Gillian Murray wrote:
Karen C - Calif wrote:

Bruce Fletcher wrote:


The situation is a bit different in some parts of the country where
non-urgent cases might have to wait for a week to see their local GP.



Which is still better than the situation for most California patients
prior to the new law -- a non-urgent situation was always "6-10 weeks,
if you need to see a doctor sooner than that, go to the Emergency
Room". Well, fine and dandy, but if your insurance company thought it
was something that could be handled in a doctor's office, they would
not give you permission to go to the ER, and it was up to you to
decide if it was worth $1000 of your own money to be seen sooner than
6-10 weeks.

Knowing that my bronchitis generally resolves in about 6 weeks, I
simply put off going; if it got that bad that I needed
hospitalization, then the insurance would pay for it, but if it was
just that I was not sleeping because I was coughing all night, they
wouldn't.

The opposition was so worked up about "rationing care" -- what was my
insurance company doing this past quarter-century, if not rationing
care by making it impossible to see a doctor for over a month?!


Enough, Karen.

We all know where you stand, and where many of your friends stand.

I can tell you two terrible stories relating to my parents in UK with NHS.
One private care took care of. My father had a displaced retina. he was
60 and an architect and city engineer. It would take nearly a year to
have the surgery done under the waiting list of NHS. They dug into their
savings and paid for it.


..the other(under NHS) my mother was allowed to die.She was about a
year older than I am now(73). She had a backache. No-one could diagnose
it, but when she went to the Radcliffe in Oxford, they EVENTUALLY
diagnosed it as microscopic kidney cancer.

You would have thought that a kidney could be removed ??Age 74. But she
got a small series of radiation (to kill the pain she was told)...and
sent home.

Three years later I visited her on her
deathbed.......................and she ws allowed to come home to die.
She did, five days later but I will NEVER support a system like they
have in UK. This is what we are getting folks.

Also the visiting nurse system in UK is great. A shame they don't have
enough funding. Whemn Mum died we asked the solicitor to take enough
out of her remaining monies to buy six foam mattresses for the area.
They were allowed one by NHS ruling.

I am leaving, because I get very upset with the way people were treated
in 1988. I honestly doubt it has improved.

I read somewhere recently that most Americans are impatient, and want to
see the specialist very quickly.. Looking at Bruce's scenario... I can
understand that.

I have worked in both systems................there are good and bad; but
my mother could have lived another 4 years or so without the NHS

Giullian

OT From the heart MHS


I'm so sorry your family had such bad times, I guess it must be a
regional thing. My parents on the Northeast Coast always had first
class care. Although my father eventually died of a massive heart
attack (runs in the family), before that he had many, many medical
problems. In fact, I have clearer memories of him in the Royal
Infirmary than at home. My mother outlived both of her sons - both of
whom had supplemental private health insurance through their employment
- and lasted till she was almost 93. As she got older, she, too, had
many health problems, some surgeries and quite a number of hospital
stays. After she was 85, the doctor used to make house calls, in
addition to the visiting nurses. After she was 90, it was decided that,
no matter what her wishes, she could no longer live alone, so one time
in hospital she was told she was going to convalescent care, and was
moved to a wonderful assisted living center - all paid for by the NHS.
Additonally, my dd, who is over there with her USAF dh, has on occasion
had to go to a NHS hospital for herself or her children when the base
hospital did not have the right specialists, and she says that the NHS
hospitals are, by and large, very much better than the military one.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.