Text 26997, 67 rader
Skriven 2009-01-30 14:33:04 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
  Kommentar till text 26983 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Health Care
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Bob Ackley wrote to Robert Bashe on Thursday January 29 2009 at 04:17:

LL>>> Technology-wise, the USA may have the best health care in the world.

RB>> But have you ever seen how helpless a US doctor is without his/her
RB>> electronic equipment? I've had that doubtful "pleasure".

BA> Some of them do quite well.

BA> I've learned a lot from the fellow that runs the Shenandoah Animal
BA> Hospital south of here.  He has a LOT of very nice equipment down
BA> there that one doesn't find in most animal hospitals - and he picked
BA> most of it up dirt cheap on eBay.  And he's a darn good veterinarian
BA> to boot (and reasonably priced).

Originally I was writing about MDs for humans, with whom I've had more, and
more unpleasant experience (I cared for my parents over a period of four weeks
- two weeks in Florida, two in Ohio - just before the death of my father and a
few months before my mother died). That was in the States (Bradenton, Florida
and Cincinnati, Ohio) and I was NOT impressed with either the knowledge or the
quality of care - all the more so by the greed (payment is settled first,
_then_ you get treated - maybe). The medical insurance question always came
first and "what can I do for you" last.

Nowhere else have I EVER seen signs in a doctor's office that payment for the
treatment MUST be made before leaving the office! When I took my parents to
such a practice - they insisted on it - my blood boiled. Possibly the
Hippocratic Oath doesn't apply in the States.

Perhaps I should mention that my parents were then in an "asisted living"
facility, where my experience - gained by living in one together with my
parents over a two-week period - indicates that the profit is MUCH more
important than the welfare of the persons/patients. I can still remember the
bitter argument I had with one "nurse" who, when asked to dress my fathers'
wounds (circulation problems that finally led to gangrene), spent more time
worrying about the payment than asking me exactly what was necessary - and did
not even glance at my father, who was present during the process. In the end, I
dressed his wounds myself and probably did a better job of it than this
"professional".

The fact that his medical insurance did NOT include the expensive and
badly-needed dressings (gauze, pads, tape and the like) also did NOT impress me
with the system. Such things are reimbursed without question in Germany (both
government and private insurance).

I'm still very bitter and very negative about American health care because of
my own personal experience.

But let me get my adrenalin level down a bit and say that my only experience
with vets has been in Canada (Montreal), where we had a kitten with an eye
problem (a hair root was growing in the reverse side of the eyeball and
covering the front side of the eye with hair - a birth defect). The root was
removed surgically, and although the procedure wasn't cheap (not prohibitively
expensive either), the cat then lived with us for the next 10 years before
dying of cancer. I was satisfied with the vet there, and have no problems with
those here either (we have had a "house vet" for the cats for the last 20 years
or so - naturally changing cats, as two have meanwhile died). Our "house vet"
appears reasonabally well equipped and knowledgeable, but nothing to compare
with the vet practices I see on TV, that look like miniature human hospitals
with all the trimmings (and are presumably equally expensive). However, our
cats seem to do OK with the vet we have. Hard to say whether they'd do better
elsewhere, since I have no comparison.

Cheers, Bob

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