While God may have made all men equal, the same is not true about doctors. I learned long ago that it is not good to meet your cardiologist for the first time in the Emergency Room. I have a VERY good one and I see him every six months whether I am feeling fine or not.
Long story short - I survived a cardiac arrest two years ago. One set of doctors at the nearest hospital wanted to perform open heart surgery. I opted for my cardiologist who practiced across town. When I arrived by ambulance, I asked my doctor what WE were going to do? He said simply, "Put in a pacemaker and a defibrillator." What about the surgery, I asked. "You don't need it", he answered. He was right and I am fine.
Good doctors are hard to find. My health care system would have paid for either course of treatment. My good doctor made the difference.
At what point did the health care systems stop listening to good doctors? The answer to that question is priceless.
Agreed. Canadian/Frenchy here, and I can tell you some personal healthcare stories in both countries. I wonder why North America isn't learning and developing through the world's rich health history. There has got to be someone. We've had 100's of years to try for something better. Why has this not become top priority??? Lord help us.
It would be helpful to have comparisons with other countries besides the UK. The UK NHS system has been badly harmed by years of underfunding by Tories who, like our Republicans are trying to force people to get so frustrated with the NHS that they opt for privatized care.
I would like to know how well the Canadian single payer/Medicare for All system works. I would also like to know how well the “Bismarck” model works. That model depends mainly on private insurance purchased by individuals or employers. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan all use that model and they all have universal coverage that is rated highly by their citizens. My understanding is that those systems work because their governments want them to work. That is why they have strong regulations that are strictly enforced. That is a sine qua non for any decent system.
I'm certainly not an expert on the Canadian healthcare system, but I was on a years' long waitlist for a family doctor in Nova Scotia (and similar shortages are happening throughout Canada so far as I understand). Never did get a doctor.
I now live in Thailand and feel much more secure here in terms of accessing affordable healthcare and preventive care—both allopathic and Chinese medicine. (I'm a TCM doctor myself and prefer that route unless allopathic medicine is necessary.)
A doctor friend once told me that the holidays are the worst time to go to the hospital- in the US. The residents are covering and any doctor worth their salt has off. Evidence of this is my friend who died waiting at 40 yrs of age on Christmas Eve in the ER at a small town hospital in eastern NC. She had a UTI that went septic while she waited 12 hours in the waiting room. Two weeks may be standard holiday fare in the US, but that doesn’t mean the holidays are a good time to get sick here.
While at the 2024 Olympics, my wife had an MRI in a hospital in Belgium. We paid for it rather than submit Medicare claim paperwork - $48. Not quite the same as at home in Hawaii.
Not to begin an organ recital, but my guess about your neck may be my problem: degenerative discs.
As for the UK, I became quite ill in London and my mother, through a friend, rustled up a Harley St. doc. (Sir Anthony Dawson, known as "the Queen's bowel doctor.) He steered me to the appropriate surgeon, all was well, and American Blue Cross paid! And ... back here, in FL., at least, a concierge doc is a necessity, if you can pay the freight, so yes, medicine in dodgy unless you can pay.
It is funny to me how people like you support socialism but when you contact it full on you don't really like it. Kudos to you for telling the truth here. Frankly, with your level of TDS, it is unexpected.
As I posted above the Tories have underfunded the NHS for the last twelve years and Covid did a lot more damage. The NHS used to get high approval ratings from the Brits but not any longer thanks to people whose goal is privatization, not making the system work. The slow economic growth and high debt caused by another brilliant Tory idea, Brexit, is making it very hard for the Labour Party to find the funds to fix the system.
No one is your slave for starters. You do not have the right to make someone else pay for your Healthcare. Markets solve things government screw things up.
First, let me say I do so much admire your extraordinary connections and analysis of geopolitics. Thanks for stepping out of your journalist role to explore your personal experiences with medical care for your family on both sides of the pond.
Speaking as a family doc with 40 years experience treating illness and worry in the US, although I empathize and regret your families tribulations, to some extent they are beside the point.
Over and over again, in my experience, patient care is delayed, diverted, and denied by anonymous insurance (and now maybe AI) reviewers....and of course it can be catastrophically worse if you have no insurance, as do 10% of Americans. Issues like your need for a cervical MRI come up monthly, if not more often, in a busy practice.
