Is healthcare a right or privilege?

Nurses Activism

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If it is a right, then we have some work to do. If a privelidge, you get what you can pay for, right? Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

So, what are you angry about, Marvin?

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Specializes in ER, ARNP, MSN, FNP-BC.
Someone else pays for your children's education, unless you choose to pay to put them in private school. Older people with no children in school are paying for another generations childrens education.

Why should parents expect someone to pay for their kids' schooling and education?

Because it is for the common good. JMHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

um, last time I checked, MY taxes paid for my childs education :idea:

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care, Cardiac, EMS.
um, last time I checked, MY taxes paid for my childs education :idea:

Sorry, nope.

Average cost of a public school education in the US is $11,500 per student per year - so unless your property tax bill school millage covers that - I don't think so. You are not personally paying for your child's education.

Of course, you can educate your child better for much less than the government can ... just like we can get a better retirement option than the Ponzi scheme that is Social Security (which you are not funding for yourself either, by the way) and much better health care options.

I can only think of one thing that has ever been done more efficiently by government intervention. It happened in places like Auschwitz, Treblinka, the gulags of Siberia, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib ...

Government is very efficient at taking away life and liberty. One might even say brutal. Everything else, not so much.

Yes the system needs to be fixed.

No, I don't want the morons who broke it in the first place fixing it, thank you very much.

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So, what are you angry about, Marvin?

Who is angry? LOL

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Specializes in PICU, NICU, L&D, Public Health, Hospice.

yes then...let's reform our system...let's not argue about right vs privilege and fix it.

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Specializes in LTC.

I agree Tewdles. I think the system needs reform. This arguing over whether it is a right or a privilege is really irrelevant

Reality is, currently health care is a commodity, just another product on the market. I've no respect for the opinion that "personal responsibility" solves all ills or that our health care deliver system should remain the same.

Furthermore, what I see on this thread (and in the forum at large) is an utter lack of respect for the service sector. Here's a reality check, the service sector is the backbone of this country, and those who work at McDonalds, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.. are not only worthy of our respect, but in a nation like ours, they are worthy of a decent wage, basic healthcare and a shot at the "American Dream". I maintain that not everyone can or wants to college for various reasons. Ultimately someone has to do the work of this country, and those people deserve proper compensation.

Comparing the United States to countries Haiti is like comparing apples and oranges. We are a developed, powerful nation that for too long has devoted it's resources to the highest bidder and ignored the plight of working class Americans. This isn't the jungle, we are not ruled by darwinism. This is a "civilized" (I use the term loosely) nation with certain rights and privileges.

Ultimately, the opinion that health care should be and remain a commodity to be sold on the market is not worthy of my time or consideration.

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Service sector?

The proper title is underclass. Except, in America, unlike the other industrial nations many here wish to emulate, people can move themselves between classes instead of being stuck in it.

While social democracy, which is what you are suggesting, has limited success it has not been any more successful then our capitlistic democracy.

People continue to point out that we are the richest nation and then want us to do what the other countries are doing. Has it escaped people that we are the richest nation because we don't do as the other nations do?

Plus, with few exceptions, the countries with universal healthcare are drowning. So called universal care has failed repeatedly, cost more than private care and resulted in tremendous demand it cannot keep up with. Even state run universal healthcare is not doing great and forget Medicare. France and England, arguably the countries with healthcare being held up as our example are adopting parts of OUR healthcare system to combat the overwhelming cost of universal healthcare. One only has to read the papers in these countries to see the massive failures of their systems.

Yet we MUST jump on universal healthcare?

What's that old saying? Oh yes... Don't throw the baby out with the bath water...

You don't fix a system that fails a minority with a system that fails the majority...

It's not a matter of respect. It's common sense.

There cannot even be true reform. What you propose requires an entire rewrite of the way we do things and what we consider our way of life and it will require giving up MUCH in the way of other things such as the military and all the other spending we do... Does anyone REALLY see that happening anytime soon?

I don't see it happening.

Ever.

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[color=#003d7c]median wait times for psychiatric treatment in canada drop to 16.8 weeks in 2009

release date:november 17, 2009 calgary, ab--canadians seeking psychiatric treatment are waiting less time in 2009 than they did in 2008, according to research on health care waiting times published by the fraser institute, one of canada's leading economic think-tanks.

the national median wait time for canadians seeking psychiatric treatment fell nearly two weeks, to 16.8 weeks in 2009 from 18.6 weeks in 2008. this decrease has led to the shortest total median wait time for psychiatric treatment ever measured by the fraser institute since the launch of its annual psychiatry waiting list survey in 2003.

"while canadians are facing shorter total waits for psychiatric services than they have over the past seven years, the delay for treatment in 2009 still far exceeds what physicians would consider clinically reasonable,"

calgary, ab--canadians seeking psychiatric treatment are waiting less time in 2009 than they did in 2008, according to research on health care waiting times published by the fraser institute, one of canada's leading economic think-tanks.

the national median wait time for canadians seeking psychiatric treatment fell nearly two weeks, to 16.8 weeks in 2009 from 18.6 weeks in 2008. this decrease has led to the shortest total median wait time for psychiatric treatment ever measured by the fraser institute since the launch of its annual psychiatry waiting list survey in 2003.

"while canadians are facing shorter total waits for psychiatric services than they have over the past seven years, the delay for treatment in 2009 still far exceeds what physicians would consider clinically reasonable," said nadeem esmail, fraser institute director of health system performance studies and author of the 19th annual edition of waiting your turn: hospital waiting lists in canada.

i wonder if our increasing number of people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder can wait that long for help...

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NHS dentists play as patients wait

Health service dentists have been forced to go on holiday or spend time on the golf course this month despite millions of patients being denied dental care.

Many have fulfilled their annual work quotas allotted by the National Health Service and have been turning patients away because they are not paid to do extra work. This is despite the fact that more than 7m people in Britain are unable to find an NHS dentist.

Patients have been told they must either pay privately or return in April when the new work year begins. People suffering from toothache have been advised to go to hospital.

Areas affected include Merseyside, Derbyshire, Birmingham and East Sussex. Eddie Crouch, secretary of the Birmingham local dental committee, estimates that up to a third of dentists in the West Midlands have run out of work or have had to reduce the number of NHS patients they treat. "Patients in pain have had to shop around to find a dentist that has not used up their quota," he said.

The British Dental Association fears that other dentists have been unable to meet their quotas and will be forced to pay back thousands of pounds to the NHS.

The health department says dentists should have managed their workload throughout the year.

Soo....

You can wait forever...

Or just pay privately...

Hmmm how bad does that broken tooth hurt?

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Specializes in Adult ICU.

oh boy, lookie here, this speaks for itself!

st. john's, n.l. -- newfoundland premier danny williams will undergo heart surgery later this week in the united states.

read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2510700#ixzz0exqzhwxu

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

According to this story, Williams could have had his operation elsewhere in Canada. The Newfoundland government routinely ships people who need heart transplants to Montreal and Toronto.

Newfoundland and Labrador is a poor province, and Williams is independently wealthy, so he can afford to leave the country for surgery (and pay for it privately).

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