Market Farming

[Pat Meadows <pat AT meadows.pair.com>]

On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 17:34:04 -0400, you wrote:

>Be careful of what you wish for.  Many of the countries mentioned that have
>universal healthcare, such as Canada, have to ration healthcare.  For 
>example,
>my mother-in-law had hip replacement surgery this week, and she only had to
>wait about 3 weeks to get it.  However, in countries where healthcare is
>rationed, people have to wait not just months, but often years before they 
>are
>allowed treatment.  Why do you think so many people from Canada cross the
>border to receive medical treatment?   I know that in a perfect world it
>sounds great, but there are many pitfalls that you may not have considered.
>

In my particular case, we (both DH and I) have personal
experience living in countries with socialized medicine.  We
both vastly prefer it.

DH in particular has 43 years personal experience living in
the UK - and still has friends and family there with whom we
are in very close contact - and I can tell you absolutely
and beyond a shadow of a doubt, and from my husband's own
*personal* experiences and that of his family - that *most*
of the things you read or hear in the USA about the UK's
socialized medicine are untrue, not true, false.  It almost
seems like there's a propaganda mill, grinding out the same
untruths over and over.

I have personal experience living in Canada.  

I waited five months in the USA (in the USA) to see a
specialist, a rheumatologist.  I didn't want to see ONE
PARTICULAR rheumatologist, any one would do.  I was willing
to travel too, and in fact did travel 160 miles (round trip)
after the five months' wait.  I was in pain most of that
time too.  

And I wasn't one of the 41 million plus with no health
insurance either!  

We could go on forever with anecdotal stories, none of which
establishes anything.  

However, the general measure of a population's health - the
indicators used worldwide - are life expectancy at birth,
and infant mortality.  

The USA ranks low on both these measures, and is surpassed
by many countries with socialized medicine (on both
measures).  

The countries with socialized medicine which surpass the USA
on both these 'health indicators' include Australia, the UK,
Sweden, Norway, Canada,  Spain, Austria, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden,
and Switzerland.  (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International
Database. From:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004393.html).

We pay more per capita (MUCH more) than all these countries,
and get poorer results.  (From:
http://www.everybodyinnobodyout.org/DOCS/pnhp.htm
"The United States spends more than twice as much on health
care as the average of other developed nations, all of which
boast universal coverage." )

The fact that more than 41 million Americans have no health
coverage at all is plenty of proof that our health care
delivery system is broken, badly broken.  

The facts that we spend more per capita than any other
nation and that we get worse results than many, many other
nations are just confirmations of how badly the system is
broken.

Pat
-- 
"Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of
supply and demand. It is the privilege of human beings to
live under the laws of justice and mercy." - Wendell Berry