Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Waiting Times

Ezra Klein, that dreamy young health care wonk, has an excellent bit on the primary bugaboo thrown at US taxpayers about universal health care coverage. Waiting times! WAITING TIMES!! He quotes a recent study:

A Commonwealth Fund study of six highly industrialized countries, the U.S., and five nations with national health systems, Britain, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, found waiting times were worse in the U.S. than in all the other countries except Canada. And, most of the Canadian data so widely reported by the U.S. media is out of date, and misleading, according to PNHP and CNA/NNOC.

In Canada, there are no waits for emergency surgeries, and the median time for non-emergency elective surgery has been dropping as a result of public pressure and increased funding so that it is now equal to or better than the U.S. in most areas, the organizations say. Statistics Canada's latest figures show that median wait times for elective surgery in Canada is now three weeks.

"There are significant differences between the U.S. and Canada, too," said Burger. "In Canada, no one is denied care because of cost, because their treatment or test was not 'pre-approved' or because they have a pre-existing condition."

He links to several articles and studies honing in on the same thing. This is one of the neatest tricks private health care providers have pulled off in the US. They have fooled people into thinking that just because they have insurance coverage, they are covered.

Usually, the vast number of uninsured in America are used as the moral baton with which to beat the system into a shape resembling every other industrialized nation in the world. This is wrong, because although it is morally laudale it does not tap into the deep, dark heart of the American psyche: "You are being hard done by. You are being ripped off." The universal receptor on the cells of the American body.

Focusing, relentlessly, on how you are not getting the service you think you're getting for the money you're spending is the way to move universal health care forward.

We may discuss some other transmission ideas concerning this issue, as another recent post of Ezra's raised seom questions, but I've got casting calls to make. More later, but in the meantime you could do worse than going to Ezra's joint and reading his health care posts and following the links to his health care articles.

44 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although I applaud the fact that people are talking about the US healthcare, but the general theme of “all other westernized 1st-world countries are better than the USA” is disingenuous.
As a UK native living in the US for a number of years, my experience of the US system has been far better than that in the UK, but purely because I’ve got very good insurance from my employer. Waiting times for *non-emergency* are not what the published data show because they play the shell game of “time until first consultation” (which can often be with a triage nurse), or some other metrics games. Many times I’ve had to wait hours to be seen by a real doctor or anyone that can actually help. The NHS in the UK is oversubscribed (why is a completely different post), so a GP (family doctor) appointment can often only be made 9-10 working days in advance. For a lot of surgery, the wait times are 8-16 months. Although it’s not part of “primary” healthcare, you can’t find a NHS (free) dentist for love-nor-money, and when one does open there are queues around the block to be on the patient list.
However, once you are seen, often the experiences are the same both sides of the pond. However, the difference is that when you are treated, there’s no worry if the insurance company is going to pick up the bill, or picking and choosing of necessary services which helps patients *a lot* as it’s one less thing to worry about.

Tom Hilton said...

They have fooled people into thinking that just because they have insurance coverage, they are covered.

Foolish people. Do they not realize that the entire insurance industry is based on not paying claims (i.e., not providing the promised coverage)? Or is it that they think the health insurance industry must somehow be different?

Unknown said...

Anonymous:

That's why I favor the French system, actually. Public supplemented by private.

Diane Kristine Wild said...

Waiting time stats in Canada definitely can't be trusted, but it's not in the rosier direction. I wouldn't trade our system for the US's for anything, but I don't think it does anyone any good to ignore the weaknesses of ours, either.

gwangung said...

Well, golly gee willickers....wouldn't the POINT of looking at other countries' health systems be seeing what they do right and better than we do, and use THAT to IMPROVE our system?

Anonymous said...

Rogers:

The problem with the French systems is that it just isn't working. The country is facing mounting debt because of it's healthcare system, and it's countrymen know it - that's why in the end they voted against the socalist candidate because they realize that over time it's killing their country.

I strongly agree with you, and most of the people here it seems, that the US system is broken in *many* ways, but the "European system" is not a good *long term* alternative. Sure, it looks great - especially on Mr Moore's film and the govt stats - but both have an agenda to make it appear that way.

Jerome Comeau said...

Anonymous:

I'm glad that you got good insurance. But as someone with really bad insurance, I can assure you that even the emergency wait times can run pretty high (as much as 6 hours at one point while I was actively bleeding), and appointments two weeks out, and surgery wait times of 12 months, are not anything new to me.

For this, I pay $600/month.

This is the real truth that Rogers is getting at: the money we pay doesn't actually get us any better health care than, say, Canadians. It's just more expensive.

Hell, nationalized healthcare is one of the reasons I'm seriously considering a move to Canada.

That, and the poutine.

Anonymous said...

Anon:

The French Health Care debt is about equal to what we spend in Iraq in a week.

For us, that's pocket change. And if we're going to go into great big imaginary debt, wouldn't you rather it be so that we could all have health care, rather than so we can blow the arms off of small foreign children?

Anonymous said...

Proposition:

a major problem with U.S. health care is that it is controlled by insurance companies who are in the business of making money, which they can only do by denying claims (as pointed out in an early comment); so the solution is: remove the profit motive and require that all health insurance providers are not-for-profit companies that return a portion of the premiums paid if they show a consistent profit.

discuss?

Anonymous said...

Heronymus:
Agreed.

Keith said...
The French Health Care debt is about equal to what we spend in Iraq in a week.

Fair point. But the population of France is ~60M (vs. ~300M in the USA), and generally the health of the french is better than the USA (more of a "fresh food" culture). The debt that we are spending in Iraq, if continued, is going to do to the USA what the healthcare is doing to France (and I couldnt imagine attempting to do both).

I'm not saying that I can propose an alternative, but pointing to Europe and saying "that's how we want to do it" and ignoring all the problems is not the right way either.

Anonymous said...

I'm not saying we do it exactly like they do, but neither is anyone else (even the dreaded Michael Moore) I'm just saying we should go, "Hay I like you're moves, France! I'm going to borrow this and this and mix it in with a little Canada and wash it down with some of the Olde English and make it work for us."

Most Americans I'm sure wouldn't mind going in to debt as much if they knew they were getting something out of it, besides blown up sons and daughters.

We should market the hell out of Universal health care as a service we're entitled to.

"If the French can have it, why can't we?" should be every Democrat's tlaking point.

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Unknown said...

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Unknown said...

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ekstrakalam said...

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obar herbal manjur alami said...

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Unknown said...

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obar herbal manjur alami said...

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