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Clinton, Obama or Edwards?
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| 60. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 08:27 pm |
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Quoting teaschip1: Well most people in the U.S. don't go to the emergency room to get an aspirin.. I have worked in a hospital and will tell you the non-urgent medical conditions people come in with. You have people with major medical issues, heart attacks etc..then people who have paper cuts. That is why most co-pays are much higher for the emergency room than normal doctor visits or urgent care due to people abusing the urgency to be seen in the emergency room. |
It is obvious, Teas, from a lot of the posts that a good many Americans have no idea what the healthcare industry is and why it is broken. What is scary is that, these are the very same people who vote for anyone who talks about a universal healthcare. Without understanding why healthcare is broken, how can we expect people to vote intelligently. I would love for everyone to work in a hospital for just a few days. Yes, taking care of people is a noble cause, BUT it is an EXPENSIVE cause. A lot goes into giving a patient an aspirin....I will give you an example...
The aspirin... A nurse can't just give you an aspirin when you ask for it...she must call the doctor first. The doctor must give his expert opinion and make an order for said aspirine and convey that to the nurse. The nurse must put an order into the pharmacy. The pharmacist must add appropriate charges and feed the information into a computer that will tell him/her whether or not there is a reaction between any other drug the patient is taking and the aspirin. The aspirin is then given to the patient. The nurse will now spend several minutes documenting the journey of the aspirin, documenting the outcome and any adverse reaction. Keep in mind that any mistake any of these people make will be up for enourmous legal scrutiny and these medical professionals probably have at least 20 years of advanced education between them. This is the plight of US medical. The problem is we have too much government involvement. Oganizations like JCAHO and Medicare/Medicaid that are run by the government are draining the healthcare system with their unrealistic demands.
There are government agencies regulating every activity in a hospital from nursing documentation to medical procedure. Hospitals are legally obligated to care for VERY patient who comes thru the door (See EMTALA Act), whether they can pay or not....whether they are a citizen or not. Here in Texas, 35% of all labor and deliveries are done for non-citizens and illegal immigrants who will never pay.
Healthcare is a mess because the government needs to get out of it!
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| 61. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 09:36 pm |
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Quoting Elisabeth: The aspirin... A nurse can't just give you an aspirin when you ask for it...she must call the doctor first. The doctor must give his expert opinion and make an order for said aspirine and convey that to the nurse. The nurse must put an order into the pharmacy. The pharmacist must add appropriate charges and feed the information into a computer that will tell him/her whether or not there is a reaction between any other drug the patient is taking and the aspirin. The aspirin is then given to the patient. The nurse will now spend several minutes documenting the journey of the aspirin, documenting the outcome and any adverse reaction. Keep in mind that any mistake any of these people make will be up for enourmous legal scrutiny and these medical professionals probably have at least 20 years of advanced education between them. This is the plight of US medical. The problem is we have too much government involvement. Oganizations like JCAHO and Medicare/Medicaid that are run by the government are draining the healthcare system with their unrealistic demands. |
It sounds like the US system has more of a problem with their "I will sue you" attitude, than it's medical care. This is, frankly, ridiculous.
In the UK, senior nurses have recently been given more responsibilities in this area - it has finally been respected that they are often as knowledgeable (if not more) in day to day care than the doctors.
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| 62. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 09:39 pm |
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Quoting Elisabeth: Quoting teaschip1: Well most people in the U.S. don't go to the emergency room to get an aspirin.. I have worked in a hospital and will tell you the non-urgent medical conditions people come in with. You have people with major medical issues, heart attacks etc..then people who have paper cuts. That is why most co-pays are much higher for the emergency room than normal doctor visits or urgent care due to people abusing the urgency to be seen in the emergency room. |
It is obvious, Teas, from a lot of the posts that a good many Americans have no idea what the healthcare industry is and why it is broken. What is scary is that, these are the very same people who vote for anyone who talks about a universal healthcare. Without understanding why healthcare is broken, how can we expect people to vote intelligently. I would love for everyone to work in a hospital for just a few days. Yes, taking care of people is a noble cause, BUT it is an EXPENSIVE cause. A lot goes into giving a patient an aspirin....I will give you an example...
