Balding_1 said:
Are you saying that the way the american system is heading it will be better than the British system?
The american medical system has been found lagging behind Canada, and most European nations for a long time now. Americans spend more money on health care than any other country but ranked 37 out of 191 in the WHO 2000 report. Britain ranked 18th and spends only 6% of the GDP with Universal Care to all people. Why should americans feel lucky again?
I'm not even british but I have learned enough in school to realize that the British have an amazing health care system that should be emulated as much as possible. To say otherwise displays yet more arrogance and an unwillingness to learn of other medical systems.
American doctors are tired of practicing second class medicine and dealing with the government and insurance companies. The following link describes the current direction of the American medical system and it is widely supported by every physician that I've discussed it with:
http://www.acponline.org/journals/news/ ... _model.htm
No government influence, no need for a business office as patients will have to bill their own insurance, doctors can practice first class medicine, and physicians will ask for money up front for services. With enough physicians practicing this system in a clinic, they will have all the necessary technology and influence. With enough physicians practicing this system in the country, insurance companies will be forced to lower their prices as the price of healthcare will once again be less than the cost of insurance and the cost of medications will go down as pts will no longer be able to afford their medications.
As for your comments regarding the American system, they are way off base and prove your ignorance and lack of experience with the system. Americans
with money really do receive the best healthcare in the world. They receive the best healthcare, because they have the best insurance and they can pay for all other services and tests. So, a physician is not limited by phone calls, requirements, and pre-approval. It's the best medicine, because it's the least hindered medicine. Again, the government and the insurance companies make it this way...not physicians. Blame your congressman for the poor healthcare you receive. A physician can only do so much.
As for your comments regarding the British system...no. Pure and simple...no. You really have no idea how that system works. I've talked with about a dozen physicians that have gone to that country with a few doing rotations or residency years over there, as well. I've also researched it for years. As a patient, you have to wake up early in the morning, go to the clinic and stand in line as there are no appointments, and simply pray that you will be seen that day. Unfortunately, there are people doing triage, so the physicians will typically see only the easiest of patients every day, because most of them are paid by the number of patients they see in a day and not by the difficutly of diagnosis. So, a doctor will get there at eight or nine in the morning, see as many patients as possible in a four hour period, and then head home. This leaves all the diabetics and other patients with complicated medical problems with two choices: Go to the emergency room or come back another day. Coming back another day does not guarantee service. Remember this fact.
So, one day you go to the clinic early in the morning and stand in line. You have a cough, night sweats, and some difficulty breathing. You don't get in the first day, but you came back for a few days and eventually you get in to see a doctor after you miraculously make it through triage. They do a chest x-ray and find a mass in your left lung. They biopsy it and discover that it's a small cell carcinoma secondary to the 30+ years of smoking that you've done. Your likely only option will be surgery followed by chemotherapy. So, you need to see a surgeon and an oncologist. However, in Britain, your typical wait to see a surgeon or an oncologist and be months and even up to a year. So, while you're waiting to see a medical professional, your lung cancer grows, metastasizes, and eventually you pass away due to complications from the metastasis. If for some reason you're over the age of 75, once you gain access to a hospital, then you'll be doomed to hear your primary physician utter the words, "what are you doing? At his age, we don't bother."
So, tell me again how that system is better than ours?
In America, if you go to your general practitioner with the above symptoms, you'll not be turned away for any reason, you'll receive a chest x-ray that very day, you'll receive a CT scan the next day, you'll be in touch with a surgeon and an oncologist within the week, and you'll have your surgery done and be on chemotherapy within the month. And what is even better is that many hospitals will either end up eating all that debt that you'll accrue if you're poor or they'll set you up with a payment program or another service that offers grants to help you pay. While getting your chemotherapy, you'll receive the best chemotherapy agents in the world, in the cleanest facilities in the world, from the best trained oncologists and surgeons in the world. If any step of this process fails, it's not because your physician has failed you. It's because your insurance company and your government have failed you. Your insurance company wants you to die and your government has prevented your insurance company from embracing that ideal.
You all need to do some serious reading when it comes to current medical theory with regards to future direction, finances, and the quality of medical care in the world. Unless you're a part of the system, you really have no idea how it functions.