctor informs me that 5 apneas an hour is considered "dangerous". My count was 133 observed apneas per hour over the course of the 7.5 hour sleep study. My oxygen levels went as low as 50%. I am (according to my doctor) at high risk for heart-attack, stroke and possible plain-old suffocation. So. I get fitted for a mask and take it home to start using it. The settings are generally set, so I am getting airflow, but not optimal; for that I need another sleep study and a follow-up. The 2nd sleep study was performed three weeks ago. My follow-up appointment at which my mask will finally be set to optimal "dosage" so that treatment can actually begin is June 11. Once again, great insurance doesn't help me go the the head of the line. So six months later I will finally be able to begin treatment for something that has been slowly killing me. This is the best on-demand healthcare can do? How is the availability of and my possession of insurance helping me get the treatment I need when I need it? On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 6:22 PM, Sam <[email protected]> wrote: > > My bro-inlaw in the UK was told he needed to be tested for kidney and > prostate cancer six months ago. Three months later he got the tests, > Last week he got the results. He needs surgery for both and is now > going on the waiting list. He's only 50 and we're very afraid he won't > make it. > > > On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Eric Roberts > <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> From talking to actual Canadians who use the system every day and talking to >> actual Brits, and talking people who live in a few other countries where >> they have socialized medicine...while it may not be perfect (what system >> is?)...it is far better than what we have now in the US. When you have no >> more barriers to getting preventive care, you detect issues earlier, which >> also means, in most cases, it's also a lot cheaper to treat and it also >> reduces the amounts of people going to ER's for issues that should be >> getting retaken care of in the doctors offices. Plus, with a single system >> of payment, it removes the layers and layers of complexity that doc's >> offices have to deal with for payment. There are a lot of cost reductions >> in socialized medicine that do offset a lot of the increases in costs that >> the government picks up by sponsoring health care. >> >> I think the biggest deception in this whole issue is that opponents of >> healthcare have convinced the teabaggers that there is a difference between >> paying a premium to them and paying your premiums via taxes. The only >> difference there is who is getting paid. So if you taxes go up and you no >> longer have to pay an insurance premium (in the case of single payer), there >> really is no logical difference in what is happening with your money. With >> single payer, there is a good possibility that because this would be spread >> out amongst a much larger pool of people, that what you are paying may be >> considerably less. So meanwhile the dumbass teabaggers, who have been duped >> into bitching about resultant tax hikes form this, keep screaming about >> taxes, the insurance company is laughing at their rubes all the way to the >> bank. >> >> Personally...I would rather pay the government and know that I can get >> treatment without going bankrupt than deal with the insurance companies and >> hospitals, knowing tat I will have to declare bankruptcy to deal with all my >> medical bills since I don't have access to insurance(which is something I am >> facing right no > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:318042 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
