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US health care question

Started by Monoriu, June 04, 2009, 09:14:29 PM

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Admiral Yi

Quote from: Sheilbh on August 21, 2009, 02:52:00 PM
Treating the dying costs less than hospice care, rather counter-intuitively.  At the minute it's $1.9 billion of Medicare's costs :)
But my president told me it's 80% of health spending. :huh:

Sheilbh

Quote from: Admiral Yi on August 21, 2009, 02:55:31 PM
Quote from: Sheilbh on August 21, 2009, 02:52:00 PM
Treating the dying costs less than hospice care, rather counter-intuitively.  At the minute it's $1.9 billion of Medicare's costs :)
But my president told me it's 80% of health spending. :huh:
Hospice care? :blink:
Let's bomb Russia!

Admiral Yi

Quote from: Sheilbh on August 21, 2009, 02:59:03 PM
Hospice care? :blink:
All inclusive.

QuoteI mean, the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health care bill out here.

Razgovory

Quote from: Berkut on August 21, 2009, 11:12:00 AM
It is expensive, but it is also generally very, very good compared to the stories I have heard from other places.

We are like 37th in the world.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html


I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

MadImmortalMan

#154
"Stability is destabilizing." --Hyman Minsky

"Complacency can be a self-denying prophecy."
"We have nothing to fear but lack of fear itself." --Larry Summers

Valmy

Quote from: Razgovory on August 21, 2009, 03:32:28 PM
Quote from: Berkut on August 21, 2009, 11:12:00 AM
It is expensive, but it is also generally very, very good compared to the stories I have heard from other places.

We are like 37th in the world.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html




That's it.  I am moving to Costa Rica.
Quote"This is a Russian warship. I propose you lay down arms and surrender to avoid bloodshed & unnecessary victims. Otherwise, you'll be bombed."

Zmiinyi defenders: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself."

Tonitrus

Quote from: Razgovory on August 21, 2009, 03:32:28 PM
Quote from: Berkut on August 21, 2009, 11:12:00 AM
It is expensive, but it is also generally very, very good compared to the stories I have heard from other places.

We are like 37th in the world.

http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
Quote
The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems was last produced in 2000, and the WHO no longer produces such a ranking table, because of the complexity of the task.

Almost 10 years old, and the makers of the study themselves realize that it's probably too complex an issue to measure accurately.

World Wars have been fought and won in 10 years.

Razgovory

It's the best I got.  Better then the anecdotes being tossed around.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Valmy on August 21, 2009, 11:28:31 AM
My favorite part is how doctors are rewarded with money if they ask you to take tests or proscribe pills...so naturally I am always getting pushed to take pills and tests.  I mean a chest x-ray?  For a cough?  Are you shitting me?

Anyway those are my anecdotes.  :P
I have been consistently given excellent health care.  :)

Unrelated to my care, I believe that RI has two of the three best hospitals for cardio care in the nation.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Iormlund

#159
Valmy, there are bad doctors everywhere, that has nothing to do with how you pay for your health care. It'll just make it cheaper. And you'll have long waiting lists. The less severe the problem, the longer they are. Over here, it can take a week to get a scanner* done while in the hospital. Three or so if you're out and marked as "preferential". Months if not. Or it can take a few minutes if things look bad enough, as it happened to me once when my fever shot up in the ER (I guess they had to rule out intestinal wall perforation).

For example on the bad doctor front, a month or so ago I had some tooth pain due to a hidden cavity. So I go to the on call GP at 3 AM. There's nobody else but me and the diagnosis is fairly obvious. But I have to tell him what to prescribe. He gave me the usual stuff, which I have to avoid (NSAIDs and some antibiotics) and I had to tell him he was wrong and what he should have given me instead.
Most doctors know less about my illness than I do. That's perfectly natural. And so I volunteer all the info when needed. But the guy could have at least asked or looked it up on hearing about my illnesses (especially since I had just told him I allergic to Aspirin as well). The dentist did ask me.

For the most part, however, I cannot complain. The best doctors invariably end up in the hospital I go to (it's the largest in Aragón). My specialist is one of two doctors working full-time on IBD cases in the region, so she does have a lot of experience.




*This varies a lot by procedure and place. Here colonoscopies take forever IIRC. Barium swallows, OTOH, have no waiting list at all - I've had them done less than 24h after asking for one.