I am one of the few docs I know of who personally appealed denials. I remember getting an insurance medical director on the phone for a treatment for a very ill cancer patient who was in so much pain, he was sobbing after a 5 minute ride to my office. The insurance approved treatment by a provider 30 miles away. When I explained my patient could not possibly travel that far, I was told "the regulations require we have this therapy available, and that's who we contract with."
The basic problem is that we have many docs and other providers who are responsible, scientifically astute, dedicated to patient care...and who are caring. But we are all enmeshed in system dominated by money and profit. Some times not-for-profit hospitals are the worst.
Luigi was right, medical care sucks and it doesn't have to be that way. The failures of the medical system in the USA are the epitome of how the civil society of our country has fallen apart in so many basic areas. This panoply of neglect of the needs of ordinary folk and families is why MAGA has been so successful.
I wish the AMA would start their own not for profit insurance company. An insurance company run by doctors to provide care for their patients. The insurance companies state that their profit margins are “only” 3 or 4 percent instead of the 10% that other industries generally try to make. But 3% of billions is still a lot of money. Imagine if those billions and the millions that the CEO’s make went into providing patient care at a not for profit company.
In 2010, I had a back injury almost identical to Luigi's. His was at L5 S1; mine at L4 L5. At that instant, my life stopped. My career, my social life, my recreational activities, My friendships. The pain is constant, and no doctor or surgery--I have had many--has resolved this. I was 52 at the time, now 66.
It is somewhat easier for me to resign myself to an early retirement and a quiet, inactive life. For Luigi, it is not. He also had symptoms, like a sudden inability to have sex, that made his affliction even more hellish. He was driven to madness, and I totally understand.
Definitely not--I should have said that. I just see a once-promising young man who's been driven mad by his pain and whose terrible decisions reflect that. Tragic.
Here in the Jane Austen land we do have electric radiators in case the house doesn’t have heating. We are also learning in British schools that colds are transmitted by viruses not a consequence of cold air.
While God may have made all men equal, the same is not true about doctors. I learned long ago that it is not good to meet your cardiologist for the first time in the Emergency Room. I have a VERY good one and I see him every six months whether I am feeling fine or not.
Long story short - I survived a cardiac arrest two years ago. One set of doctors at the nearest hospital wanted to perform open heart surgery. I opted for my cardiologist who practiced across town. When I arrived by ambulance, I asked my doctor what WE were going to do? He said simply, "Put in a pacemaker and a defibrillator." What about the surgery, I asked. "You don't need it", he answered. He was right and I am fine.
Good doctors are hard to find. My health care system would have paid for either course of treatment. My good doctor made the difference.
At what point did the health care systems stop listening to good doctors? The answer to that question is priceless.
Jim King
Thanks for appreciating my comment. I hope you enjoy "The World as King See It" on Substack.com
A most helpful comparison
Agreed. Canadian/Frenchy here, and I can tell you some personal healthcare stories in both countries. I wonder why North America isn't learning and developing through the world's rich health history. There has got to be someone. We've had 100's of years to try for something better. Why has this not become top priority??? Lord help us.
It would be helpful to have comparisons with other countries besides the UK. The UK NHS system has been badly harmed by years of underfunding by Tories who, like our Republicans are trying to force people to get so frustrated with the NHS that they opt for privatized care.
I would like to know how well the Canadian single payer/Medicare for All system works. I would also like to know how well the “Bismarck” model works. That model depends mainly on private insurance purchased by individuals or employers. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan all use that model and they all have universal coverage that is rated highly by their citizens. My understanding is that those systems work because their governments want them to work. That is why they have strong regulations that are strictly enforced. That is a sine qua non for any decent system.
I'm certainly not an expert on the Canadian healthcare system, but I was on a years' long waitlist for a family doctor in Nova Scotia (and similar shortages are happening throughout Canada so far as I understand). Never did get a doctor.
I now live in Thailand and feel much more secure here in terms of accessing affordable healthcare and preventive care—both allopathic and Chinese medicine. (I'm a TCM doctor myself and prefer that route unless allopathic medicine is necessary.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/family-practice-registry-record-number-1.7140349
Agree 100 pc
A doctor friend once told me that the holidays are the worst time to go to the hospital- in the US. The residents are covering and any doctor worth their salt has off. Evidence of this is my friend who died waiting at 40 yrs of age on Christmas Eve in the ER at a small town hospital in eastern NC. She had a UTI that went septic while she waited 12 hours in the waiting room. Two weeks may be standard holiday fare in the US, but that doesn’t mean the holidays are a good time to get sick here.
