Socialized Medicine - Tell us your real life experiences

[islandgal]

To better understand, I would like to hear some real life experiences with socialized medicine - no hearsay or opinions - just real life experiences and thoughts from those who have lived with it.

[islandgal]

Bump

[rshoffer]

I worked as a physician for 9 years in a health care system where everyone, regardless of social rank received essentially the same level of care. At that time medications and all aspects of health, dental, vision care were covered at no cost to the member. I've been a physician for 31 years and looking back I've never seen a health care delivery system that came close to that 9 year experience in quality or access. I don't know if you'd call my 9 years in the US Army Medical Corps an example of socialized medicine but it certainly was a hell of a lot better than the mess I entered after I (regretfully) left the Army. BTW, my son must have felt the same way. He's currently a US Army physician at Madigan in Tacoma.

[islandgal]

Thank you for that info - It is good to know that our troops are receiving that care. I think it's great your son followed your lead.
It is sad that our service men seem to receive much care less once they are out of the service. How do you feel about that?

[another Linda]

Our experience mirrors rshoffer's. My husband was in the military for 7 years (and our son too is an Army physician at Madigan!). I know he felt the same way.

In addition, we have family in Canada. When my husband's brother was experiencing some serious, undiagnosed GI problems, he got an immediate, intensive, excellent workup to find the problem. On the other hand, when he wanted to schedule elective knee surgery, he had to wait a bit. When my niece recently had a baby, she was able to stay home for a year with her salary at least partially reimbursed by the Canadian government. When my daughter had a baby here, she was only allowed 3 months despite a complicated C-section, and part of that time was used before the birth -- not sure, but I think she was able to get at least some disability.

The other thing we witnessed was our former sitter now lives in France with her husband and family. She was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Under the French system she didn't owe a dime for all the intensive care she received including not only the hospital services but in home services too. Amazing.

I'd like to hear more from some of the Canadians and Brits.

[rshoffer]

Thank you for that info - It is good to know that our troops are receiving that care. I think it's great your son followed your lead.
It is sad that our service men seem to receive much care less once they are out of the service. How do you feel about that?
It sickens me! See my post on health insurance. Our reps in Congress have the best coverage (for life) money can buy and they've turned their back on this issue. Special interest groups, including the American Medicam Assn. wants to protecy this broken system.

[Sally Jo]

Linda Maybe your sittter didn't pay a dime, but somebody paid for it. She along with the other tax payers of France paid for it. Same goes for Canada. A lot of people in Canada come to the US for their health care, if possible. If Canada's system is so great why do they come here?

I do agree about the Congress taking care of themselves, very nicely. We all pay for it.

[serenityseeker]

rshoffer and linda, :agree: :agree: :agree:...excellent points made in an excellent way. The term "socialized medicine" is simply a political term used to scare and polarize people. We are talking about the need for a national insurance program, and no it wont be perfect either but it is immanent. The question is can we address it now in an intelligent fashion or wait until our present system completes its' steady collapse, and then have the typical reactionary inneffective political response we have been used to seeing?
People with the money to do so will always go where they can get the care they want when they want it. We as americans will have to realisticly restructure some of our expectations to create a more efficient and realistic program.

[another Linda]

Of course somebody pays for it. Someone always pays for it -- in France, Canada, even here. Medicare? Private insurance? Health South? Do you really think you aren't paying for it now?

Do people from Canada come here for their medical care? In our very large extended family, I know of no one, even though many have the money and come here often for other reasons. But I do know of many who go from Syracuse to Canada for eye surgery and medicines.

I agree that the term "socialized medicine" is used to scare people. Unfortunately it keeps us from addressing the problem of providing affordable, accessible medical care in any meaningful way.

[serenityseeker]

I think http://bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/caregiving/articles/where_have_all_the_doctors_gone_.htmlthis may be of some interest.

[retiredguy]

RUN as fast as you can from socialized medicine. I have friends in UK and Canada on this very system.

Just in case though, think of any entitlement program the US government runs. There's another reason to RUN.

[samhass]

Isn't medicare socialized medicine?

[Barefoot]

RUN as fast as you can from socialized medicine. I have friends in UK and Canada on this very system. Just in case though, think of any entitlement program the US government runs. There's another reason to RUN.

Speaking as a Canadian, I can assure you that we have a fabulous health care system. If you are urgently in need of health care, you will get the finest of medical treatment at no cost. For elective surgery, there is more of a wait. Some wealthy people choose to go to the U.S. and pay for elective surgery to get to the "head of the line".

There is no wait if you are urgently in need of health care. It is true that our taxes are higher than is the U.S. to pay for our health care system. But it is well worth it.

[serenityseeker]

Thanx barefoot for the response.
It kills me when so many people with no real firsthand knowlege of such a system condemn it and say run from it etc. Nothing is perfect, but we can certainly learn from, and take the best from all of the systems, while we realize we will have to change some of our expectations(i.e; elective surgeries and procedures). It's nice to hear firsthand someone's experience with a national health care system (I will leave the the riculous "socialized medicine" term to the the people more interested in politics and their own agenda, please...no offense to anyone personally..just my opinion).
I am sure their are some people in Canada that may disagree with you, would love to hear from them too. This is one of the ways we learn and educate each other about options.

[samhass]

Thank you Barefoot and Serenity. Medicare is socialized medicine. Poor people that own nothing are cared for gratis. It's the poor unwashed middle class that gets nothing and pays for everything. I don't understand why hospitals and doctors won't take cash from a patient paying the same rate the insurance company would pay them for a service. They get paid on the spot and have no billing worries. Why should an individual have to pay 110K for something an insurance company pays 20K for?