A Few Years Back At a Health Research Conference

[The Whiskey Priest]

I was talking with this gentleman from Germany; he mentioned that in Germany, in the middle of the night, a doctor would be sent to your house should you require healthcare. When was the last time you heard of a house-call, it must have been before my time, say when Harding was president?

[MannyGoldstein]

1. Why DO People Think US Health Care Is Good? It Ain't!

I know several German docs who spent time practicing in the US. They've told me that they'd much prefer to be sick in Germany. Germany has better hospitals, more doctors and nurses per capita, longer hospital stays, longer life expectancy, better infant mortality - and it all costs roughly 40% less per person.

Feh.

[shoelace414]

3. my exact statetemt

America does not have the best health care in the world.

[JuniperLea]

2. My doctor did house calls in the '60s

I had scarlet fever when I was five and he came to our house. After that, it only happened on TV.



Europe and Canada are way ahead of us in health care. I think too many Americans equate socialized medicine with communism.

[EC]

5. I wonder why?

I think too many Americans equate socialized medicine with communism.


could it be the Republican spin?

[JuniperLea]

7. Presactomundo my friend!

Socialized medicine would leave pharmaceutical companies a drift along with the insurance companies... both health and malpractice. Sick people are big business here.


They don't care about the people, only their own, dam, fat wallets. As per usual. So they have to keep yet another boogieman alive and well... Commies! Most of us know the cold war is over, right?

[EC]

8. I don't know, I work in insurance

and the only REAL money maker is Life Insurance, we have to push that above all else. And Health insurance isn't even a prioity...call a local insurance office and ask them about health insurance, you'll get a lot of hemming and hawing and I'll call you backs, that they have to check on it, etc....it's just the bottom of the barrel.

[JuniperLea]

9. I worked in insurance for many years

Sure, they have the bottom barrel stuff, but the insurance company itself is a real money maker. HMO's and any capitated health insurance is betting you won't use the insurance and many don't.

Ask your doctor how much he pays in malpractice. It's a multi-billion dollar industry in the US... and ONLY in the US. That is the main reason for doctors to go HMO, they don't have to foot the bill for their individual insurance.

[EC]

10. Main carriers of HMO's are industry and small businesses

which are both dropping plans like hot potatoes in the last couple of years. What is big now are charge cards for health care, like GM and Aetna....(mine only has a $500. limit, so I'm screwed)

[woodsprite]

4. In DE, you too can have house calls if you keep your doctor on

retainer. Mainly the offices are in swanky Greenville or North Wilmington, and are "concierge" services.

[China_cat]

6. My father-in-law had a doctor who did house calls

Come to think about it, my mil's doctor came to the house, too, until she moved into an assisted living residence before she died a year ago.

Of course, that's Holland, so I guess it doesn't count.