While at the 2024 Olympics, my wife had an MRI in a hospital in Belgium. We paid for it rather than submit Medicare claim paperwork - $48. Not quite the same as at home in Hawaii.
Not to begin an organ recital, but my guess about your neck may be my problem: degenerative discs.
As for the UK, I became quite ill in London and my mother, through a friend, rustled up a Harley St. doc. (Sir Anthony Dawson, known as "the Queen's bowel doctor.) He steered me to the appropriate surgeon, all was well, and American Blue Cross paid! And ... back here, in FL., at least, a concierge doc is a necessity, if you can pay the freight, so yes, medicine in dodgy unless you can pay.
It is funny to me how people like you support socialism but when you contact it full on you don't really like it. Kudos to you for telling the truth here. Frankly, with your level of TDS, it is unexpected.
As I posted above the Tories have underfunded the NHS for the last twelve years and Covid did a lot more damage. The NHS used to get high approval ratings from the Brits but not any longer thanks to people whose goal is privatization, not making the system work. The slow economic growth and high debt caused by another brilliant Tory idea, Brexit, is making it very hard for the Labour Party to find the funds to fix the system.
No one is your slave for starters. You do not have the right to make someone else pay for your Healthcare. Markets solve things government screw things up.
First, let me say I do so much admire your extraordinary connections and analysis of geopolitics. Thanks for stepping out of your journalist role to explore your personal experiences with medical care for your family on both sides of the pond.
Speaking as a family doc with 40 years experience treating illness and worry in the US, although I empathize and regret your families tribulations, to some extent they are beside the point.
Over and over again, in my experience, patient care is delayed, diverted, and denied by anonymous insurance (and now maybe AI) reviewers....and of course it can be catastrophically worse if you have no insurance, as do 10% of Americans. Issues like your need for a cervical MRI come up monthly, if not more often, in a busy practice.
I am one of the few docs I know of who personally appealed denials. I remember getting an insurance medical director on the phone for a treatment for a very ill cancer patient who was in so much pain, he was sobbing after a 5 minute ride to my office. The insurance approved treatment by a provider 30 miles away. When I explained my patient could not possibly travel that far, I was told "the regulations require we have this therapy available, and that's who we contract with."
The basic problem is that we have many docs and other providers who are responsible, scientifically astute, dedicated to patient care...and who are caring. But we are all enmeshed in system dominated by money and profit. Some times not-for-profit hospitals are the worst.
Luigi was right, medical care sucks and it doesn't have to be that way. The failures of the medical system in the USA are the epitome of how the civil society of our country has fallen apart in so many basic areas. This panoply of neglect of the needs of ordinary folk and families is why MAGA has been so successful.
Thank you for this utterly compelling insight.
I wish the AMA would start their own not for profit insurance company. An insurance company run by doctors to provide care for their patients. The insurance companies state that their profit margins are “only” 3 or 4 percent instead of the 10% that other industries generally try to make. But 3% of billions is still a lot of money. Imagine if those billions and the millions that the CEO’s make went into providing patient care at a not for profit company.
MAGA policies will make health in US much worse. The “uneducated” have no clue.
Your examples are like apples and oranges. The UK system is clearly more easily fixed. You’re trying too hard.
That may be true. I was just pointing out that a single-payer system only works if the government and culture behind it wants it to work...
In 2010, I had a back injury almost identical to Luigi's. His was at L5 S1; mine at L4 L5. At that instant, my life stopped. My career, my social life, my recreational activities, My friendships. The pain is constant, and no doctor or surgery--I have had many--has resolved this. I was 52 at the time, now 66.
It is somewhat easier for me to resign myself to an early retirement and a quiet, inactive life. For Luigi, it is not. He also had symptoms, like a sudden inability to have sex, that made his affliction even more hellish. He was driven to madness, and I totally understand.
I am so sorry for your suffering. And for Luigi's. But murder can't be the answer, surely.
Definitely not--I should have said that. I just see a once-promising young man who's been driven mad by his pain and whose terrible decisions reflect that. Tragic.
Here in the Jane Austen land we do have electric radiators in case the house doesn’t have heating. We are also learning in British schools that colds are transmitted by viruses not a consequence of cold air.