OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

The scandal that is the British hospital system.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/09/socialized_medicine_anyone.html

Babsan

No not me ,left that system for America and here the loons want it.Good Luck!

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

Woman next door got a nice shock yesterday with their medical coverage. Family of four, same covrage for the last 7 years, every year it went up about $25.00 and she bitched and bitched. So she voted for Obama hoping those rates would come down, well this years monthly charge didn't go up he normal $25.00 it went up $109 a month. I had warned her and I said just wait until next year, you'll be wishing for that $109.

bahmer

If this does go through congress will here the biggest uproar in years after the new premiums hit the fans. I bet that any congressman that promises to get rid of this monster will be elected and those that want to keep this joke could very well be ousted.

OldSchool Loc: Moving to the Red State of Utah soon!

That is the ONE AND ONLY reason why Obungler and the Dimowits are trying to delay implementation as much as possible before the 2014 elections. Typical dirty left-wing politics.

rcksha

Why would they care? Don't they and their staffs get exempted or reimbursed for the premiums anyway? The public is too apathetic to remove them rom office. Shame on us.
Maybe the lack of services, time to get an appointment and quality of care after many skilled physicians quit will have more impact.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

She was almost in tears but as she said she was warned, so I said now you why I don't care if they shut the gov't down to get rid of this, where will be millions in the same boat.

mmccarty12 Loc: Zionsville, Indiana

I am a veteran of the United States Navy. As an honorably discharged veteran, I am allowed to partake of the VA Medical System. This gives me several advantages that are much to my benefit. And before I go on, I want you to know that I look at VAM System to be much like socialized medical care. I have many complaints about the system.

1) Appointment times to see primary care physicians
While not hard to get if you are willing to wait a month or two, are almost impossible to get in an emergency situation
2) Long waits past appointment times
A normal wait, depending on the clinic can be 0-15 minutes past the appoint time, to the other day when I waited over 2 hours past the appointment time to see the doctor
3) When I need to get in to see a doctor earlier than I am able to make an appointment, I do not get to see a doctor
At the VA, when you have an immediate concern, you go to your clinic where your doctor is when you have an appointment, you will see a PA, but you will never see the doctor. Once the PA has looked you over, you are told to sit in the waiting room until the PA can get with the doctor to discuss your problem. If the doctor is not immediately available, the PA will of course move to the next patient in line. So you have to wait until the free time of the doctor and the PA coincide, and hope it is not while they are at lunch.
4) Some clinics are able to get you in and out fast, which is nice. X-ray is an example of this. They run at least one team of x-ray technicians and readers 24/7. My longest wait for x-ray has been 20 minutes.
5) The ER is consistently busy or backed up
The ER has only 10 beds, the one to which I go. In the overnight shifts there is only one doctor available and he is busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. Thankfully for me, I get in almost immediately because when I go it is because of heart problems.
6) Doctors do not seem to talk to one another, nor do the doctors appear to read the evaluation sheets the nurses complete, nor do the doctors seem to read your previous charts before coming to see you.
I feel my time is wasted, as well as the doctors', telling the doctor the same thing I told the nurse which is the same thing I told the person taking my vitals which is the same thing I told the person at the ER desk when I came in, etc.
7) There is rarely any follow up when a doctor says they will call and follow up. I am waiting for the doctor to call me so that it is at his/her convenience, but I never receive the call back, and am told I should have called back. In those cases, I have told them I have and played phone tag with them and so there never was follow up.

There is more, but I will stop there because I know by now you are asking what is the point of my post.
My point is this, the VAM System is a single payer system controlled by the government and by bureaucrats. A doctor who is not seeing enough patients in the time allotted to him/her in a day is not doing his/her job, regardless of the fact that they are overbooked and understaffed. Each doctor to whom I have complained about the long wait times after appointment times have all said the same thing. They are told to schedule in their clinics X number of patients and to see X number of patients. Each doctor wants to spend as much time as necessary with each patient, but the system is not designed for that. It is designed to move people in and out fast and get done what is essential, but allow the doctor the time to evaluate or consider everything.

