Close Encounter With Socialized Medicine - SacBee

[WillyT]

Close encounter with socialized medicine
By Bruce Dancis
Special to The Bee
Published: Saturday, Jun. 26, 2010 - 12:00 am

<snip>

A blustery London breeze knocked a large wooden plank loose from a construction site and into a heavy steel barrier, which in turn fell over and hit me on the right side of my head, sending me crashing into the stone wall of a British government building.

At least that's what the onlookers who witnessed the incident and pulled the barrier off me said as I lay on the ground, bleeding from head and knee on King Charles Street, only a block from 10 Downing Street and just outside a museum honoring Winston Churchill and his World War II Cabinet.

Still conscious but a little bit woozy, I hadn't yet realized I was about to have a close encounter with the National Health Service, a.k.a. the United Kingdom's form of socialized medicine.

My wife, Karen, and I were in London on vacation, visiting the usual tourist attractions, including the Cabinet war rooms where Churchill and his advisers gallantly organized the defense of their country against Adolf Hitler's rampaging armed forces. Getting injured in a freak accident on a Saturday afternoon was not part of our vacation agenda.

I kept telling my worried wife and the gathering crowd that I was OK, despite all that blood. Another tourist, a doctor from Florida, assisted Karen in applying facial tissues to the gash in my head.

He began asking me questions: "Who is the prime minister?"

Before I could answer "David Cameron," he realized I was an American and changed the question to, "Who is the president of the United States?" adding, "Not that you have to like him."

"But I do," I replied, "for the most part."

The good doctor was trying to find out how badly injured I was, and when he could see that I hadn't lost either consciousness or most of my blood and marbles, he jokingly informed me, "I am indeed a doctor, but I'm a gynecologist." He said I probably needed to go to the hospital, but warned – with an unstated but obviously negative attitude toward what the Brits call the NHS – "you'll most likely be there for seven hours (before they get to you)."

My wife wrote down the names and phone numbers of the doctor and a few other witnesses, and then I walked on my own power down to the museum. A museum staffer with a first aid kit provided clean gauze pads to take the place of the bloody tissues I was pressing against my head. Since we were close to St. Thomas Hospital, just on the other side of the Thames River across Westminster Bridge, he quickly hailed a cab and within five minutes my wife and I walked into the emergency room.

Although there were about a half dozen people already sitting in the waiting room, I was almost immediately ushered over to a triage table where a nurse examined my wounds and asked me what had happened. Determining that the bleeding from my scalp had stopped and that I was not in life-threatening danger, he turned me over to an intake clerk, who took down a more detailed account of the accident. Ten minutes later, I was seen by another nurse, who examined me more fully before passing me along to another room, where yet another nurse placed me and my wife in a curtained-off space.

Within 15 minutes, a doctor came by. He asked me to describe what had occurred. I recounted what happened, with my wife filling in some details. I said I also had a mild headache. He gave me a rather complete neurological exam, testing my eye movement, reflexes, et al., and looking at the bump on one side of my head, the laceration on the other and the abrasions on my knee. He then had a nurse join us, who cleaned up my wounds and, in lieu of stitches, applied some medicinal glue to my scalp. The doctor said I most likely also had a mild concussion. He didn't think it was anything serious, but advised me to immediately return to the hospital should the headache get significantly worse or if I experienced any vomiting.

The doctor thought I wouldn't have any problem attending the Richard Thompson concert that evening for which we already had tickets. He then said I could leave.

My wife and I walked out of the hospital and took a stroll along the nearby south bank of the Thames. Except for a slight headache, I felt fine. And Richard Thompson was great, as always.

To summarize my NHS experience:

Total time spent in the hospital: 50 minutes.

Number of nurses and doctors who examined me: four.

Number of times I was asked my nationality: zero.

Number of times I was asked to show proof of health insurance: zero.

Number of times I was asked how I expected to pay the hospital bill: zero.

Hospital bill: zero pounds.

Value of Britain's National Health Service, a.k.a. socialized medicine, when you have a medical emergency: priceless.

<snip>

More: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/26/2850249/close-encounter-with-socialized.html#ixzz0ryVfHBqG

Tell me again about American Exceptionalism???

:shrug:

[LWolf]

1. k&r

[dipsydoodle]

2. Maybe they knew

he liked Richard Thompson. :)

Richard Thompson - 1952 Vincent Black Lightning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxKTzwaEa2o

Seriously - yep that what its like here. Get hurt - get mended trouble free. No big deal.

