Romania: Bribes needed for basic healthcare.

[panzerfaust]

http://www.iht.com/bin/printfriendly.php?id=20183652

BUCHAREST: Alina Lungu, 30, says she did everything necessary to ensure a healthy pregnancy in Romania: She ate organic food, swam daily and bribed her gynecologist with an extra 200 in cash, paid in monthly increments of 25 handed over discreetly in white envelopes.

Another bribe of 25 ... went to a nurse to guarantee an epidural. Even the orderly reaped an extra 10 to make sure he didn't drop her from the stretcher.

But on the day of her delivery, she says, her gynecologist never arrived. Twelve hours into labor, she was left alone in her room for an hour. When a doctor appeared, the umbilical cord was wrapped twice around her baby's head and had nearly suffocated him. He was blind and deaf and had suffered severe brain damage.

Now, Alina and her husband, Ionut, despair that if they had paid a larger bribe to the doctor, then Sebastian would perhaps be a healthy baby...

As the article points out, this raises so many issues: From if the new EU member-states (such as Romania) are so far removed from the rule-of-law that they will destroy the EU, to medial ethics, to something as mundane as how much are a doctor's services worth (400/month for an OB specialist in Romania).

Sadly, she is likely correct that with appropriate monitoring and immediate intervention - which may well have been secured by larger bribes to doctor, nurse, and hospital - her baby would not have been devastated.

Even in a country with "Universal health-care", care may not be "universal" for, as noted in Animal Farm: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

Paying bribes always makes one "more equal", but the size of the bribe determines how much "more equal" one is.

The president of the Romanian College of Physicians is quoted as saying "If salaries were higher, then the practice {of bribery} would disappear."

I doubt that this is true, though, given how little the doctors are paid - relative to what people are willing to pay - it might substantially decrease it. It is the culture of bribery - the institutionalized corruption of the entire society - not any individual instance of it, that is at fault.

I expect that when a Romanian doctor goes to get a building permit, that, without the appropriate bribes, somehow the permit will just never get approved. The United Kingdom, America, Canada, Australia are among the few countries in the world where bribery is, generally, condemned by society. Do not read this to say that these governments are not corrupt - all governments are by their very nature corrupt - but overt bribery is not culturally acceptable.

Truly that is a problem that I have with multiculturalism. How much can any nation's cultural outlook be changed before it looses its identity and becomes something else? That is a current and pressing problem in France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom - but Canada and the USA are starting to face it as well.

[izquierdista]

1. It is true

Bribery in lesser developed countries is ALWAYS about moving the bribe taker up to being able to afford a middle class lifestyle. The amount of the bribe becomes fairly standard and the person being bribed can count on a certain volume at a certain level as part of his pay. Now in order to get such a position where he is in a position to command a bribe, he may have to pay a bribe himself. It is part of an unregulated economy that makes sure that doctors and nurses and policemen and government officials can actually live on the salaries they are paid.

Where it is not seen are in countries that have had strong labor movements that built a middle class. Even though the labor movement in the USA is a shadow of its former self, it succeeded in establishing a middle class, and once that middle class salary replaces the pittance+bribe system, it is very difficult to push it aside. The Repubs would like to push it away, hence their H1-B visa programs, independent subcontractor schemes, off-clock games, etc.

The bribe system develops as a survival mechanism, for as well known as it may be in a country that bribes are offered and accepted, it is NEVER done in public. It is always slipped inconspicuously when no one is looking, for it is not the law that sets it, but the custom. What is does though, is to take away accountability. In the OP, Alina has no recourse to collect what was paid, only to wonder if she should have paid more.

[glowing]

2. bull shit.. if its illegal and doctors went to jail, then I'd assume that they'd stop

asking for money from patients. Guess they are trying to scare us away from universal healthcare.

[Lost in CT]

3. I agree with you "I doubt that this is true" statement

Even big business in some countries can't get away from the bribery culture. Just look at Siemans in Germany for a great example.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/011209-siemens-bribe-money.html?hpg1=bn

[prolesunited]

4. Yes

multiculturalism and universal health care are bad.

You must be such a proud Democrat.