Can a doctor, who is considered a primary care doctor, really take care of a patient when seeing them once every three or four months? Not even. How distracted is a doctor, when he is with one patient, but thinking about the one previous and the next and so forth? How effective is a doctor that has to continually think about moving on to the next patient so s/he hits his/her quota for the day?

Now, while I do believe the VAM System could use a lot of improvement overall, I do believe it to be a good system in spite of those flaws.

Here is the problem with ObamaCare:
They have a good groundwork laid in the VAM System for a one-payer socialized medical system. It does need improving and could benefit all much by making those improvements.
They are not basing the new system on the VAM System at all. They are completely ignoring that system.

All of the above is beside the point that we do not need a government-funded, government controlled medical system with bureaucrats getting in the way of treating people. But it is definitely something about which to think.

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

I also am allowed VA benefits but after just two times there I decided private medical was a better option even though I have to pay out of pocket. First appointment, which was scheduled three months prior was at 10 am, finally got in at 2:25. Second time scheduled at 8:00 in at 11:20. OK great if you have nothing else to do but if you work expect to miss the day.

On a pay for plan I wait on average 1 hour and Isee the doctor almost twice as long. They even check past problems to make sure it hasn't pop back up. I have high blood sugar and they switched my meds so now not only are they lower but I'm able to eat many more foods. VA had me on one of the cheapest meds going and it did little.

mmccarty12 Loc: Zionsville, Indiana

Part of the problem that will not be resolved because of the care of the doctors at my VA hospital, they spend as much time with me as necessary. Just because they are told they have 10 minutes, or whatever it is per patient, does not mean that is all the patient gets. I have had to wait for a private practice doctor for the same amount of time in some cases and did have to pay out of pocket. I can bitch about the system, but if a private doctor is not willing to respect my time while his/her expectation is for me to respect theirs, I am willing to sacrifice my time to save the money. Besides, I am salaried, I get paid no matter what, with no requirement to work the time off. I do not like to wait, but am willing for the monetary savings.

Dr. Know

I used to have a practice and saw patients on time therefore, I could not have a "volume" practice. Being Board Certified in IM and Geriatrics, older patients gravitated to me. It is impossible to see the elderly who have multiple problems, multiple meds, and multiple complaints and still afford to have a practice. By trying to do a good job with the patients, I had to take money out of my own pocket to keep it afloat. I closed my practice before going broke. Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement is so inadequate for what they require. Primary Care Physicians are vastly underpaid while specialists and surgeons are vastly overpaid.
The ACA(Obamacare) will only make things worse. Legislators only read the summary of laws and not the details buried in the beaurocratic and legalese of the law.
Recently, the legislators discovered, buried in the details of the law they passed, was a provision that legislators and their staff would be covered by the ACA. They immediately passed an exemption for themselves and their staff--how's that for Democracy!
If you want real honest laws, add an amendment to the Constitution that "Congress shall not pass any legislation that affects the public that does not equally apply to Congress and its staff, the Executive and its staff, and the Judiciary and its staff". That would be the right thing to do and the improper benefits these guys get would dry up.

Babsan

How true and most Americans are oblivious of what goes on

Schuler Loc: Santa Fe NM

why does medical and hospital care cost so much?? heh-heh-heh-

because the doctors and administrators nurses etc. are either paid too much--or and this is so simple that even the feeble minded American public can grasp it--doctors and hospitals - ARE OVERCHARGING FOR EVERYTHING!
socialized medicine is working quite well in the rest of the industrialized nations--ask a Canadian if he/she would trade theirs for ours--ask a Dane what they think of our medical system--check out France's-number one rated medical system on the planet!!--gonna be a big surprise for most of the 'naysayers'!!

Babsan

You ask them WHY they come to the States for their care.Go to the border towns and then you will get an idea how great the socialized medicine is

bmac32 Loc: West Florida

What's the big surprise with the #1 French medical, it's going broke, which is no surprise,