[Kalyke]

6. How can I immigrate to Britain? Ireland would be fine, too!

[dipsydoodle]

7. Broadly speaking

you come over here to work and then just stay by one means or another. We get lots of American girls of all different ages who are either students or working here turn up at the places we all dance together to swing music and Rock 'n Roll. I'm sure whether or not Eire / Irish Republic has got socialised medicine or not whereas N.I. obviously has our NHS.

:hi:

btw the real iffy one is marrying someone here. Both of our governments are sensitive about that one and go out of their way to cause real grief.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. The British immigration authorities' website has a list of

"shortage occupations," and if you are skilled in one of those occupations, you can get priority for immigration.

Unfortunately, Japanese-English translator is not one of them, but a few years ago, one of them was elementary school teacher, and the daughter of a friend of mine took advantage of that. She ended up marrying another teacher at the same school. (I don't think teaching is on the list anymore.)

[dipsydoodle]

15. Japanese / English

speaking would probably get a job at one of our banks on the international desk. My young nephew, having got his degree spent a few 3 years out in Japan teaching english to children, came back to a bank job as described above until he decided to become a chartered accountant like his sister and he's now qualified too.

I actually meant sod the immigration laws and just come anyway.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Well, I have a few strikes against me

1) I'm getting up in years

2) I have no job experience outside of academia and free-lance translating

[Vincent441]

24. Just do what the mexicans do

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LibDemAlways]

3. I guarantee that if that scenario happened in my neck of the

woods in suburban Los Angeles, the patient would not have been seen unless he produced a valid insurance card. Then the wait would have been 5 hours and he would be seen by maybe one doctor for about 30 seconds who would pronounce him fine and send him packing. There is one local hospital nearby and it sucks.

I have a friend who broke his foot while in London and his story was much the same - immediate professional care and no bill. Tell me again about "the greatest country on earth."

[area51]

4. "you'll most likely be there for seven hours (before they get to you)."

I would've said, "Really? You can stay in an American ER and not be seen for 12 hours or more." And I'd also tell him that I'd gladly trade places with him, and take dealing with the problems of the NHS any day over staying in a third-world country like the U.S. without a right to health care.

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

[w8liftinglady]

5. my latest letter to the editor made the same comments

http://www.thedailylight.com/articles/2010/06/25/opinion/doc4c237cf38e032065914660.txt

LETTER: ‘On medical coverage’
Published: Thursday, June 24, 2010 11:01 AM CDT
To the Editor,

One aspect of American families that has not improved with the election of Barack Obama is the lack of medical coverage. One out of three people (33.1 percent) under the age of 65 were uninsured for some or all of 2007-2008. Four out of five individuals (79.2 percent) who went without health insurance during 2007-2008 were from working families: 69.7 percent were in families with a worker who was employed full-time, and 9.5 percent were in families with a worker who was employed part-time. Although racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be uninsured, whites accounted for nearly half (49.8 percent) of the uninsured in 2007-2008. Businesses are suffering too. Insurance premiums increased 73 percent between 2000 and 2005, and per capita costs are expected to keep rising.

Unfortunately, this is because both political groups have tried so hard to satisfy insurance companies that they have neglected the citizens, the patients.

Universal Health Care exists in almost all European countries. The United States is the only industrialized country in the world without a universal health insurance system. U.S. health care spending is approximately $2 trillion per year, or $6,697 per person. The United States continues to spend significantly more on health care than other countries in the world. Administrative costs account for 31 percent of all health care expenditures in the United States. The average overhead for U.S. private health insurers is 11.7 percent. Ninety percent of Americans believe the American health care system needs fundamental changes or needs to be completely rebuilt. Two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government should guarantee universal health care for all citizens.

The obvious cure for this increasing American problem is offered by Physicians for a National Health Program. This allows adequate humane health care with much less paperwork. Rather than try to elaborate on this, I’m referring you to an excellent resource sponsored by PNHP (http://www.pnhp.org/publications/proposal-of-the-physicians-working-group-for-single-payer-national-health-insurance ). The end results is better health care for patients and more satisfied work environments for physicians, nurses and ancillary health care workers. This would allow an increase in staff for local hospitals and more time with patients.

As a members of the medical field AND a patient more recently, I can see the benefit of this method. Please review PNHP’s program — and if you agree, contact your elected officials to initiate this program in Texas. Our friends, relatives and neighbors are depending on it.

