More on Socialized Healthcare

I found this great article comparing US and UK Health Care. It kind of reaffirms my earlier posting on socialized health care. The author is a New Yorker who is now living in the UK. She describes treatment for her same condition under both systems.

Both systems have their flaws, but I will take ours any day over substandard care. My main problem with the US falling into the socialized health care trap is that I don't want to receive substandard care. I don't want to be penalized for seeking private care if I can afford to do so. I don't want to lie on a gurney in a hall for days until a bed becomes available. I don't want to die of a serious disease because a specialist cannot fit me into his/her already overflowing schedule or is too busy to spend adequate time with me because he has so many other patients to see. And privacy? Well you just have to forget about that under socialized medicine.

Don't take a Michael Moore film edited to show you only one point of view at face value . Further, if Mr. Moore were living under this plan and became seriously ill, he has the money to fly to any other country where we can receive private care without penalty from his own government. This cannot be said for the rest of us peasants!

Voters who want socialized health care need to seriously investigate what this really means.

Socialized Healthcare

You have heard the debate. You have seen the Michael Moore movie. You may have received a denied claim. Some of us have worked in the health care industry and know the problems with our American healthcare system.

If you would have asked me just 3 years ago, what my position was on universal healthcare for Americans, I would have said hell yes! Having worked with many children with no insurance or the underinsured truly affected the way I felt about this issue. However, I have come to disagree with their view and my previous view on this issue.

Politicians and a film maker would have us believe that achieving universal healthcare would be utopia, a win-win situation for all. But, living in a country that has this system, as well as speaking to other expats (including our neighbors to the north), I just cannot see it the way I did before.

In Poland, every working citizen must pay a certain percentage of their salary into the system not unlike Social Security in the US. This would not be a problem if Polish citizens could actually get what they pay for.

If you have insurance in the USA and you get sick, you can pick up the phone and likely secure an appointment for yourself on the same day. If you have no insurance in the USA, you go to a free clinic, urgent care, or the ER and wait an infinite amount of hours equivalent to your degree of distress before being seen, but you will likely be seen at some point that day (unless you live in NC, click here).

However, what if you paid into the system and you get sick (minor to catastrophic illness). You’ve paid your dues and you deserve to see a doctor. But the next available appointment is not for several weeks, possibly months? You end up waiting hours (not unlike the ER) for something you have paid your hard earned money for. Then, you find out you need to see a specialist who does not have any available appointments for months or is on strike because the doctor’s are paid the equivalent of $700 USD per month. If you have the money, you can choose to go to a private practitioner and pay out of pocket for a visit that you technically already paid for. If you don’t have money, or friends with money, you wait and a) pray your symptoms go away on their own, b) hope it isn’t serious, or if it is serious, c) die!

Welcome to universal healthcare for all, folks! Does this sound like something you want invading our country? There is a reason so many people travel to the United States for medical care. Heck, former Polish president and Solidarity movement leader, Lech Wałęsa, traveled to Texas earlier this year to have a pacemaker installed. What does that say to you when a former head of state of another country chooses our country for his medical care?

Let me give you more to think about…

When you are hospitalized in the US, say to have a baby, you may bring some personal items from home to make you feel comfortable. However, the bulk of your needs are taken care of by the hospital. You get clean sheets (changed daily), towels, three meals and snacks, a phone, TV, even a gown if necessary. Your baby gets fitted like a clone in an outfit to match his nursery mates, he gets formula, diapers, a receiving blanket and a bulb syringe for his personal use (never lose this one – you will never find one of the same caliber).

From the accounts of people I have spoken to who have been hospitalized here, all you seem to get is a bed. You must provide your own supplies. This is no different than stories I have heard from family members about Cuba’s healthcare system that was so distorted in Michael Moore’s film. Do you really think that Castro allowed Moore to film in a real Havana hospital? A true Cuban hospital looks nothing like the one depicted in the movie. Many Cubans get their medical supplies (including gauze, stitches, ointments, and equipment) from their Miami family members. If you don’t have family in Miami, good luck to you!

An American friend whose son was hospitalized here in Warsaw could not wrap her mind around the fact that 1) the hospital ran out of the European equivalent to Tylenol and asked that she or her husband go to the local Apteka and purchase some and 2) that they did not have a thermometer for her son’s use. She had to bring her own. Her husband is Polish so they pay into the system, but they choose to pay privately for routine care because of time consumed in trying to find care publicly. Further, you may have a contagious illness, but you will still be placed in a room with a bunch of other beds. Forget private rooms, unless you are willing to pay for a private facility.

