Vermont already had a form of socialized medicine, I thought. I thought that Dr. Dean introduced some type of rationed health care.
Anyway, I have been waiting for an article on VT to mention the problem that the governor spoke about during his state of the state address, heroin and prescription medicine abuse.
I have a sister-in-law who still lives in VT and for the past five years has been talking about the rationed health care. Evidently, certain operations are only performed at certain hospitals two times a year and there is a limit on the number of patients who will be treated during one of those periods. For example, back surgery was done in June and in December and they only had 15 slots for the back surgery, my sister-in-law was number 16, so she had to wait until December.
So, you ask, where is this going. I’ll tell you. the doctors told my sister-in-law, don’t worry, we will keep you supplied with pain pills until your operation. They gave her oxy-contin. She had to tell them that she needed something milder because she had kids at home. But that is how the people of VT are getting addicted to prescription pain medicine, the doctors give it to them so that they can cope with the delayed treatment.
What you wrote about rationing certain operation in Vermont is not true. Not yet at least.
That is clearly the way that the health costs WILL be kept under control.