Ok here I go thinking again. But a couple nights ago I saw Sicko. Good movie. But it made me wonder why in countries that have free health care is there such a hard time with diagnosis and treatment of lyme still?
I thought part of the whole controversy was that drug companies wouldnt make money if we were all diagnosed with Lyme. But in countries with no insurance where the health care is free, there wouldnt be this problem?!
And on Canlyme.org I read about people coming here for treatment, why? I dont get it.
Posted by D Bergy (Member # 9984) on :
Health care is never free. It is just a matter of which pocket you take the money from.
Where health care appears to be free you are just taxed more to pay for it instead of paying for it in a more direct manner.
D Bergy
Posted by klutzo (Member # 5701) on :
I was very impressed by the movie, and it made some very good points. I wish it had been a bit more balanced though.
However, I ran a Fibro support group for ten years, and we often had visiting patients from Canada who had come here to get care, saying their "gatekeeper" doctors back in Canada had refused to allow them to see a Rheumatologist because "there are no treatments for Fibro, so it would be a waste". This is exactly the same kind of crap the HMO's pull in the USA.
Klutzo
Posted by chiz (Member # 10301) on :
Here in UK, Lyme is relatively rare (and underdiagnosed) so very few doctors have any experience of it. They all ask the advice of the microbiologist who runs the reference laboratory. She subscribes to the IDSA view and other doctors take her word for it and do not question it. End of story.
There are only 2 lyme literate doctors in UK and they are private. Paying for healthcare is a hard concept for us Brits who are used to free care at the point of access.
In some ways, a private system of healthcare should allow for more alternative views. Doctors here are very guideline driven and free thinking isn't encouraged IMO.
So the situation here is no better than in US - maybe worse. I choose to come 3000 miles across the Atlantic to see my son's lyme doctor.
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
Yep. Bad as the healthcare is, I can't imagine a government run healthcare being any better.
Insurance companies didn't used to play doctor. They paid for conservative care (meaning well researched and documented over a period of time). They never covered the high risk, cutting edge, experimental treatments. Problem was doctors defrauded them and so, the insurance companies hired medical teams of their own to monitor and oversee doctors. That evolved into the insurance driven medical care we receive today. Most doctors have to go along with it as most customers will only seek treatment that is covered by insurance. That is one mess.
The other mess is the profit driven drug industry. They do not establish price of medicines by the costs involved but rather by what the market will bear. The more painful or more terminal your illness, the more you will pay for relief.
I don't have the answers. When our economy goes belly up and none of us have anything, we will probably become a kinder, gentler, fairer, more honest, caring people.