Posted by Kati on April 09, 2004 at 15:21:05:
In Reply to: British National Health System posted by Henry Alken on April 04, 2004 at 13:16:55:
There's no wait for an MRI in the US for the 43 million people without insurance because they can't afford one. I dont know all the different statistics for people without health insurance and those with but recently I saw one for breast cancer. If you have breast cancer and no insurance your mortality rate is 40% higher than if you have insurance. I also saw the lines stretching around 2 blocs of people waiting for medical care at the only low income clinics left opened in LA. I understand that people have to wait 8 to 10 hours in emergency rooms of hospitals in big cities and the hospitals are hurting because they have to carry the cost of that care. In my own small town of Bellingham, WA the wait is 4 hours, with people bleeding and caughing with high fever packed in the waiting room (a public health catastrophy just waiting to happen) I had suffered from afib for years of being uninsured in the US when I got a teaching job in Canada and finally got tested and treated. I only had to pay $39 per month for the single payee system and there is no such thing as 20% co-pay we have here for medicare.The idea that medicare should be eliminated and replaced by a 100% copay is absurd. I find it even more objectionble to use my hard earned tax money to give HMO ceos the 15 million salary they are getting on average. Sure all medical systems have flaws and need constant improvements and vigilance. We should be particularly wary of people making huge profits at the expense of sick people. I am very grateful for the information and compassion of this web site. How about taking it a step further and looking into the fate of our fellow Americans with afib who dont have medical insurance? Kati