[Zoeisright]

10. Now we spend $7290. Per person. Per year. Well, that was in 2007.

I'm sure it's higher now.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65M0SU20100623?type=domesticNews

[Vinca]

23. Great letter . . . and I appreciate your attempt at humor at the end . . .

"contact your elected officials to initiate this program in Texas.":rofl:

[dipsydoodle]

9. Delays at our A & E depts in hospitals

are pot luck. Just depends how many are there for whatever reason at a point in time. Anything to do with eyes is supposed to get immediate attention though - even just a bit of dirt in it.

And trust me - if an air ambulance has gone to serious motor accident there is no way there would be any delay when it reached the hospital landing pad.

The odd thing is of course that we just take it all for granted - its there and for most of us it always has been so.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. Yes, our right-wingers take the fact of waits for elective surgery

(which certainly exist here), and exaggerate it to make the uninformed think that they would have to wait excessively long for treatment if they were brought into the hospital with a heart attack or an appendix about to burst.

They take the fact that some Canadian "snowbirds" end up seeking medical treatment in the U.S. simply because they're in Florida or Arizona for the weather as an indication that "thousands of Canadians are crossing the border to seek medical treatment in the U.S." (Funny, they go all the way to Florida instead of Seattle or Duluth...)

[BlueMTexpat]

25. Those same RW'ers also forget to mention that in US states that border Canada,

US citizens - at least a few years ago - were going into Canada to get health care - for a tiny fraction of what it would cost in the US. Current Guv of MT Schweitzer actually used to organize bus trips into Canada for such purposes. His wife was born there and so knew about that system first-hand. He was trying to draw attention to the problem.
Little good it did. Thanks for nothing, Rahm & co. Thanks a lot for giving up the store from the get-go and not even allowing single-payer into the discussion.
With "friends" like Rahm ... .

[Lydia Leftcoast]

28. Yes, I believe it was one of the Canadian DUers who mentioned that

Ontario added a photo ID to its health card because they realized that so many Americans were coming over with forged health cards.

[frebrd]

8. If only we had "socialized medicine".......

We should be so lucky!

I'm sitting here feeling very wistful because it'll never be allowed to happen in this corporate-controlled country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. Before I went to England in 2006, I researched the question of medical care for foreigners

Basically, you have to be a legal resident of the UK to get full NHS services.

However, anyone who becomes acutely ill or injured on UK soil is eligible for emergency care, as a scary-looking head injury definitely is.

An acquaintance of mine received emergency care in Scotland after getting a gravel in her eye while volunteering for an archaeological dig. She wanted to tough it out, since she was on a very low-budget trip and was imagining American ER charges, but her Scottish companions assured her that there would be no charge.

It was a small town clinic, and the staff cleaned out and bandaged her eye. They then told her to come back the next day--since they were a small town clinic and had an ophthalmologist come only twice a week. They wanted her to be seen by a specialist to make sure that she had not scratched her cornea or caused other major damage. She came back, received a complete exam from the ophthalmologist, and was told that there would be no permanent effects.

All at no charge.

I'm also thinking of some people in my church whose teenage son has cancer. They are insured but have to take out a second mortgage on their house to meet the uncovered expenses.

In a single-payer country (like Canada) or a national health service country (like the UK), this would be unnecessary. Even if the country practiced rationing (as the UK does to some extent), a child or teenager would take priority.

[dipsydoodle]

16. I think you may find

that implict with "legal resident" is that if working then as soon as the first NH deduction is made you are in effect covered. I only express it in that way because you'd need to be working legally to actually pay NH deductions against an equivalent of your social security number.

The first case I came across of "injured" was back in 1988 - a young American girl in a coma. She'd fallen into the trap as a pedestrian of overlooking that we drive on the left - she'd been mown flat with serious head injuries. She was in the next bed to wife following brain operations to both of them and both "free" on the NHS.

[nightrain]

14. knr. wonderful account. thank you for posting this.

What? "Uniquely American" isn't top notch?

If there's a buck to be made in any service, then American predator capitalism will triumph. That is, until we learn, if ever.... There's nothing to be said for "USA! USA!, We're number 1!". We're not.

[Hannah Bell]

17. i had the same experience going in for a simple case of pinkeye.

immediate service & sent on my way with a tube of creme which cleared it right up.

[Hydra]

18. This got me to thinking

The American Capitalist machine has but one purpose- to take the labor from people, convert it to a value, and then work every which way to take it back away from them, forcing them back to the work line.

"You lift 16 tons, and what do you get...another day older and deeper in debt..."

[onethatcares]

19. why the hell would you not want to

lose your home over an accident like that?

