A Hopeful Turning Point

[Da86]

President Obama!!
Remarkable day in history, lets hope things start getting better everywhere now!

[WaiWahine]

I agree, a fantastic change for the US! Well done American friends, well done :D

[candu]

If he impliment his promise of Universal medicare (40 million more patients)

You all will have better days as MDs

[KingMo]

If he impliment his promise of Universal medicare (40 million more patients)

You all will have better days as MDs

You mean Medicaid? And the better days probably depend on how much you care about money (such as the higher tax bracket, lower Medicaid reimbursements, and the priceless warm fuzzy feeling you get when you treat less privileged people for free). :rolleyes:

[wolfvgang22]

As a U.S. citizen I knew very little about universal healthcare programs. Speaking with patients from other countries, and some of my numerous Canadian class mate's experiences regarding universal health care has dramatically changed my opinion about it, both good and bad and enabled me to make a more informed opinion on the topic.

[WaiWahine]

and am a huge fan of universal health care. All of the physicians that I know still make loads of money, have loads of prestige and respect. If that is one's biggest concern, relax - taking care of all patients regardless of their income strata will still afford one the respect, prestige, money that one may desire. With the added bonus of caring for ALL patients, all people that are sick or injured... As the saying goes:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me...

[CrazyDiamond]

Obama has no intention of implementing universal health care. His plan is to make health insurance more accessible to those who cannot currently afford it. That's the right approach in my opinion. That way, those who already have good health insurance can keep it. Those who do not have health insurance however will now have options.

The U.S. health care system is the best in the world for those who can afford it. The problem is that it's not accessible to everyone. Completely socializing the health care system is a bad idea in my opinion. We should keep private health care, looking for ways to drive down costs while at the same time providing those in desperate need with an alternative.

The United States already has a government-run health care system.....VA hospitals. Most would agree that the quality of care offered at these hospitals is significantly lower when compared to private hospitals. Just talk to any veteran.....

There are problems with the Canadian and European nationalized health care systems. People often have to wait a long time for elective surgeries. When compared to the best private hospitals, state-run hospitals are typically less well-equipped and have less funding. That's typically the case for any government-run vs. privately operated organization.

Remember, in the USA, a socialized health care program would have to be implemented on a scale ten times that of Canada. It is possible to have successful welfare states in countries of low population like Norway, Sweden, Canada etc. but it's much more difficult to do that on a much larger scale.

What works in countries with populations of 7, 20, 30, 60 million won't necessarily work in a country of 300+ million.

[WaiWahine]

I agree that there are problems with the health care system in Canada as well as everywhere else. But I am willing to trade off a long wait for an elective procedure for the knowledge that if I am hit by a drunk driver, or my neighbour starts his, mine and other houses on fire and I am severely burned that I will receive excellent care and will not be forever in debt because of the incident. That alone is a large benefit of universal health care (for me).

[CrazyDiamond]

I'm sure that most Canadians would prefer to have a universal health care system. But the question is, could it be successfully implemented on a scale 10 times the size of that in Canada? That would mean 10 times the bureaucracy, 10 times the logistical hurdles and 10 times the cost etc.

It would also mean a substantial tax hike.

Obviously something needs to be done to give the millions of people who cannot afford health care an option. But socializing the health care system in America isn't a realistic solution.

[SunDevilDoc]

Wanna see how well it works in the U.S.?

Take a look at how is has worked in Wiscosin - horribly.

Look at TennCare in Tennessee - D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R. The program has far outstripped budgets and services are starting to be cut. If you budget $300 billion for your new healthcare plan, you can damn sure triple that figure once it gets implemented.

But hey, at least we can spread the misery around, right?

It is complete ** that we are going to save healthcare dollars by focusing on preventive medicine. Start doing clinicals and wait and see how many patients will not even take FREE medications, much less the $4 Wal-mart prescriptions.

[WaiWahine]

I think that this topic of health care reform is a hot one! Most excellent. I am very interested in reading a variety of viewpoints with suggestions for solutions. I believe that we can all agree that, considering only Canada and the USA, there are serious issues with both systems. What other options/combinations/solutions can we consider? I will include some ideas from Dr. Jock Murray who has recently submitted this compare/contrast to Medscape (+ or - are the goods or not so goods):

Canada
+national system
+noncompetition
+cost controls
+macromanagement
+residency training only in university programs

-inadequate research support (that's for sure!)
-global cuts with little planning
-poor planning for physician/nurse numbers (massive shortage)
-waiting, waiting and waiting some more for services

USA
+opportunities for the individual
+innovation and creativity
+research support
+benefits for risk takers
+expertise in specialty care

-45 million uninsured & 45 million underinsured
-no coherent system
-expensive, complex admin
-excessive controls on physicians
-expensive specialty care (where is specialty care not expensive??)
-excessive malpractice

Although this is by no means a comprehensive list of the pros and cons of each system, this will stimulate some discussion. What are your thoughts on a combination of private and public care? Or perhaps a cap of 20% of income will go to insurance costs (provided paying for that insurance will actually get the patient the care they need instead of feeding a big hungry machine) yes the extremely rich will be subsidizing the extremely poor, but everyone will be covered? Just throwing some thoughts out there with the caveat that I have done absolutely no feasibility research into those two ideas.

Please share some solutions you may have in mind, and let's keep this respectful please :D

Cheers!