> http://www.sbs.com.au/blogarticle/107965/cutting-edge-sick-around-the...
>
> a doco shown here this week, made by Washington Post dude.
>
> Very "enlightening" about how entrenched accepted beliefs control the way
> how things get done from one nation to another .... and the absolute
> possibility that such blockages can and are overcome. Switzerland and
> taiwan
> being 2 excellent examples of that.
>
> What blocks improvement in US health care imho is severe and somewhat
> extreme Cultural Beliefs about socialism vs capitalism. Of course, if one
> has been baptised in the Holy Waters of Capitalism and Profiteering then
> it's unlikely they would be seen as "extreme", as everything is relative,
> is
> it not?
>
> The most important question imho is "what actually works on a realistic
> and
> practical level?"
>
> 47 million in the richest nation on earth unable to obtain basic health
> care
> to me suggest a health care system that does not work.
>
> Two things stood out during the doco to me.
>
> 1) That it well known through research, that the most likely time for the
> average person to need and use health care services is immediately and
> soon
> after losing their Job. That's a fact, and yet in the USA not only is
> there
> extremely limited unemployment support for workers and their families, but
> the majority immediately lose their personal or their families Health Care
> coverage when they lose their Job.
>
> I'd suggest that the HMO's in the USA are well aware of the above, and is
> the #1 reason why they cut coverage in order to avoid potential new costs.
> IOW, it's all about "profit" and not about real health care for those who
> actually require it.
>
> 2) All the 5 nations covered in the doco impose price controls on the
> health
> care system, including on doctors, hospitals, health insurance bodies, and
> drug companies. In most, health insurance bodies MUST be "not-for-profit"
> but for the benefit of people, and yet there was still active and real
> competition in the system.
>
> In all these nations the health care system worked better on all
> parameters
> and at less cost than the US system overall.
>
> Lastly, what was most indicative was the concept that "health care" was
> seen
> as a universal right for citizens to be able to access affordable care,
> and
> that this was the resposnibility of the Government [ the representatives
> of
> the people ] to ensure an effective system operated in the nation for the
> benefit of ALL citizens.
>
> This appears to be anathema in the USA, and yet there is the concept that
> all children have a right to universal basic education, and all citizens
> have the right to get free legal representation in the courts. Personally
> I
> find it odd that the USA tends to draw a line when it comes to health care
> .... primarily based, as i said earlier, on entrenched "beliefs" that
> health
> care provision is an individuals responsibily alone and not a real shared
> social need that entails equity and access and justice and fairness for
> all.
>
> Do any americans find it odd that Univesal health care systems in advanced
> democracies shown in the doco can achieve better health care and longevity
> outcomes for around 6%% of GDP vs the USA's 18%% of GDP where over 47
> million
> people including children have no adequate access to health services??
>
> Just seems so very very odd to me. What is also so very very odd, is that
> a
> Washington Post reporter would engage in such an "enquiry" overseas, and
> yet
> the US Congress tend to ignore all such clear evidence that there are
> better
> ways to provide a health care system that would not only offer better
> results for the American people they are supposed to represent, but would
> actually significantly save the nation $ billions and make it a more
> productive, healthy, and happy nation.