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AFRICA FEST 2007 - AUGUST 11, 2007 at WARNER PARK

Join African Association of Madison, Inc. for $25 per year:Oct - Sept.

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I've been studying universal care for years, actually. They are reporting the same things in other countries. The problem with universal health care, as with all government programs, is controlling the spending. Just like with managed care programs and with drug coverage, the only way to limit spending is to control what is covered. With universal care, there may be access, but what's allowable will be limited. Now, we already have health care disparities in this country for poor people and people of color. What will happen when certain procedures and tests are unavailable through the universal program because costs are too high and must be controlled? The concept sounds good, but it will be very different in practice. The current medicaid program is not perfect, but it does allow recipients to be seen in a timely manner and gives them access to excellent care. I have read stories about 'universal care' in other countries...it is appalling. We don't want that here. The danger
 is that once we have it, we won't be able to go back. 

Private health care providers will become more costly and that level of care will be out of reach for most of us. Right now, if you have health insurance, you are able to receive a high level of care. Even if you're on Medicaid, depending on where you live, you can still receive that same level. With universal care, companies won't have to offer insurance, state governments won't have to offer health insurance, and everyone has equal access to a lower standard of care because there will be no incentives for progress and improvements because the profit-motive will be gone. Economics is the driving force behind health care in this country. Remove the ability to profit and you will remove any incentives to treat patients well and do all you can to make certain they don't die. High death rates are bad publicity.

Why do you think that the US has a lower birth rate than other countries? No, the care isn't better there, in the US doctors fight to save babies that other countries would simply let die and report as a stillbirth. It's cheaper. With universal care, it will become too expensive to send every premature infant to the neonatal ward...some of them won't get there and will die. In the Netherlands, they euthanize babies born with spina bifida. We don't do that here. It's cheaper to let them die. 

We'd better think long and hard about this.

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"In the days before volcanoes were invented, lava had to be hand carried down from the mountains and poured on the sleeping villagers.
This took a great deal of time." 

----- Original Message -----
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 8:01 am
Subject: Re: universal health care
To: [log in to unmask]


> *****************************************************************
> 
> AFRICA FEST 2007 - AUGUST 11, 2007 at WARNER PARK
> 
> Join African Association of Madison, Inc. for $25 per year:Oct - Sept.
> 
> Mail check to: AAM, PO Box 1016, Madison, WI 53701
> Phone: 608-258-0261 -- Email: [log in to unmask]
> Web: www.AfricanAssociation.org
> 
> *****************************************************************
> 
> Vera,
> 
> Is Canada the only model for universal health care? How about other  
> Western developed countries as examples.
> 
> Tru
> Quoting VERA R CROWELL <[log in to unmask]>:
> 
> > *****************************************************************
> >
> > AFRICA FEST 2007 - AUGUST 11, 2007 at WARNER PARK
> >
> > Join African Association of Madison, Inc. for $25 per year:Oct - Sept.
> >
> > Mail check to: AAM, PO Box 1016, Madison, WI 53701
> > Phone: 608-258-0261 -- Email: [log in to unmask]
> > Web: www.AfricanAssociation.org
> >
> > *****************************************************************
> >
> > http://www.cnehealth.org/pubs/health_care_in_canada.pdf
> >
> > "For example, in its 2001 annual survey involving more than 2,500   
> 
> > doctors in twelve different specialties, the Canadian think tank,   
> 
> > the Fraser Institute, found that, for patients requiring surgery,   
> 
> > the total average waiting time from the initial visit to the family  
>  
> > doctor through to surgery was sixteen weeks, a significant increase  
>  
> > over the last year of the study. In every category, physicians felt  
>  
> > waiting times had exceeded “clinically reasonable” delays (Gratzer,  
>  
> > 2002, pg 20). Canadians wait an average of 5 months for a cranial   
> 
> > MRI scan; Americans just 3 days (Bell, et al, 1998). Indeed, Canada  
>  
> > has fewer MRIs per capita than Iceland, Hungary, South Korea, and   
> 
> > the Czech Republic (Gratzer, 2002, pg 53). Unsurprisingly, many   
> > choose to fly south to the US for diagnosis and treatment."
> >
> > "Dozens of diagnostic and therapeutic products developed decades   
> > ago, in widespread use in other countries, are relatively   
> > unavailable to Canadians." "...The core requirement of the 1984 Act  
>  
> > is that hospital and physician services be 100 per cent publicly   
> > financed. But as health care becomes less focused on hospital and   
> 
> > physician care (together they comprise less than half of total   
> > health care expenditure in Canada) and more focused on community   
> > care and drugs (the latter now exceed physician costs), less and   
> > less healthcare treatment service is covered by medicare. Dental   
> > insurance, eye-care insurance, insurance for prescription drugs,   
> > ambulance services, medical devices, private health insurance   
> > covering the upgrading of hospital rooms and out of country   
> > insurance are all outside the scope of medicare.
> > For-profit clinics have sprung up across the country."
> >
> > Is this really what we want? 5 months for a cranial MRI?   
> > Ridiculous...and perhaps fatal in some cases.
> >
> > *** Send email to the list: [log in to unmask] ***
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> 
> 
> 
> "A candle loses nothing of its light by lighting another candle"
> 
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