Pitting Dr. Hyde, Dr. Hyde, Dr. Hyde?

[MerryMagdalen]

@Martin Hyde

In any case, as to your above statements, you need to realize why insurance exists. It exists to distribute risk. People agree with insurance plans paying out coverage to reattach fingers, because everyone in the insurance plan has willingly and voluntarily entered into said plan and is paying premium every month in order to distribute risk. Note that the better the coverage, the higher the cost of the plan. If someone did not believe that they needed help with their risks for cases of minor injury, they would opt for a plan with less coverage. Or with a larger deductible or et cetera.

Insurance does exist to distribute risk. And to a certain extent, people have voluntarily entered into a plan that best meets their needs. I’ll give you that.

However, in the real non-theoretical world that I live in, when I started working I got the choice of, I think, two insurance plans. Granted, I may have been able to get some sort of private insurance, but since most people in the US are conditioned to believe that insurance comes from the employer, I picked one. It’s pretty good. It won’t be there if I quit. It’s also free for me to use my employer’s insurance, since I’m single with no dependants. This would not be true if I took out private insurance. My…sunk costs? I can’t remember the term…are less using my employer’s insurance.

For people without health insurance…there are costs for having private health insurance. There are also costs, in their time in which they could have leisure, or a second job, or whatever, to learning about health insurance and health in general. Health in general is pretty easy, but I think finding out about private, portable health insurance takes some work. And I think it doesn’t become clear to many people that they need to invest in health insurance before they really need it. And then they show up at a hospital ER in bad shape. And most caregivers (and I am one) will try to do their best by that patient, in the non-theoretical world.

The system as it stands is screwed up. How to fix it, I’m not quite sure.

(I’m sure I’ll be ripped to shreds, but I felt like I needed to try to say it. Possibly ineffectively.)

[Zoe]

elucidator: Does it still work if you come right back?

Once you arrrive in Israel, you follow the instructions scribbled in pencil on the brown paper until you come to the cafe. You know the one. We’ll find you. And you’ll begin to learn that there is no going back.

Click. Click Click. Ting. Ding. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping…Click.

Have you noticed it’s getting harder and harder to set off alarms? [/hijack]

[wonky]

@Zoe

Our infant mortality rate is higher than that of South Korea. If you want to live longer than you are likely to in the States, go to Israel!

I read a few years ago that the US’s infant mortality rate was being driven up (I think only slightly) by the number of people in the US who will refuse abortion for babies that aren’t viable.

I don’t have time to do a search on that right now. I think the comparison was between the US and Canada.

[athelas]

@Zoe

I had always heard about those long lines in countries where there is socialized medicine too. In my experience they didn’t materialize. I was slightly injured in a minor accident in Paris (a very expensive city) and an ambulance was summoned. I was taken to a hospital. I waited no longer than five minutes or so before I saw a doctor who gave me a very careful examination. I was very satisfied with her professionalism. She gave me a tetanus shot and I went back to the hotel and was fine. Back in the States I received the bill. The ambulance, ER, shot and doctor bill total came to $20 Euros – at that time the equivalent of about $30 dollars. (Actually, the ambulance was a free service.)

The long lines referenced are long lines for specialists - highly trained doctors who provide services for the most seriously ill. There are plenty of emergency docs and GPs, but if you need an oncologist, you’d better learn how to twiddle thumbs.