Do you have any evidence at all that this was motivated by profit rather than a better understanding of the health effects of blood pressure over 115/75?
In Canada you’d be treated and then billed.
I dunno about BC, but I know around here the charges are pretty hefty; the last time I thought to look in the ER, the charge just for seeing a doctor - if you’re not a resident - was $395 or some such thing. I haven’t paid $395 for the services of doctors in my entire life. Well, except dentists.
Then you should become a doctor and barter your services for food, clothing, shelter and heat.
I wasn’t the one saying making a profit in healthcare was evil. That was someone else. All I’m saying is that if you work for a non-profit organization, that doesn’t mean you work for free. That’s true in medicine as well. As a matter of fact, my primary care physician works for a very large non-profit medical foundation. It has hundreds of doctors, of many different specialties, under its roof.
Here’s what they say about themselves:
“The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research and Education is a not-for-profit health care organization that is a pioneer in the multispecialty group practice of medicine.”
Believe me, based on what they charge, their doctors are not working for free.
Per this line of thinking, farming for profit is also criminal activity.
With only a few emergency situations, I can live longer without medical attention much longer than I can live without food. Most doctors invest just as much, if not more of their lives (education, money, etc.) as the typical farmer. Yet, somehow, doctors are assholes who don’t deserve to make a decent living while John Mellencamp does concerts for farmers?
Read my message just above this. Doctors can make a VERY good living while working for a non-profit foundation.
Not that I necessarily think all medicine should be non-profit. That’s a separate issue. But non-profit does not mean free labor.
I’d like to second the notion that suranyi writes above.
Removing profit from the system does not mean doctors work for free. Seriously. Just because something makes you reflexively angry doesn’t mean you understand it. Please, actually think about this before repeating such silly claims.
Once again, removing profit from the system does not mean doctors work for free. Do you actually think police work for free?
Of course, the important part of that article is “Doctors at West Middlesex University hospital in Hounslow will stabilise patients, then quote them on any further treatment.” For some of the examples given in this thread, the bee sting and broken limbs for example, stabilising them is pretty much the end of the treatment anyway.
I’d expect that to be the baseline in any western country.
A Swiss friend of mine broke her foot in Ireland (she had to be carried by her companions for two hours to the next transportation !). The hospital in Dublin wouldn’t accept any payment.
Don’t most countries with UHC (i.e., nearly all developed countries, and many others) have reciprocal agreements of some sort? Then they could bill the health care system in the person’s home country (alternatively, if they can assume that the number of your country’s patients I treat is going to roughly equal the number of my country’s patients your country is going to treat, they might just agree to write it all off to avoid the paperwork).
Of course, as ever the USA is the big exception and problem.
After a glance at my paycheck I’m inclined to say yes.
Within the EU, definitely. There is a little blue credit card sized card that you are recommended to take with you when in another EU country just to clear up any confusion over entitlement (and also for health authorities to bill each other). It has numbers to define which country you are from and other info. Mine stays in my wallet at all times, just in case.
I vaguely remember my dad breaking his arm up in Canada on vacation in 1972, and I do believe he mentioned something about them having a deal with the US that Canada and the US sort of book keeping swap the debts so money never actually changes hands between the 2 countries.
All I need to do is get to a NATO base and I can use my american military ID - there is some sort of reciprocity deal between NATO members. Not being totally nuts, I buy travel insurance and medical evac insurance =) My credit union tends to have decent deals on it, and I get it when I go in to buy euros.
Now I am using a computer and not the iPad it is easier to search for and post this link:
That’s the card I was talking about.