RM> Interesting. It seems that in most places where healthcare is not
RM> socialized that the hospitals and doctors must get together and
RM> quietly set high prices rather than lowering prices to compete..

SD>That's certainly true here in the States.

SD>I was forced to stay at the local Ballad Health hospital during my first
  >heart attack.  The doctors I dealt with were arrogant (God complex) and
  >incompetent.  At night, in the large heart ward I was in, there was but a
  >single nurse with 30 patients.

That's not good.. My few experiences here have shown the odd time
when the hospital was low on staff and waits were longer than ideal
but you could tell the people were woking their tails off to try
to do the best they could.

SD>It's not just socialized medicine that has issues...

The thing that gets me, and maybe it's just on TV shows and not
the usual case, but you hear about hospitals in the USA charging
patients $15 for an aspirin or something and doctors walking past
your room sticking their head in and just saying, How you doing?,
and then carrying on.. and billing for a 'consultation'..

SD>Honestly, the VA (government) hospital has better nurses, offers better
  >care, and has -much- better food (honestly!) than the other hospital.

From a lot of comments on here it sounds like the VA is pretty good
although that's another thing we hear about where Vets can't get
access to the services or there are long waiting lists for things.

SD>Now I also have Medicare (I'm forced to) because I am on SSDI.  Thankfully,
  >Social Security enrolled me in their "Extra Help" program due to the
  >severeness of my disabilities and that means the state of Tennessee pays my
  >monthly $184 bill.  If I had to pay that, I'd be even more destitute than I
  >already am!

That's great, a real help..

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 * SLMR Rob  * Beauty is only a light switch away...
 * Origin: Capitol City Online (618:250/1)