So all the horror stories about people waiting for years to have simple procedures done or being refused service because they were too old are just that.....stories? Of course all the English running to other countries to have medical treatment not offered or allowed are so much BS? Right.
@LaSalleAve im going to tell you a true story I experienced while in the Soviet Union in 1987......the home of socialized medicine. So my my ex wife is an attorney and they have continuing education requirements, in other words boondoggles. We went to Portugal and Acapulco among other places. Well as I said this one was to Russia. On the last leg of our trip flying from Baku to Leningrad the wife of a judge from Lake Charles started feeling sick. When we got to Leningrad she went to a hospital and was diagnosed with appendicitis and had it removed. Two days later we’re leaving to go home and she demanded to go to. The bus taking us to the airport goes to the hospital to pick her up. As we drive into the “hospital “ it looks like a run down industrial building. There was a fountain in the circle at the front with a broken light pole canted at an angle. When the bus stopped this woman 2 days out of surgery picks up her overnight bag and runs to the bus....in relief. On the flight back she told us the rest of the story....when they first brought her in the emergency room was filthy with blood spatters in sight. They quickly brought her to another floor that seemed clean, confirmed the diagnosis and took her into surgery. She said she had strange dreams during surgery as they apparently used opiates in her anesthesia. She woke up with a mustard plaster on her chest and all the needles and fluid bottles were glass. It was like a hospital out of the 1950s rather than 1987. The last interesting point was that after she returned she saw her doctor in Lake Charles. He assured her she was fine but her scar indicated the technique used by the Russian surgeons was from the early days of the 20th century and he had seen it only in text books. Why did I tell this long story? Because i believe it is the ultimate example of the destination of socialized medicine. It becomes bureaucratic and scoliotic and fails. We might do it better than the Russians for a while but will end up in the same place.
If LaSalle had to spend a couple of days in a place like that he would change his tune faster than Usain Bolt.
Can bet your ass he would be screaming from the rooftops the second one of his loved ones was told to either wait or even worse "sorry, nothing we can do" I think he should move there and try it out for at least three years.
The story that Winston told was about the wife of a sort of prominent politician. Just imagine how much worse it would be for an odinary American tourist in Russia. Or even worse, the treatment Russian citizens get.
Actually she was treated in one of their facilities reserved for Communist party members and not the general public. The first floor emergency room was for the common citizen. This sort of separation of Party members and tourists from the general population was common. There were stores open only to the “better pigs”. Those stores had European appliances and top quality goods....that only took dollars or other foreign currency. The stores for the regular citizens had crap if they had anything.
There has to be a happy medium. I don’t think the answer is to fully socialize medicine. But I do believe we can look at other countries and see what they do well and adapt. Because the system here sucks.