Another friend informed me that she is actually happy that she is having her baby here and paying privately because she knows she would not receive the same quality of care in Canada as she is here. Don’t get me wrong – medical care here is great for an expatriate with funds. It’s everyone else that gets shafted.

A Polish friend whose daughter plays with Thing 2 informed me yesterday that she spent two days trying to find a doctor after her daughter had an allergic reaction to some drops she was given for her eyes.

And, with that said, let me tell you about the hospitals here. I went on a tour of several hospitals with our Embassy nurse earlier in the year. I came home and told Thing 1 that breaking a bone or getting into a serious accident here is unacceptable. After seeing the trauma unit in Warsaw, I was traumatized! The private hospitals are comparable to where I previously worked. The public ones are not even remotely close to even Jackson Memorial in Miami or DC General. At a public hospital for adults, I saw a woman with a naso-gastric (NG) tube, smoking a cigar outside the hospital entrance. I’m sure our American patients try to do the same, but I want to think that our hospitals stop that kind of behavior. Then, again, I still remember healthcare workers at my hospital smoking in front of the Cancer Center! Still, these were healthcare workers, not patients!

I don’t deny the need to cover America’s children. I think that all children regardless of income should at least receive routine and preventative care. I don’t deny the need for coverage for the millions of Americans with no coverage. However, I have a big problem with someone telling me that they are going to take a portion of my earnings to fund something that takes my current level of insurance down several notches and expect me to use it and like it. I don’t think so. This is like my generation paying into Social Security that we will likely never see or see very little of. After receiving my annual SSA report this month, I compared it to last year to find that my monthly check has already been significantly reduced.

Certainly those who do not have coverage or are under insured would welcome this change. If you don’t have or have very little coverage why not support a plan that would give you full coverage? However, for all the other Americans who pay into an insurance plan and receive reportedly good care, why would they want to risk having the quality of their healthcare reduced? People are able to opt out of Medicare, why not universal healthcare? Further, it is not about having universal healthcare, but about having “access” to universal healthcare. You can print up billions of fancy universal health plan cards insuring everyone in America, but they don’t mean squat if you can’t access care when you need it.

In general, I have come to think that this is a bad idea. People who have the money will still get prompt, quality care, while those who don’t won’t.

If you still can’t wrap your mind around what I am saying, think about this…Polish healthcare workers (doctors and nurses) have spent the better part of the year on strike because of the pathetic wages their government is choosing to pay them. If they stay put in Poland, they only do the bare minimum in their job.

With Socialist style medicine, there is no incentive for such doctors or nurses to go beyond the call of duty. On one of the strikes earlier this year, people were turned away from hospitals unless their condition was an emergency. Even terminally ill people were turned away because, hey, you ‘re going to die anyway and there really is nothing they can do. Most doctors eventually choose to go the way of private practice or they move to the UK where doctors are paid in Euros and fair much better financially. The quality of care is compromised when situations like these are allowed to fester.

If our politicians want to provide such a plan, I think that 1) doctors who choose to participate need to be given a fair wage and 2) they should make it optional for citizens. I think that a person or family should be able to choose whether they want to invest in the system or retain their current employer funded coverage. If they want all children covered, they can ask parents to prove that their children are covered under another plan – problem solved. If people choose to invest in such a system, they should be able to recover some costs that they spend in seeing a private physician when a public one is not available. For example, if a physician charges $100 per visit, but a public provider charges $60 (completely covered by the government), then the patient should only had to pay $40 (like a co-pay).

A few years ago, our government instituted a law in which every American was eligible for one free credit report per year. Why not institute a law where every American regardless of age or ability to pay is eligible for a full physical with labs annually?

I have yet to see something that the government dabbles in turn to gold! Even Social Security has its caveats as we have found in the last 20 years. Like certain political philosophies, they all look good on paper, but have no practical application for the long run.

Condoleezza Rice Visits the US Embassy in Warsaw

So this week we received last minute notice that Secretary Rice would be dropping by after signing the US-Poland Missile Defense Shield Agreement with President Kaczynski.

Emails were sent, protocol put in place, children excused from afternoon classes. They asked us to arrive early around 1pm for the anticipated arrival of Madame Secretary at 2:45pm. They also suggested public transport.

