For all the perceived ills of socialized medicine, the comparison of the treatment received in India and Britain is completely apples and oranges. You are comparing what is the creme-de-le-creme of Indian hospitals that only the wealthiest of native Indians and white memsahibs will ever see the inside of, to a hospital open to all the citizens of the UK.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather wait for treatment than to be left to die on the street which is what 99% of Indians would face in the event of a major illness.
I agree.
Point is, the best out there costs less than the avg out there and it is better than the avg out here.
Why not allow the heat of a little competition get the avg out here to do just as well as the best out there?
I would disagree with you on the note that India’s private hospitals are restricted to elite and rich Indians. I come from a middle class family where both my parents combind income (the family’s income) is less than $300/month after taxes. Yet all through my chilhood me and my sister had access to good healthcare at private hospitals and clinics. So is the case for about 50-60% of Indians. Yes, the poor have to rely on poorly equipped, badly run govt. hospitals and non-existant rural healthcare centres.
I will not argue about Indian access since I am not familiar with the issue. But if, as An_Indian posted, the lack of access in India approaches 50%, it is still a non-viable system; at least for that 50%.
In many socialized medicine environments, however, you ARE left to die.
Our U.S. rural hospital is in a State bordering Canada and we get Canadian patients here that cannot get timely CT scans in a Canadian city where you can get tickets to a major league sporting event but cannot get a CT Scan without a 6 month wait. A friend asked me how long our CT Scan wait was (sometimes today, usually tomorrow but two or three days at the very most for non-emergencies and "as soon as this patient is off the table" for emergencies) because her Canadian mother had been told she could not get her ordered CT Scan in Canada until December. The question was asked in late summer.
In medicine, a 6 or 5 month wait for a CT Scan can be the difference between finding a curable cancer in time and finding a cancer that has already metastasized all over your body.
That does not qualify as "being left to die in the street". That qualifies as being left to die at home in a nice house in a First World country with great food and High Definition TV in a beautiful city but it still qualifies as "being left to die" ...........
Unless you use the brain God gave you and drive across the Canada-U.S. border to get your CT Scan without waiting in the U.S. and pay out of pocket for it.
Or unless you are a Canadian politician that sings the praises of Canadian socialized medicine but gets his medical care at Canadian Government hospitals that have no waiting times for Canadian politicians.
Canada has a Three Tier medical care system:
1. The average Canadian with brains that uses both the Canadian and the U.S. system and does just fine.......at a financial cost.
2. The Canadian politician that gets "no-wait" service at Canadian hospitals ..... for free.... because all Canadians are equal but some Canadians are more equal than others. They do just just fine also.
3. The really stupid Canadian that believes the socialized medicine party line, patriotically waits his turn for a CT Scan for 6 months and is then told that his Scan showed multiple metastatic nodules in the liver. He is now a dead man walking. But he got "free" care.
Then you have Cuba where medicine is "free" and has Option Number Two for Communist Party big shots and for foreigners with Euros or Dollars but Option One is out of the question for the average Cuban. The average Cuban is given a visit with a health care worker but no diagnostic technology and often not even medicines. Miami is dotted with drugstores with "We Can Ship Medicines to Your Relatives in Cuba" signs on their windows.
When my sister was still in Cuba in the 1980's when the Soviet Union was still alive and well and subsidizing Cuba, she once asked me to mail her some Fleischmann's yeast.
Why?
Her Cuban doctor had diagnosed a vaginal Candida infection, has recommended Fleischmann's yeast douches because no Cuban outside the Communist Party big shots could ever hope to get a tube of Monistat cream but the average Cuban could not even find Fleischmann's yeast in Cuba either.
But, hey! The medical care in Cuba was FREE!!!
A purely private system would provide fantastic care for some but no care for many.
A purely socialized system provides fantastic care for the political big shots and horrible care for many.
So, what is the solution and where can it be found?
Right here.
Whether we admitted or not, the U.S. system is a mix of free enterprise and socialized medicine.
That mix then allows quality care for those that can afford it and also allows quality care for low income patients that need a financial safety net.
In our rural county, if you cannot even pay your electric bill, you can still get your CT Scan at our publicly owned County hospital in a timely manner just as fast as the patient with gold plated insurance or the retired multi-millionaire.
The reimbursement the Hospital and I get from Medicaid is small but the study gets done.
In the U.S., the system is not perfect but the low income patients get "no wait" care at little or no cost.
That is almost as good as Canadian politicians get in Canada and almost as good as Communist Party big shots get in Cuba and much better than rich Canadians in major Canadian metropolitan areas get in Canada without crossing the U.S. border to get their CT Scans our U.S. clinics and hospitals.