I’ve been reading the posts a lot recently (quiet night shifts) and there’s so much talk of layoffs, insurance, hospitals closing/revenue problems…
As someone British born and trained and now working in Canada I’m having a little trouble comprehending what’s going on in the US system…
…I’m being devil’s advocate here, so bear with me.
Is it right/ethical/proper/necessary – however you want to label it – to have a system that relies on the public being able to afford insurance to pay for healthcare – and then have a healthcare system that relies on those insurance companies paying bills and, ultimately, deciding who can have healthcare?
I understand that it’s all to do with ‘Consumer Choice’ and ‘Market Forces’, but does that make it ok to have large numbers of people who can’t get the treatment they need? Sure, there are waiting lists in Canada and Britain, but people are getting what they need pretty much when they need it and there are no layoffs. (As an aside, just looking at the internal job vacancies on the health authority intranet here there are almost 140 RN jobs waiting to be filled)
The world has more older and/or sicker people, needing more healthcare intervention – which costs more in premiums, but being ill they can’t work, so are forced to sell what they have worked hard for. Or take out huge loans they can never hope to pay off.
Recession comes around and the general population decide to cut back on insurance to save what little money they have. The result is that fewer people are treated, resulting in fewer payouts from insurance companies, so hospitals lose money and have to layoff nurses…
The drug companies and the insurance companies make billions, Doctors and Dentists become millionares…maybe they charge too much and that’s why insurance costs are so high…?
