If anyone has not been looking, there is a big healthcare debate going on in the USA now.  I´ll be going to a Town Hall meeting in a hour or so to listen, and perhaps offer an opinion.

I´m curious about the health care options in other countries.  Are alternative treatments possible with the health care of your country?  By alternative, I mean acupuncture, chiropracty or other types of treatments.  I was amazed to find acupuncture is not allowed in the US Medicare or Medicaid.  How about your country?

Affordable Healthcare in the USA

Hmmm....no comments.  Too bad. 

The meeting was "interesting" there were some real disruptors spewing lies, shouting, not waiting their turn to ask questions, or comment.  They got there very early so as to insure getting in the room and having a space in the front. 

There are few tribes more loathsome than the American right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama´s attempts at health reform are a useful reminder.

That was a strange link     - one paragraph in a seven paragraph article - the rest of which had nothing to do with healthcare in America.

You asked what healthcare is like in other countries.  The NHS was and still could be a great institution but the downslide started when it was decided it was a ´business´, patients became ´clients´ and it became more important to meet targets than actually spend money on caring for sick people.  NHS doctors, nurses and ancillary staff are great - the trouble is that there are no longer enough of them to go round while there are far too many highly paid non-medical management staff who spend their days attending meetings to arrange more meetings.    - while the medical staff try to cope and are also wasting a lot of their valuable and skilled time filling out (in the most part) ridiculously unnecessary paperwork.  

Almost any type of alternative healthcare you could think of is available - but this would be in the private sector.

Well, I´m sure what you have is a LOT better than what we have, which is all private for profit insurance.  Most of us pay mega bucks for insurance...which still has pretty high co-pays and is only too fast to deny coverage based on pre existing condition exclusions.

Hmmm....is chiropractic covered? Some of the treatments covered there, may only be considered alternative here. 

Is Acupuncture, or massage covered?  

Not sure - because obviously I no longer live in the UK.  I would think that acupuncture would not be covered but that massage - under the guise of physio probably - would be covered. I used a chiropracter in the UK but had to see him privately - however I had some physio for a back problem under the NHS.

 What you say is indeed reality and that is exactely why people fear NHC....Sorry I don´t believe once again that our government SHOULD take care of everyone.  If you work you pay for it...if you sit on your ass well WE still pay for it.  98% of the United States are responsible enough to have healthcare..once you get the government involved they will screw it up, like everything else they touch.  Currently, no one is denied emergency care from the ER, whether you have health insurance or not.  Do you know that the ARP, who fully supports NHC, who blasts insurance companies also sells insurance themselves?  How hyprocritical is that..You really think these doctors here are going to be content being paid x amount dollars dictated by the government.  No wonder there is a shortage of doctors...the problems you mention LIR...is reality and that´s the reality I don´t want to face...including a hundred more reasons why.  We have such a nanny syndrome here in the states...the mind set that we should be taken care of.  How about personal responsiblity?  God forbid!

 I agree with you in part, Teas.  I have been in healthcare for 20 years, my brother is a physician and I have many other relatives in healthcare.  I can tell you that many hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare professionals are very opposed to any kind of national healthcare plan.  I personally believe that insurance and tort reform along with mechanisms to prevent fraud need to be in place before any huge plan is put in place.  Something definately needs to be done to control cost.....however, national healthcare will not control cost.  I can go on and on......but the truth is I like my healthcare.  It is not healthcare that is broken....it is insurance and attornys that are the problem.  Unfortunately, too many politicians are attornys and they get to pick and choose their clients....unlike doctors who are required BY LAW (see EMTALA act - you can proabably google it yourself) to see anyone who comes thru the door.   

The reason healthcare is so expensive here is because Medicare and Medicaid (government run programs) reimburse hospitals at the LOWEST possible rate.  This makes hospitals and other healthcare providers raise their rates to make up the difference.  A government option will make the rates for those of us who carry private insurance go up even more.....people will be forced to choose the government option and hospitals will no longer be able to deliver high quality care for ANYONE. 

  In addition to driven costs,  physicians now have to pay higher medical malpractice insurance because we are in a suing frenzy here.  Some of these physicians can no longer afford to have a single practice and now are part of big group practice. 

I simply I don´t trust our goverment to decide what cloths I should wear, where I should live, what is healthy or unhealthy for me, what perscriptions they decide what is best for me.  It hasn´t been that long ago they passed a second stimulous plan without any delay so we could avoid going to 8.7 unemployment.  We are now currently at 10%I can´t even imagine having the government drive our healthcare...like I said I´m not willing to put my life in our governments hands...I would rather have some control of my destiny.

Here we do have a compulsary health insurance (only a few people like homeless ones or strict religious one that refuse to have any insurance don´t have, about 300.000 on a population of 16,4 million) which covers basics: GP, hospital, generic medication, 9 physiotherapist treatments, gynaecological help, psychological/psychiatric help etc. You can add an extra part that covers more. There are dozens of insurance companies with all extra packages numbered from 1-5 mostly. Dental care is always extra and also devided in 1-4 number packages. The basic part costs about 90 euro per person per month, the extra packages can go up to (including the basic) 150 euro. The most extensive packages cover chiropractors, massage, unlimited physiotherapist treatments, other alternative care like acupressure, antroposophic treatment, eye lasering, travelers vaccination etc. I now have a number 2 extra package (paying 125), covering almost all but I´m going to extend that from January. People with a lower income get some money back from the tax office and children upto 18 are free. Still, a lot of people find it very expensive because before 2006 we had a different system that for some people was cheaper. If your employer has a contract with a certain insurance company or when you´re a union member (I am) you get a discount of about 10%.

 Teas, for me, this isn´t a matter of whether or not to trust the goverment (not that I do).  It is a simple matter of the constitutionality of being free of government infringement and involvement in our lives.  It goes against my basic core principles to have government run healthcare and although they say that this is  and will be an option, I think people are naive to believe that insurance companies will be able to compete and that we will be able to keep our private insurance.  This bill is merely a prelude to nationalized healthcare for everyone simply because it will eliminate competition. 

I went to a bipartisan townhall meeting at our hospital last night.  There were both Republican and Democratic congressman and senators, the audience was mainly physicians and other healthcare professionals and some patients of the facility.   I can tell you that none of our representatives could answer anything beyond very general questions.  Our docs had very pointed questions and not one person could answer them.  I hope that our government will stop and listen to healthcare experts and not lobbists before doing anything.  Healthcare reform needs to happen, but it needs to happen in the right way and for the right reasons.  It needs to help people and not hurt them.  One of our congress woman actual said that they plan on implementing the reform and then fix things as they break......ummmm....I don´t know about you guys, but that is not acceptable to me.  We need to get this right because you can´t just go back and "fix" things in healthcare.....you either get it right or people die.