Why I’m Glad We Have Private Health Care
Calls continue every day, from people who don’t know any better, to nationalize America’s health care system. They believe, wrongly, that health care could be provided better and cheaper if it was freely available to all, and paid for through taxes.
The problem is, socialized medicine (referred to as “single payer” by its supporters) is a horrible system that actually results in universally unavailable health care, instead of the ease of access that we have now. Cuba’s hospitals, for the most part, aren’t up to the standards of America’s prisons. The national health care system in Britain is in collapse. Canada’s health care system only survives because it has a private option available, that of driving South to America for health care.
Indeed, in Canada, a person needing a MRI is forced to wait at least six months for the procedure. This is because MRI machines are expensive, and can break the budget of the national health care system if they provide them to even half of the nation’s hospitals. In America, MRI machines are in almost every hospital. There are MRI clinics, as well, which increases the availability of this particular test. Because we have a private health care system, we have easy access to this important test.
My son fell, recently. In the fall, he ruptured his spleen. Through a series of tests, it was determined that no surgery was necessary, and he was able to keep his spleen. One of these tests was the MRI. Using the MRI, the doctors could see that there was not a major amount of bleeding into the abdomen, and with a few days of close monitoring and blood tests, the boy was out of the hospital in no time, back to his fun.
What if we lived in Canada? Having to wait six months for an MRI in this situation would have meant NO MRI. Having no MRI would have meant an inability to accurately determine the level of bleeding. Undoubtedly, the result would have been a splenectomy. In this case, a splenectomy would have been unnecessary surgery.
Around these parts, unnecessary surgery is another way to say “bad health care.”
We have the single best health care system in the world. We have the best drug research and production in the world. We have easy access to quick and high-quality health care. Heck, the only people who are getting lesser quality health care in America are those relying on our ongoing “single payer” plans such as Medi-Care, Medi-Caid, government-run-hospitals, government-run clinics, and Veteran’s Administration. I do, at least, get to hear about improvements in the latter, since proponents of single-payer health care started losing power in government.
If we, like Canada, adopted socialized medicine, what border would we cross for quality medicine when the waiting lists started?
Comments
One Comment on Why I’m Glad We Have Private Health Care
-
le sacre on
Tue, 18th Jul 2006 6:44 pm
I don’t understand. As you say, most U.S. hospitals already have MRI facilities. How would switching to a single-payer system change that? Would they magically disappear?
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
-
Qik Stream Flickr Photos
