Marking this!
The future of US Healthcare is bright indeed. We are less than 2 years away from the largest CF in global history.
Is it really that much better in the US? The family practice group I’ve been using for years in a southeastern city of 220,000 population has ended Saturday morning office hours. Twice in the past four weeks I’ve been critically ill on the weekend and told by my primary care practice weekend “hotline” to go to the emergency room of the local hospital. On one occasion it took me 8 hours to see a physicians assistant and have two diagnostic spinal taps (the first was botched). On the second weekend visit it took six hours to see a physician’s assistant and receive a catheter. On neither occasion did I see a licensed physician although both hospital bills i received indicated there was one in attendance. The bill for each visit was $4,500.
I have an individual health insurance policy with a $10,000 annual deductible so there is no way I’d have gone to the ER if the pain and symptoms had not been so bad I could not wait for Monday morning at the primary care office.
While licensed physicians were not to be seen, there were several social workers and Spanish translators available had I needed their services. While waiting several hours to see the PA for treatment, my vitals were checked by a nurse about every 1 1/2 hours. Several times my wife went out to the main nursing station to asked when I would be seen. She said on each occasion there were several nurses and PA’s standing around and talking. There was none of the sense of urgency one sees on television hospital shows. I’d say on both occasions I spent less than 10 minutes with the PA who finally saw me, prescribed some drugs, and sent me home.
Ummm - I certainly don’t support Obamacare but have you tried to find a GP in the U.S after hours? Can’t be done. It’s either urgent care (which have limited hours also) or the ER.
thats called no healthcare. and it drove the price of healthcare up..
But at least it’s free!
/sarc
Don’t worry, there will be plenty of cash deals made in the middle of the night for emergency service. Then, of course, patient informants and narcs will soon follow to root out the evil physician exploiters. Similar scenarios will play out in other industries.
The upshot is that we will devolve into a society of snitches, just as our government masters have always wanted. That way, the peasants will be too busy minding their neighbor’s business rather than attacking the root cause of misery which is totalitarian government.