And if it were not for the US Naval Hospitals, my parents would have likely been bankrupted--and nearly were.
 
But here's the folly, Meir--the decision to disallow the physician whose daughter has DS came not from privatized insurance, but government.  I don't feel that's government's prerogative to look in their "crystal ball" and prognosticate that this child will be too much of a drain on the local economy.  What's the difference between this and a private insurer making this same decision?  At least with private insurance there is the possibility of peer review or other options for funding.  As I understand it, socialized medicine is WYSIWYG.  Maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen enough convincing evidence to the contrary.
 
In the US, the majority of adults of working age are ensured through group policies supported, in part, by their employer.  This system worked fairly well from WW2 up through the 1970s.  It's not working now because it's become a "sunk cost".  The actuarial tables which spread risk across a population are no longer valid as the population ages.  So, yes, the system is broken.  My concern is how we are going to pay (in the US) to fix it.  We simply don't have enough funds to pay for a quick fix, and as a bureaucrat I can assure you that the "government" is the least efficient arbiter of health care.
 
A quick fix simply isn't going to work.  We need to address the costs of a professional medical education (which the US military will gladly pay for, BTW, with a four year commitment).  Why not have a similar program strictly for physicians?  We'll help you with school costs if you agree to spend X years working in an underserved community.  What about family practitioners?  No one wants to make a commitment to a practice that pays a third or less than a specialty practice.  Again, incentivise this from the top down.  And why is the length of a medical education for a physician so long?  I'm sorry, but it can't take ten-plus years to make a doctor.
 
 

________________________________

From: Cerebral Palsy List on behalf of Meir Weiss
Sent: Tue 11/4/2008 9:50 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: Too Appalling for Words



 and I've been quiet too

You might think canada and medicare are as evil aas communism//socialism in
the 60's

 that is your american right to say.

All I can tell you

 thank G-d for warm hearted sympaathetic threesome my ot/pt/neuro team in
the early 60's


All that would have ? Bankrupted my parents... I figure


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