I went back and forth on this one since Thing 1 was already in school and Thing 2 usually takes a nap in the afternoon. But, this was an important event where the US government is concerned so I felt that even if the kids had no clue who she was, the fact that she is on and will be on TV a lot in the coming months convinced me to bring them.

Thing 2 and I caught a taxi to and arrived around 12:45pm just in time to collect Thing 2 from his school bus. The kids played for a bit and then around 1pm they said we could go into the room where this meet and greet would be held. The only people to arrive at 1pm were those with children. Luckily, the room was pretty empty and afforded 6 and under crowd space to run around and be obnoxious for about an hour.

For some reason, they did not provide any seating - standing room only. I started out right in front of the podium, but since I had to manage the kids who kept escaping, I eventually ending up behind people.

Around 2pm, employees began to make their way into the room. At this point the novelty of getting out of school early and not having to nap had worn off. Thing 2 was getting hungry. Thing 1 was bored. I provided some snacks and drinks for them.

Secretary Rice finally arrived at 3pm and stayed for about 20 minutes. She provided some remarks about the US relationship with Poland and the importance of the Missile Shield agreement. She then proceeded to shake hands with the crowd, starting with mine. Thing 1, who was sitting on the floor next to me, refused to get up and shake hands. He then told me "well, she didn't try to shake my hand." As if he were that important. We had a talk about that later. I did get a snapshot of him being all shy next to Condi which I will likely use to blackmail him later in life.

My feet were aching from standing in heels for 2.5 hours, but I think it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.

The Cultural/Political Dichotomies between the US and Europe

There is a dissonance between European views of American Politics vs. American culture. Anywhere you go in Europe, you don’t have to venture far to see American influence in Europe. It is everywhere from the products, to the literature, films, etc. Yet if you have not lived in a European country recently you would not know this because the influence does not cut both ways.

Before we moved here we went nuts at the wholesale club purchasing items (mostly for the brand) that we certainly would not find here in Warsaw. What a shock it was to go into a store once we arrived and not only find products that we use, but to also find the very brand we like. We now kick ourselves for having spent all that money on stuff we could have easily found here.

At the local cinema here, 90% of the people purchasing tickets are going to see an American-made film. And unless it is a children’s film (cartoon), the film is played in its original language mostly English with subtitles in the country’s language. Same with cable TV. Unless what is being shown is made in Poland, I can switch from the Polish dubbed version to the original English version with a click of the remote.

Radio Stations may offer commentary in Polish, German, French, etc., but the music they primarily play is American. Yet, in America, if you browse your local radio stations, the closest thing to “European” music you may get is classical music born and bred n Europe. Before moving here, I knew of no European rock bands other than those coming out of the UK or Ireland which to me doesn’t really count since they all speak English. There are European rock bands, of course, just like the Japanese and Latin Americans have their own brand of rock, but the point is that other than Latin Rock (and that is by the mere fact that I am Hispanic), I have never been exposed to Japanese, Western or Eastern European rock bands before now. And even now, access is limited because most of the stuff on the radio is American rock/pop.

There used to be a time in history where most literature, music, and art coming out of Europe was given as much attention and interest as the same coming from the United States appears to be getting from Europeans at this time. In American schools (at least when I was in school) you read European literature, studied economics, physics and math based on principles developed by Europeans and learned to appreciate European musical and artistic genius. However, it is interesting to note that once you hit the 20th century, the focus on the European tends to diminish and is replaced by American philosophy, political thought, economics, literature, music, art, etc. It’s almost as if we appreciate what Europe has to offer historically, but then it stops and the focus shifts to what America has to offer.

In the United States, I have noticed that most Americans express little to no interest in foreign imports (other than food), yet here, foreign imports from America and Japan seem to be consumed in vast quantities. The interest in visiting Europe to an American lies mostly in the rich history and culture that Europe can provide. However, what we mostly seek in Europe is connection to the Old World, history that is inextricably linked to our own development as a nation. After all, Europeans were the ones to conquer America. Europeans were the ones to first establish colonies in America. We forget that there was a time when North America was primarily divided among the French, Spanish and British. Thus, Europe is part of our history and therefore most of us do have an interest in connecting with the past. Some may still have family living in the “old country.”

Being able to experience European culture and values in addition to my own, I feel that it would be valuable for students today to gain that kind of understanding of Europe. Maybe importing news from Europe or products would help expand the next generations world view. Can't hurt!