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Medical Debt Sending Many Over Financial Brink
mammasan
Posts: 5,656
"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads." - Ron Paul
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or credit card bills.
Nobody will be bankrupt for getting sick.
No....but they might not get better unless they cross the border.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
What a completely idiotic and stupid thing to say. You work in the health industry here do you? You're an expert on that too...
but if they cross the border they have to have $ in hand to see a dr. or go to the hospital
angels share laughter
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I thought it was kind of a funny thing to say. Oh well.....
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
you expect a complete change in the couple days you were gone? you're voting for obama, aren't you?
~D.K.S.
naděje umírá poslední
Strangely enough i don't actually find amusing, the sight of a seriously ill patient we took in the other night, still in the exactly the same position in the holding area we left him in, still unattended by a doctor 3 hours later, when we bought the next patient in. Hence my reply to know1 which had absolutely nothing to do with you.
But anyway, good luck with your sarcasm jerkwad.
c'mon, now. was calling me a name really necessary? you need to lighten up a bit and stop taking things around here so seriously.
and you never answered my question. you're voting obama, aren't you?
~D.K.S.
I'm a kucinich girl. I will be voting obama, for the many reasons i have already said. But you knew that already.
Thanks in Advance!
Sorry, I'm not Canadian, but I have a few of comments/questions nonetheless.
1. I work in a FM residency at a med school/teaching hospital. I'm interested in your comment that most docs tend to be conservatives. My experience has been the opposite.
Do you think it's because we're in different parts of the country? (I'm in the southwest.) Or, my perspective is based primarily on FM docs. Are you looking more at docs in general and, if so, do you think FM docs tend to be more liberal than others? Or, am I just totally unobservant? Just curious about our differing takes on this.
2. I've heard it said that universal healthcare will cause long waits for patients. Regardless of whether or not this is actually true, do you not find that we already have long waits with the current U.S. system?
It often takes months to be seen in our system and it seems nearly impossible to establish as a new patient. And that's not to mention long waits in the over-crowded ER (a problem which, of course, is a result of the former problem).
3. Have you heard about Physicians for a United Health Program? http://www.pnhp.org/ They have some pretty good information.
I attended a lecture from one of their docs recently that really cleared up a lot of misconceptions about universal healthcare. For instance, it's not socialized medicine they're proposing; it's just public funding for private delivery of service.
1. I'm also in Family Medicine, few years out of residency. Now that you mention it, the only liberal docs I've known (at least who vocalized their politics) have been in our field. Not sure if there is something to that. Possibly the fact that those of us who choose FM in general are more likely to be the ones who are less interested in income and typically take more interest in the social service side of things. Now, I know that is a generalization and not right in all cases. But the more interesting point you bring up to me is that maybe a big part of the difference is geography. I by no means am a political guru and do not claim to be, but am I right in thinking that the Southwest is somewhat liberal in general? It could be totally related to the fact that I'm in a red state. But, no doubt about it, in my area the vast majority of docs are conservatives. Our most recent past governor was a Republican family doc. Nice guy, terrible governor. But it is my understanding that the major groups of physcians are conservatives. For example, I am very reluctant to contribute to contribute to the AMA as they have a branch that contributes to the candidates that they see is more "pro-medicine," and often they tend to differ from my views overall.
2. I agree with you that there are many situations where there is a long wait in our current system. Now, you are in the university system, so if it is run the way my university system was run, you see lots of indigent patients. It's not quite as bad in the private sector, but in some of the underserved areas there is definitely a tendancy to have some wait periods. However, it is without a doubt not to the degree it is in the university settings.
3. I've not heard of the organization you mention, but I'll definitely check it out. The bad thing about it is that it is so hard for physicians to unite and make any real positive changes for medicine because we are historically a poor group of professionals at organizing and establishing good ideas that we can all agree on. There are far too many people more interested in their own causes.
Anyway, I certainly appreciate the thoughtful conversation and welcome further thoughts.