|
Tuesday, 05 September 2006 17:57 |
 | | Mark West |
One of the great marvels of the modern world is that European nations are capable of providing health care for all their citizens.
The United States, of course, cannot do so. We are told that it would cost too much, that it would make American businesses noncompetitive in the world marketplace, and that the government is incapable of providing services efficiently.
How
the Europeans manage, then, is one of those grand mysteries that we
must simply accept as so; like the bumble bee, who flies despite the
ample scientific evidence suggesting it is not possible, perhaps
European leaders are as ill-versed in economics as the bumblebee in
physics.
Conservative
commentators will regale us with tales of how poorly the health care
works in other countries, as it is rationed. But I suspect that the
people who complain that they have not received their own elective
surgery and a timely fashion in other countries are the same sorts of
people who clog U.S. courts with lawsuits against their doctors.
Of course, when
the service is provided for free, it must be rationed; and that means
that the sorts of people who are constantly in the doctorës office for
elective matters will be disappointed. Rush Limbaughës "back pain,"
for example, would perhaps go untreated in any system involving
publicly provided medicine, and that oxycodone would be saved for
people who actually needed it. Viagra treatments would be withheld for
those with actual dysfunctions, rather than being pimped on television
as a date enhancing drug for the Geritol set.
But it seems
certain to me that the inability of a few to receive the elective
surgeries they might want is more than balanced by the ability of the
many to receive the health care they need.
And that health
care is good indeed. I have always thought that a good indicator of
where the best health care was to be had could be found by watching for
where third world dictators sought health care. France seems to be the
current winner, with Italy and the United States somewhere behind.
In France,
emergency medicine is provided at little or no cost, even in the
smallest hamlets, to whoever needs it. We discovered this once when
touring, when a member of our group fell and cut her head. Once we
figured out where her house and office were, the local doctor stitched
her up, filled out a form, gave her some medicine and sent her on her
way. The lengthy delay for interrogation concerning insurance matters
that seems to be a staple of U.S. emergency room procedure was
mercifully absent.
Another time,
when we were traveling in Italy, a member of our group fainted. It was
a hot day, and she hadnët been eating properly, but a passerby saw her
tumble to the ground and alerted the local medic. Within a couple of
minutes, an ambulance appeared, and our friend was taken to the
hospital for an MRI ÇƒÏ just to be sure that there wasnët anything
alarming going on. And, just to be sure, she was encouraged to spend
the night.
Yes, they knew she was a tourist; and no, there was no charge.
Such are the benefits of visiting a civilized nation.
We could have
such benefits here, couldnët we? Or are we willing to say that the 45
million uninsured Americans donët deserve it because theyëre lazy? Or
are we willing to admit that the Europeans can do something that we
canët?
Among world
health organizations, there is one so efficient that it delivers 98
percent of the money it receives to patients, compared to the 70
percent of the U.S. insurance industry. This system is studied and
emulated by other industrial nations, and it is a single-payer program
under the control of a government ÇƒÓ precisely the sort of plan that
Republicans and the health-care industry say canët work.
Itës Medicare ǃÓ
right here in the U.S., run by the U.S. government, provides
fantastically efficient single-payer health insurance. Medicare is so
efficient that it is studied by other nations, and emulated by them.
It isnët that we
canët do single-payer in the U.S. Itës that we wonët, so long as major
candidates receive vast sums of money from the health insurance
industry, with Hilary Clinton currently the top
Congressional
fund-raiser from that odious source.
Democrats, on
this topic, are no better than Republicans. They have all bought the
ǃÚmanaged careë fantasies of the insurance industry that are really
little more than ǃÚprofits as usual;ë and, in return, they have accepted
immense campaign contributions.
And it is the American public that suffers as a result.
ï
Mark West is a professor at UNC Asheville.
|
