Posted by
Texas Twin on Sunday, June 28, 2009 6:12:32 PM
In England, patients wait months for hip replacement surgery, cancer treatment or cataract surgery. I would love to be a fly on then wall when a U.S. Congressman or Senator contacts a doctor and the doctor says, "I'll see you in eleven months. Since you're promoting a nationalized health agenda, I'm going to implement a waiting list now so people can get used to it, and you're first." Let's look closely at this scenario.
I wonder how eager members of Congress would be to implement a nationalized health system if they knew their families would be test driving this revamped health care system first. Wouldn't it be funny, as long as the situation isn't life-threatening, if physicians nationwide began to put policymakers on waiting lists for care.
Not to be morbid, but under a nationalized health care plan that required more rationing of care, would Senator Kennedy really be receiving treatement for his brain cancer, or would his care be rationed given his advanced age. Since he's a Kennedy and a Senator, he probably would get the care he needed. But the same would be true for the rest of us.
Many in Congress are promoting changes in our health system that would limit everyone's access to care, although no one in Congress would say that. They say the changes are necessary to cut costs.
Is there waste in the U.S. health care system? Absolutely, and I say we work with health care model we already have to address this issue by fixing administrative bottlenecks and inefficiencies. We can also look at reducing overtreatment that is an outgrowth of defensive medicine. Two months ago, I fainted and had to go to the ER. I received two MRI scans just to prove that my syncope was caused by a blood pressure drop, not a brain tumor or some othe abnormality. I didn't really need two scans, but I didn't object at the time. I probably should have said one scan would do the trick. In the future, I'll be more observent, especially since I still bear some of the costs for the scans.
However, the fact that I immediately had access to an MRI option is the distinction between what we have in the U.S. and what Candadians and British citizens must endure. If Congress continues to promote the idea of a nationalized health care system, that could only logically lead to the type of rationing that we see in Canada and England, I think physicians ought to rally in communities across the nation and say, "You First, Mr. Congressman."
I'll bet that stance motivates many policymakers to push the pause button.