Claudio;

I am sorry to hear about your friend. I went through a similar episode.

To address this issue would take several books. A quick history of medical care in the United States.

1. When Irish Catholic Nuns came to the United States in large numbers (1845) one of the things they created was Medical Care for those not able to pay. Until that time in this country if you did not have money you received no care.


2. Up until about the late 1960’s doctors would actually make house calls.


3. Doctors took the lead in making his/her profession a source of profit and power by controlling the medical profession. Incompetence and incorporation were rewarded. This was the 1970-80's.


4. Hospitals began a program of buying every medical machine available to be “competitive”. An example of this was given not long ago when it was stated that Seattle, Washington has more MRI machines that the entire country of Canada! This occured from about the late 1980's and continues.


5. United States Hospital facilities and equipment are underutilized which requires a higher cost to paying customers.


6. Emergency Rooms are required to provide free medical care according to Federal Law. However, the Federal Government does not participate in reimbursement to the Hospitals.


7. Doctors kill about 100,000 patients according to a number of available reports. Add the number of malpractice cases, court cases, attorney fees and cost of medical insurance. Doctors must be rewarded for incompetence. After all they spent years in medical school, many have student loans to pay off, law suits and they are just palin "special".


8. A leading medical doctor in this country has stated, “85% of United States Physicians are incompetent”!


9. The Insurance Industry has control of our nations Medical Care and lobbies to control its hold on Health Care. It would be un American to think that a Real American would want to change any of this! Let the market control the cost and who needs quality? Basic facts of Capitalism. In many cases a clerk earning minimum wage who works for your insurance company will decide if you receive medical care on not. Your doctors word means nothing.

One thing I have stated is you should never be a victim. To be in that position puts you at fault. Like a friend of mine said, “Enjoy the Republican Health Care System. Do not get sick”!

Republicans do not want health care to change in this country. They fought Clinton for 8 years on this issue. Our health care system is fine and requires no changes. Providing health care to any degree to any of the 40 million or so uninsured United States citizens would not be the American thing to do. Let them pay cash. If they cannot pay let them suffer! The Health Care Industry is about profits - not medical care helping people!

Tom





>that's been a question I still don't know the answer.
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>SET DISAPPOINTMENT ON
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>Coming from a *third world* country, I've been always analysing and comparing the differences between a poor country and the almighty U.S.
>From a country like Brazil, people always see that country as the poor, resourceless, corrupted place to live, whereas the U.S. are seeing as the best place to live.
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>Living almost 1 year over here now, it amazes me how backwards the U.S. can be at some specific points. Healthcare is one.
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>In Brazil, I used to pay something around US$ 100,00 for health insurance for my wife, my daugther and I. With that, we've had access to the best hospitals down there. And we didn't have to pay a fee for every visit to the doctor, or stuff like that. It was everything paid by the insurance company, depending on the type of plan you have.
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>Now, I pay US$ 700,00 for the three of us. And if we have to go to the doctor or whaterver, we still have to pay more money. This is unbelievable.
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>Although the public hospitals in Brazil are far from being great, you can still receive treatment without paying anything (depending on the treatment, you'll have to wait for awhile, but still, it's free for the people).
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>Yesterday, a friend of mine (originally from Argentina) has suffered an accident and had to go to the hospital. He doesn't have health insurance. He stayed at the hospital for 5 or 6 hours, they've taken a few x-rays, and sent him back home. Well, actually before sending him back to home, while he was still drowsy from the drugs they gave them, and still feeling a lot of pain, they gave him the bill: US$ 10.000,00.
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>Serious, what the hell is that??? 10 thousand for a couple of hours of waiting and a few x-rays???? This is stupid. And how can a poor guy pay such bill??
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>That makes me wonder:
>How come an almighty country like this cannot provide its people with healthcare for those who cannot afford health insurance? I always hear a bunch of hype about human rights and blahblahblah... so, if a poor guy suffer an accident and has to stay some days at the hospital, he'll rather wanna die instead of being kept live, since he's unlikely to be able to pay the bill. I can't believe there's nothing in the human rights to prevent that... that's ruthless.
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>And why on Earth health insurance is so expensive over here?
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>SET DISAPPOINTMENT OFF