Do you want to have to win a lottery to see the doctor?

[ozoneranger]

The National Post reports on how some Canadian doctors have held lotteries to determine which patients to eliminate from their practices, while other doctors held lotteries to decide who they'll accept. By shedding some patients doctors hope to avoid imposing a 5-minute appointment assembly line on the rest of their patients. Similarly, restricting new patients through a lottery keeps patient loads manageable.

Both lotteries reflect the severe shortage of primary doctors in Canada -- yet another example of medical personnel shortages (and surpluses) that tend to crop up under nationalized single-payer health care systems. (Last year it was a nurse shortage and hospital consultant glut in the U.K.)

After being kicked out of her doctor's practice, one patient was forced to drive 18 kilometers to the next town to find a doctor.

More~~~

http://www.statehousecall.org/canadian-doctors-hold-lotteries-to-decide-who-gets-access-to-care

[loriangel14, RN]

The National Post is full of it. I can't believe people fall for this garbage.

[Katie82, RN]

I have developed chronic headaches listening to this debate. My prediction that Americans would not stand for any form of socialized medicine is proving true. upsets me is the frenzy into which the media has whipped the general population. If only we could channel this misspent energy into something productive. I have been monitoring both sides of this issue in the hopes that someone out there is taking a rational middle of the road approach, but I can't find it. One side sounds as ridiculous as the other. What most people are not considering is that this bill is currently in Committee, it has not even been released for a vote. And even if it were to pass tomorrow, it would require years of blood, sweat and tears to implement. I have done as much research on the bill as it exists today and there are some points I like and some I don't. One thing I do know for sure - no one is going to pull the plug on Granny, and yes, even poor folks will have to pay for their healthcare......

[elkpark]

Oh, goodie, another scary article by a blogger attached to a conservative think tank. He's totally changed my mind about healthcare reform!!

[nicurn001]

Funny thing about most of these scary stories , is the thing described already happens in the healthcare system we have . When my employer changes insurance it sometimes becomes necessary to look for another physician and then you go through the lotery of trying to find someone who is accepting patients with your insurance ,this can happen annually . Once you have a PCP in the UK , you do not have to face the possibility of loosing them and can be safe in the knowledge that the relationship you build with them will be ongoing .

[Circejane]

I agree with the above poster. The US already has a severe shortage of primary care physicians under the current system, and it is forecast to worsen. Many current internists and family practice docs are getting out of the field. One of the biggest reasons that they cite is the near-impossible situation that current insurance rules and regs put them in.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/01/05/edsa0105.htm

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/jan-june09/doctors_01-06.html

DR. KATE ATKINSON: I spend more time doing paperwork and less time talking to patients. And every time there's a problem, the solution is to generate another form or another hurdle that the doctors need to go through.

If you come to me and you have stomach pains, what medicine I can put you on depends upon your insurance company. I wasn't trained to say, "What's your insurance company before making a treatment decision?" And now I have to.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

Here is one way to reform the Health Care system.

1. Any employer can purchase care through Medicare.

2. All Employers could purchase Medical Care from a NONPROFIT BC/BS through the federal plan at the federal employer rate. Individuals pay the employee share of premiums with the rest picked up by employers and those who are below 300% of poverty and self employed or work for a true small business of receive a tax payer subsidy.

(Under option 2 Employer cost would be 600/month for FAMILY coverage. Individuals would pay about 200/month.) The self employed above 300% of poverty would pay about 8000/year vs the 12000 they pay today.)

Really that is all that needs to be discussed.

[CRNA2007]

how about everyone pay their fair share and the welfare recipients and numerous other free loaders in this country find a job and contribute something worthwhile to this country other than increased taxes on everyone else.

Here is one way to reform the Health Care system.

1. Any employer can purchase care through Medicare.

2. All Employers could purchase Medical Care from a NONPROFIT BC/BS through the federal plan at the federal employer rate. Individuals pay the employee share of premiums with the rest picked up by employers and those who are below 300% and self employed or work for a true small business of poverty receive a tax payer subsidy.

(Under option 2 Employer cost would be 600/month for FAMILY coverage. Individuals would pay about 200/month.) The self employed above 300% of poverty would pay about 8000/year vs the 12000 they pay today.)

Really that is all that needs to be discussed.

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

how about everyone pay their fair share and the welfare recipients and numerous other free loaders in this country find a job and contribute something worthwhile to this country other than increased taxes on everyone else.

in your post you sound suspiciously like an economic royalist:

here and now i want to make myself clear about those who disparage their fellow citizens on the relief rolls. they say that those on relief are not merely jobless—that they are worthless. their solution for the relief problem is to end relief—to purge the rolls by starvation. to use the language of the stock broker, our needy unemployed would be cared for when, as, and if some fairy godmother should happen on the scene.

you and i will continue to refuse to accept that estimate of our unemployed fellow americans. your government is still on the same side of the street with the good samaritan and not with those who pass by on the other side.

http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3307

in not one word of my post was there a mention of increasing taxes.....(although i can definitely make the argument that tax based systems are both cheaper and more efficient...)

when 40% of american workers are below 200% of poverty for income that is hardly freeloading. i would venture to guess that most of those workers have a much more dangerous and physically taxing work environment than most posters on this board.

taking the high ground as usual a review of core nursing values is in order:

core nursing values essential to baccalaureate education include human dignity, integrity, autonomy, altruism, and social justice.

as an apn you are held to a higher standard of thinking and behavior.

(the full pdf is available....i am not going to do the homework on your behalf...)

[HM2VikingRN, RN]

FDR argued:

An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men." Liberty requires opportunity to make a living-a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/speeches/detail/3305

[CRNA2007]

nope, just someone trying of paying for a bunch of free loaders. of course the left doesn't worry about taxes since they don't pay theirs to begin with.

in your post you sound suspiciously like an economic royalist:

[Circejane]

Could you please explain why you believe that the left doesn't pay taxes?