In praise of socialized medicine, Part 14
Boy Z’s health troubles continue, I shan’t bore you with the details. Dr. O’C called our local GP for an appointment this evening. They didn’t have any openings, but suggested that we call for a home visit. I thought they were playing a remarkably unfunny practical joke on us. But an hour or so later a proper M.D. showed up at our door, efficiently diagnosed Boy Z with the croup and wrote us up a script for Prednisone. What did we pay for this, you ask? Zero dollars and a lower income tax rate than what we would be paying in the States. Just saying.
Popularity: 45% [?]
Are you kidding me? That’s fantastic.
Nicholes last blog post..Putting words in my mouth
25 Sep 2008 at 9:45 pm
my poor nephew, lucky his nanna has surely some weird and wacky home remedies to help his cough…i should know she tried them all on me!!
25 Sep 2008 at 10:33 pm
Gotta love it dont ya, as a Canadian I was shocked to tears last year when I moved to Germany and faced either very expensive public health insurance every month, or private which was cheaper but involves hauling ass back to Canada should anything serious happen to me. Including reproduction.
Sherries last blog post..In Switzerland
25 Sep 2008 at 11:17 pm
You keep these kinds of posts up and you may be the cause of a mass exodus from the United States and population spike in AUS.
Joes last blog post..My baby girl!!
26 Sep 2008 at 12:04 am
Don’tcha just love the freaky stuff kids come down with? My youngest did the croup thing twice a year, with the changing of the seasons. They use a low dose steroid here too, but I don’ think it was Prednisone. Healthcare sucks in the US, and I’m one of the luckier ones - my husband is in the pharmeceutical business, which is hand in glove with the insurance companies, so we get better rates and coverage than most, but it still sucks to pay 10.00 -25.00 for every prescription (I refuse to go to Walmart and ennable their survival, all for a 4.00 prescription).
I think something’s going to have to give, and change is imminent in our healthcare system. Jesus, I sure hope so.
we_be_toyss last blog post..Meet My Hamster (aka, The Long Downward Spiral And It’s Wherefore)
26 Sep 2008 at 12:12 am
ha! i’m with joe. i wonder if we can get a discount rate for shipping for all your readers….
i hope babyZ is feeling better soon!
(sorry i havent been around to post comments and argue with the other internet nuts. see my last post. its out of hand i tell you! you’re one of the few i like to really keep up with. now i feel bad for neglecting you. i feel a political post coming on soon. i know its not my style, but i like to mix it up. there is plenty to kabitz about these days at least…)
holly*s last blog post..open rant post.
26 Sep 2008 at 4:48 am
Now how would that situation have played out in the UK… just wondering.
26 Sep 2008 at 11:46 am
Advaaaance Austraaaalia Faaaaaair!!!
arizaphales last blog post..A Glimpse of Something Good….
26 Sep 2008 at 2:18 pm
Nichole - Gratefully not kidding. I thought the house call was one of them historical type things.
Aish - yep, you got that one right.
Sherrie - does Germany have a screwed up health care system? I’m shocked by that. Thought they had it together in Deutschland.
Joe - they’ve got pretty tight border controls to keep us out, I found a loophole!
We Be Toys - I don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re so far in debt in the US that the gov isn’t going to be able to afford any major changes until they sort that out!
Holly* - I don’t even know what you’re apologizing for! I’m glad for any visit.
Vera - ah, my anti-socialist reader! I don’t know is the answer to your question. Until yesterday, however, I’ve always said that the NHS in Britain is superior to Aussie Medicare. Now I’m not so sure. BUT, either is far better than the mess in the States.
Arizaphale - I have no response to that.
26 Sep 2008 at 4:57 pm
Wow. That’s great, and I hope Z is better soon. This system seems to work so well in some places and so horribly in others. If it ever gets here to the U.S.A., I hope we model it after one of the working ones!