The aspirin... A nurse can't just give you an aspirin when you ask for it...she must call the doctor first. The doctor must give his expert opinion and make an order for said aspirine and convey that to the nurse. The nurse must put an order into the pharmacy. The pharmacist must add appropriate charges and feed the information into a computer that will tell him/her whether or not there is a reaction between any other drug the patient is taking and the aspirin. The aspirin is then given to the patient. The nurse will now spend several minutes documenting the journey of the aspirin, documenting the outcome and any adverse reaction. Keep in mind that any mistake any of these people make will be up for enourmous legal scrutiny and these medical professionals probably have at least 20 years of advanced education between them. This is the plight of US medical. The problem is we have too much government involvement. Oganizations like JCAHO and Medicare/Medicaid that are run by the government are draining the healthcare system with their unrealistic demands.
There are government agencies regulating every activity in a hospital from nursing documentation to medical procedure. Hospitals are legally obligated to care for VERY patient who comes thru the door (See EMTALA Act), whether they can pay or not....whether they are a citizen or not. Here in Texas, 35% of all labor and deliveries are done for non-citizens and illegal immigrants who will never pay.
Healthcare is a mess because the government needs to get out of it! |
Very well said Elisabeth...The company I work for also specializes in medical malpractice claims. It is unbelievable how many lawsuits are out there from alleged victims. Some with reasonable suits and many with plain motives to make an almighty dollar. Then we all pay, due to the rising costs of malpractice insurance these physicians have to pay. So then it's passed on to the consumer.
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| 63. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 09:45 pm |
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Elisabeth, you are completely correct in what you said! The quality of health care in the US is very high and therefore, it costs enormously. There are two conflicting interests here: health care being a business - so it must make profit and a government's desire to provide health care to all people.
I think the main problem here are health insurence companies, which charge huge money and then try to pay for coverage as little as possible. This is part of the reason why so many middle class people cannot afford healthcare any more. So I think that in order to improve availability of healthcare - insurence companies should be regulated somehow.
Another reason for the high cost is the fact that a visit in a specialist's office is more expensive then a visit at a primary healthcare provider. However, the amount of family doctors is going down tremendously. There is basically no primary healthcare foundation in this country and this foundation is all that makes the healthcare in other countries better. So I think that if government wants to help, they should hire family doctors and establish this kind of network that would be affordable for low income families and beneficial enough for the doctors to want to do it. If a family doctor gives continuous care, many diseases could be prevented and more expensive procedures won't be necessary which will bring the healthcare spendings down.
However, if the government will simply impose a universal coverage on the current system, the system will simply collapse.
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| 64. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 09:47 pm |
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Quoting AEnigma III: It sounds like the US system has more of a problem with their "I will sue you" attitude, than it's medical care. This is, frankly, ridiculous.
In the UK, senior nurses have recently been given more responsibilities in this area - it has finally been respected that they are often as knowledgeable (if not more) in day to day care than the doctors. |
In some states yes, and it depends on the specialty. The US has a problem with the "I will sue you" attitude in general. But it's also good that doctors are held accountable.
Nurses also have a very high degree of independence here btw.
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| 65. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 09:53 pm |
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Quoting catwoman: Quoting AEnigma III: It sounds like the US system has more of a problem with their "I will sue you" attitude, than it's medical care. This is, frankly, ridiculous.
In the UK, senior nurses have recently been given more responsibilities in this area - it has finally been respected that they are often as knowledgeable (if not more) in day to day care than the doctors. |
In some states yes, and it depends on the specialty. The US has a problem with the "I will sue you" attitude in general. But it's also good that doctors are held accountable.
Nurses also have a very high degree of independence here btw. |
Unfortunately this "sue you" attitude is spreading across the Atlantic 
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| 68. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 10:04 pm |
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Quoting Elisabeth: And if you let the government take over healthcare....lawyers will be deciding whether or not you get that heart surgery!  |
I still prefer Clinton's idiotic solution than Obama's. She wants to mandate that everybody has an insurence, while Obama wants to give people money so that they can buy insurence!!! WTF!  
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| 69. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 10:06 pm |
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Quoting catwoman: Quoting Elisabeth: And if you let the government take over healthcare....lawyers will be deciding whether or not you get that heart surgery! |
I still prefer Clinton's idiotic solution than Obama's. She wants to mandate that everybody has an insurence, while Obama wants to give people money so that they can buy insurence!!! WTF! |
Catwoman, I think all Americans can agree on one thing...I wish the elections where not about voting for the lesser of 2 evils!!
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| 70. |
22 Jan 2008 Tue 10:08 pm |
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Quoting Elisabeth: Catwoman, I think all Americans can agree on one thing...I wish the elections where not about voting for the lesser of 2 evils!! |
Than I'd vote for Ron Paul, but good politicians don't win! 
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