That's what those folks that don't want single payer healthcare don't understand. The only thing standing between themselves and total financial ruin is avoiding accidents.


Peace.

[slipslidingaway]

20. knr nt

[OnionPatch]

22. I know I posted about this before, but

I had a very similar encounter in Canada. I was in an auto accident and broke my nose. Upon arrival at the emergency room, I was immediately ushered into a room where nurses began to tend my wound. There was absolutely no waiting. A few people were in the waiting area, but they were waiting for other patients. My problem was taken care of immediately and no one asked a thing about my insurance, my co-payment, etc. It was pretty amazing. My Canadian friends said my visit was very typical. After that I was pretty sure I had been fed a crock of lies about "socialized medicine."

[LibDemAlways]

32. My sister-in-law's mother suffered a minor injury while in Canada. The

entire time she was being treated in the emergency room she worried about what it was going to cost her. The hospital told her she was free to go, but she didn't believe it. She absolutely insisted on paying something, so they told her they'd take $50.00 - and donate it to charity in her name.

[OnionPatch]

35. They told me I was free to go, too.

But I paid them as well. :) Or rather, I had them give me a statement so I could turn it in to my insurance company. The insurance company paid them something, I don't remember what.

[Pooka Fey]

26. Read it and weep, America.

We are the suckers of the industrialized world.

[BlueMTexpat]

27. "American Exceptionalism" is almost as great a myth

as is religion.
***********
Interestingly, I just had visitors from the States, including teen-age grandkids, visiting me in Switzerland, where I officially reside, although I'm currently in the US.
While we were travelling in France, one of the adults discovered that she had a urinary tract infection, which was really affecting th quality of her visit. We were in a tiny French village in the Alps on a Saturday morning when she decided that she needed help. There was one doctor in the village - no hospital or ER unless we returned to the valley. We called at 10 am. The doctor, who was fully booked for the morning, didn't work in the afternoon, but agreed to see her at 11:30 when his regular patient visits were finished. He saw her, agreed that she had an infection, took samples to be sent to the valley and analyzed (he didn't have the lab facilities or he would have done the analyses on the spot) and gave her a prescription that held her through until Monday when the results of the analyses would be known.
Total cost: EUR 22. And she was fine and enjoyed the rest of her visit.
As for the kids, they couldn't get over how people easily switched from one language to the other - especially in Switzerland where most people are at least trilingual - and how excellent the spoken English was. They were amazed at the general friendliness they encountered (children are treated as prospective citizens to be nurtured, not merely as potential consumers to be sold something), the cleanliness of the public facilities generally and how easy it was to get from one place to another using public mass transit. They were literally taken aback when their other grandmother, speaking to them via Skype video - a wonder in itself - asked if the water was safe to drink! They proudly informed her that not only was the tap water safe to drink but that water in the public fountains - unless specifically desigated "non potable" - was also safe to drink.
Changing - and opening - one mind at a time is a tedious process, to be sure, but it is a small step forward.

[Seedersandleechers]

29. good for you

I'm going to re-locate to the UK in april and I can't wait. I realize its not perfect there but I'm not happy here.

[OnlinePoker]

30. Basic health care should be available for all

In BC, the health minister just announced this week that he wants every British Columbian who wants a family doctor to have one by 2015. It took my wife 4 years to find one when we moved here 7 years ago and my brother in Surrey has been looking for one for over 5 years, relying on walk in clinics for his health care. In Victoria, population 330k, we have just dropped to 6 dermatologists and that is dropping to 2 in a year and a half. I will be waiting 2 to 3 months to get a cortizone injection under x-ray because there is only one radiologist in the region that does the procedure. The biggest reason is money. You can't force someone to stay in an area to practice. They see someone in the States or other provinces earning more...they go. BC is spending over 40% of the provincial budget on health care and the system is still buckling under the twin pressures of an increasing and an aging population. Our wait lists for some procedures are dropping, but it's still scary when you're facing cancer and have to wait almost 7 months to get treatment as happened with my brother in Surrey.

[Xipe Totec]

31. K&R nt

[Greybnk48]

33. Sound like the gynie was catapulting the propaganda.

7 hours, LOL.

In the past I've stood in line in Atlantic City, NJ for 4.5 hours for an unemployment check (on New years Eve day and I was 8 months pregnant)! I'd sure as hell wait 7 hours for free medical care as opposed to nothing.

[Festivito]

36. Republicans might read this an you should convert pound to dollars for them.

That's zero pounds. That would be, let's see, ..., yup, zero dollars.

[area51]

37. kick. (n/t)