26 Sep 2008 at 7:52 pm
As an Aussie, I am really surprised by your home visit story. Maybe it’s an SA thing? I’ve never heard anything like that happening in VIC. Here you’re lucky to get a GP appointment within three days of calling, and if you go to Casualty at the hospital you’re looking at least a two hour wait before even being seen. It’s definitely a better system than many other countries, but it still needs a hell of a lot more work. I have this theory that the government should perhaps make the health care system a priority and maybe give it some money once in a while. Crazy, I know! And don’t get me started on the education system…
Agness last blog post..Hello Saferide…I’ve been expecting you
26 Sep 2008 at 9:06 pm
I laughed that you pegged me an “anti-socialist”. In my (US) college interview my big idea was that health care should, *obviously*, be available to everyone. It must have impressed them, I got in. I still believe that, so am I still an anti-socialist? I just see that socialized medicine doesn’t work. Why, is a different question. Can it be made to work and how, is the real question. It’s probably the most difficult problem for any system, period, but it certainly doesn’t seem like anyone has tried to really tackle it.
All I can say is I am terrified that Clizia will get sick on a weekend in the UK. It takes months to see a pediatrician here (our US ped was on a beeper day and night; one time she had high fever she saw a ped *that* morning; when she had high fever in the UK she thankfully didn’t let me measure it, because I don’t know who I would have called and I am certain they wouldn’t have seen her anyway). She needs speech therapy. The NHS-provided services have been less than pathetic, so we have to get a private therapist. Price? us$280 for assessment and $140 for 30min session (that’s double the private rate in the US, where you actually get those services provided by the state, at least partially, and where something called “multidisciplinary evaluation” exists; here? NADA). I cannot get into an NHS dentist for a check up, Clizia has never seen a dentist at 4yo (people here are proud for *not* having seen a dentist in 15 years, then pull their own teeth). And preventive medicine in the UK is non-existent IME. Scares the crap out of me.
Maybe I just worry about this stuff too much. My Swiss friend just had a baby in the UK. They failed to do a strep B test on her, and she had strep B. At birth the baby was unresponsive and very jaundiced. They did 7 (seven) lumbar punctures in a 2-day old baby to see if he had meningitis. All because they didn’t do a strep B test. He thankfully did not. But my friend wasn’t too upset over it. I would have gone through the roof. And no, her very expensive anti-nausea medicine was not paid for, because she had not completed the proper form (taking a couple of months) stating she was pregnant (doctor’s exam and prescription didn’t count).
I’ve got lots more stories. And yes, I am aware that if one is unemployed in the US one is in deep s***t. And if one is old, and if one doesn’t have three daughters… All I am saying is let’s compare apples to apples.
26 Sep 2008 at 11:42 pm
One of the reasons I live in Spain. Healthcare. In the U.S. it was constant worry in case I got sick/pregnant/anything, and that constant worry was there WITH insurance.
Bluestreaks last blog post..I ask a friend for pictures of when we were in college and she posts this on facebook
29 Sep 2008 at 12:20 am
Angel - I was listening to KCRW’s Left, Right and Center today and their centrist commentator reckoned for $100 billion, or 1/7 of the Wall Street bailout, that the U.S. could get national health care going. Wouldn’t that be better than throwing it away on these banking goons or pissing it away in the Mideast?
Agnes - I think it is spotty and depends on where you live. The Australians are at risk of going to far down the U.S. path and ending up with a gigantic mess that ends up costing far more than it should.
Vera - apples to apples. If we had just moved back to the States with Zach and had decent private health insurance we’d be paying a hell of a lot in co-pays, prescriptions and excesses which we pay nothing for here. The pediatrician thing is an issue, but most of what Z is going through can be effectively dealt with by GPs. In fact, they wouldn’t be likely to refer us to a Ped, but to a ENT doc. For every horror story that you find about a UK or European doctor - the failings of socialized medicine - I will find you a horror story about the US health care system. How about this one, that I think we could both relate to: http://www.madison.com/tct/news/306917
My biggest fear is that one of us would get sick on a trip back to the States. Every time we travel back now we make sure that we have excellent travel insurance just in case we do end up having to get into the crippling American health care system.
Phew.
Bluestreak - me too.
29 Sep 2008 at 12:02 pm