Can They or Can't They?

The big vote is today. Something I read a few days ago suggested that the Dems wouldn't take it to a floor vote unless they had the votes in hand. Let's hope so.

Not that the legislation on the floor will fix it, but I don't think Americans have any idea just how screwed up their health care system is compared with others in the industrialized world. Within the last twelve hours a loved one of mine, not an American herself though with travel insurance, spent four hours waiting to get seen in an ER at a major hospital in a large American city. She was charged $350 up front, and when she asked for her credit card slip back after she decided to bag it and seek treatment elsewhere (In the end she copped free and timely treatment from a colleague at the medical conference she is attending) they told her they couldn't get the slip back; it was in a locked container. Just to be clear, the place was not crowded. In the four hours she waited, two other patients were called back for assessment.

Contrast this to the time a few months back when I stepped on a rusty nail. I needed the wound peeked at and a tetanus booster. I drove to Geelong Hospital here in Geelong, Australia, showed my Australian Medicare card, and the clerk noted down my details--no billing details required as public hospitals in Australia are funded by tax dollars and offer FREE medical care to all comers. The triage nurse looked at my foot then sent me to fast track, where I waited five minutes at most to get seen by a doctor. The medical assessment was efficient, largely because it wasn't encumbered by a lot of minimum requirements for billing. The doc simply looked at my foot, said the wound was shallow and wouldn't need antibiotics, then gave me my tetanus booster. I was in and out in twenty minutes tops. I have been a doctor and a patient in both the USA and Australia, and I can assure you that this sort of cheap, speedy, no bullsh** medical care can be found in only one of the two and it ain't the Land of the Free.

I'd challenge any conservative opponent of health reform who mouths the talking point about America's health care system being "the best in the world" as to what his measure of quality is. Life expectancy? Nah. Infant mortality? Nope. Patient satisfaction? No way. Value for money? Not even close. Absence of death panels? Well, it's true that this is no such thing in America but I don't know that it's a useful comparator. I've worked in Australian public hospitals for close to a decade. I've searched high and low and I've never seen a death panel. Not one.