I saw this comment the other day. It is from a well paid professional whom I've read comments from for years.
I think it offers a valuable and unique insight into what is going on in the medical industry, and especially regarding "free" healthcare in other countries.
"DoctorOfLove 2 days ago editedOk, on the topic of US health insurance.
1. I have a friend who runs (actually owns, with others) about 20 ERs. Yes, many ERs are actually outsourced. Texas and Florida.
2. So we get drunk (?) and discuss the state of the health world (with his partner, also an ER doc who was a marine in Vietnam - not medical then, his trip to the marines involved post high school plea bargains - has funny stories about Colt dudes from Hartford showing up to fix the gun - me being from Hartford, more or less).
3. They also run all international travel claims for AIG (or whoever now, this was just before AIG sh*t the bed in 2008).
4. As an aside, they tell me to tell everyone to get travel health insurance (cheap, since most people who travel are healthy, and non-US health care is an absolutely f*cking sh*t show).
So, appeal to authority completed, hence:
1. The US dominates worldwide medical practice. All worldwide medical education is based entirely on US standards. All practice is. Dear God for everyone else with DEI now.
2. Thus the basic level of medical practice is more or less the same throughout the world. You can have a convo with a thoracic surgeon in Moscow pretty much mano a mano.
3. All healthcare is rationed. All of it. All of it. Outside of the US, it is rationed by time. Non-US healthcare systems are grossly underfunded, by US standards. Simple sh*t like surgery kits. Bandages. If you are not dying in the ER, your surgery or whatever will be scheduled a year from now. Ask the Canadians. And sometimes even if you are dying in the ER.
4. Time versus money. The US is entirely money rationed. So if you have it, you get treated chop chop. The US insurance industry is the hander out of the money for the rest of us. In the US, we have MRIs and CAT scanners in veterinarian offices. Literally. In Rome, they have six. Our dogs have better access to technology than Romans.
5. Try to get any time significant surgery done anywhere in the world other than the US. Any Canadians want to pipe up?
6. Every single person outside the US, every f*cking one, who has any money, politicians, tech dudes, etc., has all their medical requirements handled in the US. 100%. Russians whose names start with "P". The deal is with the State Department is the US doesn't mention it. Probably Mr. Assad has had his tonsils out at Duke. I'm betting Pootie Pooh knows the skyline of Baltimore.
NO ONE who can pay to avoid non-US medical facilities uses non-US medical facilities.
7. Their Miami hospital handles every single rich person south of the Rio. They say medical procedures are routinely paid in cash. Hundreds of hundreds. Cash. You have to wash off the coke.
So why is US healthcare more expensive? Because it is more expensive. Because it is money rationed. Why is the rest of world's healthcare cheaper? Because it is grossly underfunded, and thus is time rationed. Because it is cheap dog sh*t. There are no free lunches.
So yeah, Obamacare, utter incompetent crap.
Engineering Constraints. Gravity is a relentless b(tch. No free lunches. The other worldwide healthcare systems are cheap precisely because they are cheap. Murricans are used to getting stuff fixed now, and figuring out who is paying later.
/my friends have absolutely no use for radiologists. Just sayin.
//their goal is heartbeat. They say "you get to my ER with a heartbeat, I will get you in ICU with a heartbeat. Brainwave?, yeah not included".
///Why you get travel insurance. They know every head of the hospital in the capital city of every sh*thole in the world. By first name. Thus they know whether Doc in said sh*thole can handle an appendectomy in a reasonable amount of time. If not, medical Gulfstream to Miami.
////Oh, and the comparative statistics? Utter, complete, total propaganda. What else is new? You actually believe the Propaganda worker's stats?
/////The entire f*cking rest of the world relies on the US taxpayer for everything.
/////My cancer ridden dying dog got an MRI/Cat scan. Three days after I asked for it. Weeks (months?) faster than your standard Canadian. Canadian Human. Hell, my dog's lung cancer was handled more thoroughly and faster than any human in Canada.
//////Also, capital cities. Even in the UK and France. Don't get sick in Manchester or Lyon. Unless you have travel insurance. My friends tell me only the Japs have more or less geographically even healthcare.
/loved that f*cking dog. Cancer meds, cat scans, damn straight. That dog was a MURRICAN. I was giving the dog shots weekly. Kept him alive for 9 months past the deadline. That's 63 months in human months. And his ASPCA insurance covered 80%. Expired sleeping on my feet while I worked.
As the old NASCAR saying goes: "Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?"
Do any one of you here believe in free lunches? Or the tooth fairy?
.
.
.
Link to original comment.
Thanks for posting