I Should Have Stubbed My Toe....aka, The Loooongest Post

It took six hours to find out my toe was broken in 4 places.  They taped it and sent me home. They don't cast the tip of the big toe.  So I'll use a cane for 2 weeks and be as good as new.
Since changing the American healthcare system is much in the news, it strikes me that now would be a good time to go on a diatribe about my experience with socialized medicine.  Care to hear?

"Free" health care here is costing our family $25,000 a year in taxes.  For that sum, we get no doctor, and no assurance that we will be cared for when we need it.  When I say no doctor, I mean there's no way to look in the yellow pages and call a doctor's office.  They all work for the government, remember. So you are reduced to going to a clinic or hospital.  Private medicine is not allowed.  You can have a family doctor if you can find one, but when you somehow find a number to call, and ask, "I'm new here and looking for a family doctor.", the receptionist will likely laugh at you (true story).  That's IF you can get through to the receptionist.  And typically, appointments are made three months from when you call.  So for urgent care it doesn't help to have a "family doctor".

Say you have troubling symptoms like shortness of breath and decide to go to the emergency room.  You are triaged by a nurse who gets to decide how dire your circumstances are and then sent to wait. In my case, 16 hours (and I'm not exaggerating)  Of course, it depends on how many people are in more dire straights then yourself that day, and you might get lucky and only wait for 5 or 6 hours.  You may well be saying to yourself, well, I've waited in an emergency room here in America for 6 hours. Yes, but did you pay $25,000 a year to do it?


When I said earlier that you have no assurance of being cared for I mean that before you can be treated for a troubling illness you must first see a specialist.  To see a specialist you must first see a general practitioner.  After waiting 6 hours to 3 months to see the GP you will be given a slip to see a specialist.  "Finally, we're getting somewhere," you'll say as you call the phone number given. That hope dies away as your appointment is made 6 months to a year away. Or more.  (no, I'm not exaggerating).  Imagine this conversation:
"Hello, I'm calling for an appointment with the dermatologist."
"For what?"
"For skin cancer."
"Okay, the next appointment is in 8 months."
"Well, if I might possibly have skin cancer are you sure it's okay to wait that long?"
"I have 9:00, Jan. 17 in the year 2011."  the receptionist will reply.
sigh
"If I die before then how do I let you know so someone else can have the appointment?"


Remember when I said there are no doctors listed in the yellow pages? You can find 295 dental entries for the area--because they are not free-- because you have to pay for them--because the government does not.  I could get an appointment tomorrow because dentistry is based (mostly) on a capitalist system.
The town I go to for healthcare had an official population of 42,000 in 2006. You can imagine it's grown since then, thus the 295 listings for dentists.  Yet, I can only think of four places in town you can go to see a doctor.  And when you go, there is only ONE doctor available to see patients. No wonder the waiting rooms are chock full.

As I sat in the waiting room this morning, where every seat was full, and a sign was put up at 10:00 saying "Emergency Closed", meaning, "our sickness queue is full for the day, please take your illness elsewhere", as I sat there, I couldn't help but want to stand up and announce: "It doesn't have to be this way! You could open the yellow pages, see scores of doctors' offices you could call and get an appointment with this week, if not TODAY! You could walk in, barely have time to sit down before they called your name and then be escorted by a real nurse to see your very own doctor! And he would have another nurse there to help him!  And you'd see another nurse as you left, just to tell you goodbye and have a nice day!".
But I didn't say a thing.  I just sat there and listened to the receptionist announce numbers until she got to mine--"sixty-seven?"


There may be people in Canada that could tell you a different, more pleasant story about their healthcare experience, although, my friend Julie, who is a doctor here has had similar, nightmarish experiences and she is a DOCTOR.  For my part, I've lived in the states with private insurance, group insurance, no insurance, HMO insurance and I can tell you, all of it, ALL of it, was better than socialized medicine.  Even if I had a horrible illness and had to mortgage my house for healthcare, I'd much rather be well-cared for and face poverty than be getting "free" healthcare and never know if I was going to make it through the waiting list alive.

 Some Canadians have a poor view of the American medical system. I've heard a few arguments against it. They say people are turned away from emergency rooms. Actually, that's against the law, everyone must be treated.  Another argument is that you can go in for a simple procedure and be handed a bill for $10,000.  My answer is that none of my healthcare bills in America ever totaled $25,000 much less the $225,000 that we've paid to date for our healthcare in Canada. The other complaint is that poor people suffer because they can't afford health care in America. In reailty, there is free healthcare available to poor Americans, provided by the taxpayer. It's called the County system. Our own little socialized system, but we are taxed MUCH less for it. If you are an American reading this, who has been helped by the County system and thought it was sub-standard care, well, that's what you'd be getting if you lived here, with NO choice for something better.

What has this diatribe led me to?

After living under both systems for several years I've come to a simple conclusion:

Capitalism works.

Socialism--not so much.