Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, in a rare moment of honesty on what he'd really like to do about health care reform, recently asserted that if we were starting from scratch he would probably choose a single-payer health care system. That's a system in which people pay higher taxes and the government pays most medical bills. Obama's not alone in that opinion. Filmmaker Michael Moore took his "Sicko" audience to England, among other places, where we learned that doctors in that single-payer system made good salaries, had nice homes and cars, and patients were very satisfied.
But anyone who reads the English press will find a different message, including waiting lines, angry patients, rationed and often subquality care. Consider these recent news stories about England's National Health Service (NHS) quoted directly from the British press.
Twice Katie asked for a [Pap] smear test, but was told she was "too young" to need one. Now 24, she is dying from cervical cancer, one of many young women who have fallen victim to a scandalous change in health policy. (London's Daily Mail, June)
A man with terminal cancer has been refused a drug by the NHS that could extend his life - despite offering to pay part of the cost himself. . . . David Swain's offer to meet the monthly $4,000 cost of Erbitux was refused, he said, because the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence [a government body] ruled it was too expensive. (Yorkshire Post, March, emphasis added)
Health service dentists have been forced to go on holiday or spend time on the golf course this month despite millions of patients being denied dental care. . . . Many [dentists] have fulfilled their annual work quotas allotted by the National Health Service and have been turning patients away because they are not paid to do extra work. This is despite the fact that more than 7m[illion] people in Britain are unable to find an NHS dentist. (The Times of London, March)
Does that sound like your idea of a great health care system? The British press - as well as the Canadian press and other countries - regularly runs stories like these about patients who are denied treatment because they are too old, too young, too sick or too costly. Indeed, The Times of London ran a story in 2006 asserting: "Patients are being denied appointments with consultants in a systematic attempt to ration care and save the NHS money, The Times has learnt. . . . Leaked documents passed to The Times show that while ministers promise patients choice, a series of barriers are being erected limiting GPs' [general practitioners] rights to refer people to consultants."
If you want to read these stories and others like them for yourself, just go to the "Health Care Horror Stories" at BigGovhealth.org, which regularly posts the negative press coming from those government-run health care countries (which has to be a full-time job!).
The fact is that every government-run health care system struggles to make ends meet. Money for health care in those systems has to compete with money for other government programs like education, defense and pension programs. That's why other countries spend less on health care. It's not that their systems are better or more efficient; it's because politicians control the funds and have to make trade-offs. That often means the more expensive treatments, the marginal members of society, and even preventive care and screening can get axed.
Yes, many people in those countries are satisfied with their care. And yes, everyone in those countries is "insured" - the apparent goal in the current health care reform debate. But having coverage doesn't count for much if patients can't get quality care in timely manner.
Health care reformers often claim or imply that the U.S. health care system is terrible, while countries like England provide quality care for everyone, and for less money. That's simply not a balanced assessment. U.S. health care is excellent, but it can be very expensive and, a not unrelated fact, too many people are uninsured. But copying other government-controlled systems isn't the solution. They have their problems; we have ours. Let's fix ours problems without importing theirs.
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THE PUBLIC MEDICINE MAYHEM CONTINUES IN AUSTRALIA
Two articles below: One from Victoria and one from Queensland. Also see a comment by conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG
Woman in labour sent home from public hospital
Why was such a risk taken? This was already a risky situation. It was just luck that all went well in the end
A woman gave birth to a baby girl at her mother's Mitcham house less than an hour after being sent home from Box Hill Hospital. Angela Valle arrived at the hospital at 9am on August 14 to deliver her second child after her water had broken at 5am that morning. Mrs Valle was having contractions every five minutes and was in a lot of pain. "The doctor came in and she said I was only two centimetres dilated so I probably wouldn't go into labour until later in the afternoon," Mrs Valle said. "I thought at the time I was already in labour because my water had broken and I was in pain."
Mrs Valle said she felt like she was rushed out of the hospital. "There was someone in full-blown labour who I was told was coming into the room directly after me," she said.
Instead of delivering daughter Amy with the safety of a doctor and nursing staff on hand at the hospital, Mrs Valle gave birth with the help of just her husband and an ambulance operator speaking down the phone to them. "She was the best help we had the lady on the phone," Mrs Valle said.
Director of nursing and midwifery Denise Patterson said Mrs Valle wasn't sent home because of a lack of beds. "This was based on a clinical assessment and not related to service capacity or bed availability," Ms Patterson said. "Sometimes women do progress in labour faster than we are able to anticipate. "We understand the distress caused in a case such as this and are regretful that this has happened to Angela and her family."
Mrs Valle said she held no animosity towards the hospital but was upset about the danger she was placed in. "After the delivery we were on a high because we had delivered our daughter, but the next day my husband and I had a bit of a cry because it hit us what could have happened," Mrs Valle said. "If the umbilical cord had wrapped around her neck we wouldn't have known what to do."
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Bike rider's pain as surgery for crushed hand stalled
BOB Skinner was kept waiting for four days in excruciating pain by a Brisbane hospital after his hand was mangled in a motorcycle accident. He was admitted to Princess Alexandra Hospital last Thursday night after his hand was crushed and his finger partially severed in the accident near his house at Goodna, southwest of Brisbane. However an operation was delayed three times due to higher priority patients and he was finally treated on Monday morning, four days after he was first admitted. Under surgical guidelines, Mr Skinner's injury should have been treated within eight hours of his admittance, with a maximum 24-hour wait.
"I had two morphine shots each day for the pain," the 39-year-old said. "Every time I moved, a bolt of pain would shoot from my hand and I couldn't sleep." PA Hospital defended the delay, saying resources were badly stretched on the weekend with the hospital performing more than 30 emergency operations. Clinical chief executive David Thiele said emergency trauma on weekends was "governed by saving life or limb". "Where it is unlikely that there will be a change in the outcome of an operation, an operation receives lower priority over one that will either save a life or improve the end outcome for the patient," Dr Thiele said.
"Mr Skinner's surgery was prioritised according to the nature of the injury and the likely outcome of surgery which would not have changed the end result of injury, that being partial amputation of his finger." Mr Skinner said he had only two meals during his four-day stay. "Eventually I got so fed up I got them to disconnect my drip and I was over at the fast food joint across the road in my hospital gown," he said.
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