Universal Healthcare

[SpellAndShield]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

[HeyYou]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

 

I agree with you to a point, insurance companies add nothing but cost to healthcare. However, there is no real good way to get rid of them at this point, without nationalizing health care.

[SpellAndShield]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

 

I agree with you to a point, insurance companies add nothing but cost to healthcare. However, there is no real good way to get rid of them at this point, without nationalizing health care.

 

No, you don't need to nationalise anything, let the market make doctors compete for customers as it does with lasik and other things that are not covered by insurance.

[HeyYou]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

 

I agree with you to a point, insurance companies add nothing but cost to healthcare. However, there is no real good way to get rid of them at this point, without nationalizing health care.

 

No, you don't need to nationalise anything, let the market make doctors compete for customers as it does with lasik and other things that are not covered by insurance.

 

So they spend even more money on marketing than they do now? I hardly think that will help matters any.

[Ghogiel]

My low lights in health care are from experiences in the states. Bad medical practices, and bad dentistry: what I found quite common is over prescribed or even 100% unnecessary treatment, I can only presume that private doctors bill insurance companies for treatment they vent out, so what happens in some circumstances is they do ridiculous treatment just to cash in.

 

My high lights are from Germany. and also the professionalism, or rather top gun surgeons at John Hopkins doing brain surgery. And when I say top gun, it is maverick and iceman kinda s***, but in a good way. :tongue:

but generally NHS I found quite good, I don't know what people actually expect out of private in comparison.

Edited September 18, 2011 by Ghogiel

[HeyYou]

There must be something about paying for it out of your own pocket, or, paying ridiculous premiums, only to have your insurance company tell you 'that's not covered' that gives it a more appealing appearance.

[ginnyfizz]

I would say that my answer to the first two questions would be "Yes AND no", and my answer to the third would be a definite Yes.

 

In the UK, we have the National Health Service. At best, it can be superb. At worst, it can be atrocious and primitive. One bad thing about it is that due to the way the funding is set up and spent, you may well fall foul of the postcode lottery - what treatment you can get depends on where you live and what your health authority has decided to spend their money on. A couple of examples;-

 

(1) Alzheimers treatment - in my area, patients are prescribed the gold standard (and expensive) drug, galanthamine, in order to slow down the progression of the disease. My mother receives this treatment. However her sister, now deceased, who lived in London, did not receive this treatment, because her healthcare trust deemed initially that her case was not severe enough, and then moved the goalposts and said that she was too far gone.

(2) Tamoxifen, for breast cancer - one local hospital trust near me will precribe it, the neighbouring one won't. If you are gobby enough to insist your family doctor refers you to the one who will then you're OK, but if you are too struck dumb with shock at the news you have the disease, as many would be, to insist, then you are not.

 

Thus the care as we have seen can be very hit and miss, is rationed financially and by area, and of course the financial aspect has been known to be used as a means of political grandstanding. Usually that "the wicked Tory goverment has cut our funding so patients will suffer" rather than admitting that their procurement departments do not lift a finger to get the best prices possible and that they have spent the money unwisely.

 

You know it isn't really much different from a private healthcare system in many ways!

[roquefort]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

Do you mean that insurance companies should actually be forbidden from offering health insurance?

 

Do you also mean that the principle of caveat emptor should be the only quality controlling factor in matters of medicine and healthcare, so that someone, for example, whose kid needs heart surgery is in a similar position as regards who to consult as someone whose car needs fixing and hopes that the garage they've been recommended is as good as they say?

 

Would you care to expand on your comment that the "NHS is a nightmare for anything serious"? My own experience has been otherwise (but that's just anecdotal, obviously).

Edited September 18, 2011 by roquefort

[SpellAndShield]

NHS is a nightmare for anything serious. Government is very good at misspending other people's money. Allow market competition to determine prices and let doctors compete against each other. Get the insurance companies out of it, they only raise the prices.

Do you mean that insurance companies should actually be forbidden from offering health insurance?

 

Do you also mean that the principle of caveat emptor should be the only quality controlling factor in matters of medicine and healthcare, so that someone, for example, whose kid needs heart surgery is in a similar position as regards who to consult as someone whose car needs fixing and hopes that the garage they've been recommended is as good as they say?

 

Would you care to expand on your comment that the "NHS is a nightmare for anything serious"? My own experience has been otherwise (but that's just anecdotal, obviously).

 

Insurance should be used for catastrophic events, everything can be paid out of pocket but at the moment insurance companies make things more expensive.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WnS96NVlMI

[Jopo1980]

Everyone has the right to health care. It should not be a question of whether you have the money to pay for it or not.