09-02-2023, 11:52 AM
(09-02-2023, 09:39 AM)Have at ye Wrote: That's absolutely tragic.
Where I'm from, you get most medical stuff for free (if you're insured, and you're insured up to the age of 26 for free if you're studying, then you need to have a job or register for unemployment. Or pay insurance, which is like 600 PLN per month, so that's less than 200 USD), the trouble is there's a long wait for most appointments. I, for instance, despite not being insured get psychiatric care for free because I have a diagnosed mental health issue (I didn't even realize it was a thing and was worried I'd have to pay through the nose for ending up in a psych ward, but apparently it is. Makes sense, too, since lots of poeple with serious mental health issues have little to no income. I remember there being a pretty big group of homeless guys at the ward, for instance).
Then again, we've got a significant group of people who are so enamored with the American Way TM that they would insitute a similar system to yours if they could, lol. Probably because they think they're rich. Well, they'll stop being "rich" the moment they get hit with their first serious medical bill, haha.
Don't misunderstand me - the United States is probably the world leader in best-in-class medical care. IF you can afford it. IF you have any insurance at all. I know someone who recently was admitted to an emergency room because they were suicidal, and the diagnostician decided that they were unsafe to themselves and had to go to a mental hospital. No insurance, though, so they got to go to what I have since come to refer to as "the dumping grounds". They were driven to it in an ambulance - cha ching! - and then left there for more than a day before they were seen by a doctor. The doctor made a prescription of two drugs, and one of them was not only incorrectly prescribed, but prescribed in an unsafe manner which was never disclosed to that person, which could have resulted in a heart attack or some similar life threatening situation. Thankfully, it did not, and the secondary doctor and pharmacists discovered and corrected this issue, but not before that person had been using said unsafe combination of drugs for a full month. One of them was prescribed for use 3x per day, every day, when it was later revealed that it was only for use "as needed", which turned out to be maybe 2-3x a month, not 3x/day.
Had that person had health insurance, they would have gone to another mental hospital, which I can only hope would have had more competent staff. They reported meeting at least one homeless person in the dumping grounds, who had apparently been in and out of that location several times, and had given up all hope as a result because nobody seemed to be able to help with the real problem.
But if you have insurance, things improve, and if you can pay out of pocket, they improve dramatically more. Regardless, it's a seriously flawed system, partly because it is so overloaded, and partly because the ultimate goal is to make money, not achieve better health for the patient.
There is no perfect system. Socialized medicine has it's ups and downs as well. But there has to be something better than what we have here in the US right now.
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The scientist has a question to find an answer for. The pseudo-scientist has an answer to find a question for. ~ "Failure is the path of least persistence." - Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ Logic left. Emotion right. But thinking, straight ahead. ~ Sperate supra omnia in valorem. (The value of trust is above all else.) ~ Meowsomeness!
The scientist has a question to find an answer for. The pseudo-scientist has an answer to find a question for. ~ "Failure is the path of least persistence." - Chinese Fortune Cookie ~ Logic left. Emotion right. But thinking, straight ahead. ~ Sperate supra omnia in valorem. (The value of trust is above all else.) ~ Meowsomeness!