posted
If so could you please enlighten us Americans on your health care system? Is it similiar to John Stossel's 20/20 segment? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8cDxLNRkE
Thanks!
Posts: 305 | From NJ | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Is it of any help for me to describe MY healthcare in England, and my experience accompanying my pregnant friend to the doctor?
I'll add mine in case it's useful. I was visiting for ten days a few years ago in February, and had developed pneumonia almost immediately after the plane ride.
It was a strange and frightening pneumonia because I had no trace of it leaving home, and by day three every time I laughed, I'd cough and it felt like knives in my chest.
Okay, well I don't actually know what that would feel like, but if I did, I think they'd be close.
So Raych helped me get to a doc, and it was a very clean and pleasant building and waiting room. When asked to come inside, I wast taken directly to the doctor.
I asked Rachel, "What? No long wait alone on a high exam table in my paper dress?" Nope. They don't do that there.
The doctor was kind, caring, and very thorough in both my history and physical. He heard the sounds of pneumonia in my chest and gave me antibiotics right there and then.
Tylenol with Codeine is available in packs of 8 tablets in the pharmacy without a script- but the doc had given me some anyway.
The same was true when we went in later in the week for Rachel's prenatal visit. Clean, friendly, competent care.
I'm not saying it's all perfect there, but it has never been perfect here either. The latest thing is a cap on damages if a doc does harm.
In Texas you can never get more than 10k-no mater WHAT they do to you! One of the men who pushed for that was paralyzed by a docs error shortly afterward.
HE had major regrets and tried to get it overturned, to no avail. Politicians often think that the laws they make will never affect them.
What would fix EVERYTHING is if politicians had to live with each and every law they make.
By the way, Being on the East Coast, I truly believe that SOMEONE who is closely connected-loved ones- to the IDSA liars MUST have been bitten during the past several years. I'd *LOVE* to get my hands on the treatment THEY received.
I will say this: Our current American health care system is GREAT for the wealthy, but the profit margin has made it a desperate situation for those who get truly ill.
In America-following a catastrophic illness, Co-pays and deductables often eat up a family's entire resources, even their home. SO...if you live, you won't be allowed to keep living in your home.
Perhaps Canada needs to pay doctors more even if people have to pay higher taxes. It used to be top notch. Someone should look into where it went wrong and make it right again.
-------------------- "SEVEN LYME FACTS THAT COULD HAVE SAVED ME" VISIT ME AT:
13 years Lyme & Co.; Small Fiber Neuropathy; Myasthenia Gravis, Adrenal Insufficiency. On chemo for 2 1/2 years as experimental treatment for MG. Posts: 4480 | From Northeastern Connecticut | Registered: Jun 2005
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Jill E.
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9121
posted
There are many Canadian Lyme patients on Twitter.
Jill
-------------------- If laughter is the best medicine, why hasn't stand-up comedy cured me? Posts: 1773 | From San Diego | Registered: Apr 2006
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I live in Canada. I can't watch the video right now, but I can say that a lot of Canadians are getting kind of P.O'd at the way our system is getting portrayed right now.
Yeah- it has problems, but I can't even imagine living without public healthcare.
First-it's not totally government run (which kind of sucks). Seeing doctors is free, lab tests/blood tests/MRI's etc. are free.
You have to pay for prescriptions, dental appointments, physiotherapy, eye exams and any alternative therapies but most people get a seperate health insurance policy to help cover that.
OUr biggest problem right now is that we just don't have enough doctors. IMO, a big part of that is because we don't pay doctors enough. They can go to the US and make much more money.
Our doctors (in Alberta)get paid by service- so not by the number of patients they have/see, but by each service they preform. But then some doctors end up ordering needless tests, to get more money.
Other provinces have tried paying by # of patients, but then doctor's just take on only healthy patients.
IMO, the best solution is one they are trying in Quebec- they pay doctors a base salary, in exchange for a lower fee per service.
And we pay the bearuocrats (Sp) too much. If we paid them less, and doctors more, it would be much better.
BUT- wealth (or lack thereof) does not have any impact on your healthcare.
There are many programs to help if you cannot afford your presecriptions (although, I've never heard of anyone with that problem).
As for wait times...I have to wait 4-5 months to see a neurologist, but I also look healthy enough the doctor wasn't even sure I needed to see one.
If it looks serious, you get in right away. My friend's Mom had a lump found on a mammogram, and a week later, she had seen an oncologist, and had a lumpectomy.
My biggest complaint- we are even farther behind the US in terms of Lyme knowledge and treatment. So most of us Canucks go to the US for treatment, and that isn't covered by out healthcare.
Posts: 503 | From Alberta, Canada | Registered: Jun 2009
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posted
Lymelearned, this has happened several times already, the lyme deniers just get diagnosed sooner and treated immediately and they assume/claim that is what happens to everyone. And they and their friends/relatives get longer treatment than they want us to have, and keep quiet about it.
Posts: 8430 | From Not available | Registered: Oct 2000
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LisaS
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 10581
posted
there is a lyme obituary right here on lymenet.
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