Socialized Healthcare: What democrats and republicans don't want you TO KNOW
By Mostafa Motaweh, 08/28/2016
In America we are told that socialized healthcare is an inferior service. That as Americans, we have the most cutting-edge technologies, treatments, and best medicine practices. Citizens of countries with socialized healthcare are forced to wait months if not years for their inferior treatment and medications while paying extortionate tax rates. Why else would people fly in from other countries around the world to seek treatment in America?
The fact of the matter is this could not be further from the truth. I know this because I speak from first hand experience living the majority of my life in America and using the healthcare system there as a patient, and living for over two years in Australia as a permanent resident. In this time I have broken bones, got the flu, had a baby boy, and a few other run-ins with medical professionals.
Not to mention I have been a healthcare provider for over 6 years in America working in Emergency Rooms, Private Ambulances, and being a 911 Emergency Responder. I’ve volunteered with fire departments, I have worked in a paid department. I’ve worked in small outlying Emergency Rooms and I’ve worked in big Level 1 Trauma Centers. I’m more than familiar with how healthcare works in America.
American Healthcare
There are many amazing things about the American healthcare system. It’s biggest asset is the fact that so much money is spent on it, we are able to invest in cutting-edge technology and treatments. This is also it’s downfall as it requires a lot of money to run, $3 trillion to be more accurate, according to Forbes Magazine in an article on National Health Expenditure in 2012. What does this figure include? Money from government spending, insured and uninsured spending, and insurance companies. According the the U.S. Census 10.4% of Americans were uninsured in 2014. The remaining Americans have some form of insurance, either private or medicare.
So what’s the problem if almost nine out of ten people are insured? {this means 28.6 million uninsured, as of May 2016} Just because you are insured does not mean you are always covered. Insurance companies are not charities; they are businesses, they aim to make a multi-billion dollar profit. They have the ability to drop patients who are a liability or have an extensive medical history, or charge them a higher monthly premium. In my experience, insurance premiums was always around $240.00 a month for me and can range up to $600.00 for most people with family of three. If you go to the doctor for an annual check up, the average co-payment is $20 per visit. The actual bill may be anywhere from $80.00 - $150.00 but your insurance company picks up the difference. You can easily see how insurance companies can turn a profit on most healthy people. Depending on the level of coverage your medications can have a co-payment of $5.00 to $50.00 on whether or not a generic brand of the medication exists. Most people do not see too much of a problem with this. {copayment is a cost-control mechanism intended to increase profits by reducing expenses} For many healthy insured Americans that rarely get sick, healthcare is not a major financial factor in their lives.
However this changes substantially if you have an incurable disease such as cancer or severe chronic illnesses. Your insurance company dictates what hospitals, doctors, and medicines you can use. I have often times had to transfer a patient to a hospital 20 miles (~32 km) away just because the emergency room of the hospital they went to is not part of their insurance provider’s network. If that hospital is not covered, then your insurance will not cover your expenses for your stay there. Just for walking into an ER as a patient the consultation fee alone is $900.00 to see a doctor. Again, if you are insured, your insurance covers the majority if not all of that cost provided your illness was deemed emergent, necessary, and that hospital is part of their network.
It can be scary seeking treatment; often I have tried to convince many reluctant patients who truly needed medical care to go to the hospital during my time as a medic. Sometimes they would listen, other times they would opt to drive themselves to the hospital to avoid incurring the cost of an ambulance, and sometimes they would refuse all together stating they did not want to take on the financial burden of medical expenses. In my opinion, cost should never be a determining factor when making decisions on your own livelihood. It is truly sad that people have died from refusing medical care for these reasons. I have personally witnessed these deaths within my own family, as well as seen a patient that refused treatment the night before, then returning to their residence the next day only to find the worst had happened.
Australian Healthcare
I have lived in Australia for well over two years now and we can clear up some significant falsehoods that are spread. Just because they have a socialized healthcare system does not mean third party health insurance does not exist. I know this because I have both medicare under the Australian Government and third party health insurance through my employer. Before I worked for my previous employer I used solely medicare. I was absolutely shocked the first time I went to the doctor to obtain a doctor’s note for being sick and the confused secretary telling me I did not have to pay anything for my consult. In fact, we both were confused. Her, for someone asking “how much do I owe?” and myself for not having to pay anything. I did not wait for hours to see this doctor. My wait time was under five minutes. I was called by my physician, I sat in a room with the doctor the whole time while he obtained vital signs, performed an assessment, and subsequently typed and printed out my doctor’s note exempting me from work. It was personal, quick, and most of all did not cost me anything out of pocket.
Recently my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy. She spent two days in the hospital leading up to the birth undergoing monitoring due to a potential complication with the baby (Everything checked out all right). In total, we spent five days in the hospital. We paid nothing. The medical staff were superb. The nurses were friendly, kind, knowledgeable. The facilities were new, the equipment they had was standard. I would not hesitate to return if we had to again. I know this because I am a medical professional. Spending the equivalent amount of time in an American hospital would have incurred a co-payment of no less than $500.00 if not much more. The downside was my wife shared a room with three other new mothers once our baby was born. To her, this was not a downside because she was comforted by the fact that she was surrounded by women who all underwent similar experiences and could relate to her in what could be the most difficult experience of her life. Had we been covered by third party health insurance at the time, we could have been entitled to a private room on the same floor in the same ward, but the experience was more beneficial using the public system.
According to BBC News, a woman from Northern Virginia who gave birth had a bill that exceeded $100,000.00 USD. While she stayed at the hospital for over a month due to being on restricted bed rest, she incurred a cost of $2,250.00 a night ($67,375.00 total). Luckily, her insurance covered the entire bill. But not all insurance companies are that comprehensive in their coverage.
To complicate matters further, another woman can give birth at the same hospital, undergo the same length and treatment of stay and be charged a completely different amount. Because each insurance company negotiate different rates. According to Professor Gerrard Anderson with Johns Hopkins Center for Hospital Finance and Management: "If you don't have health insurance in the US, hospitals and doctors will ask you to pay three to four times what someone with insurance will pay for the same service because no-one is negotiating rates on their behalf”. This is a horrifying truth that outlines the bias in the American healthcare system.
What about extra long waiting periods for critical treatment? No one is required to wait for critical treatment or surgery. If you choose to have an elective surgery, where you are not debilitated or affected by your condition in a manner that is ruining your life, you may wait anywhere for a few months to receive treatment. What about the extortionate tax rates? My tax rates her in Australia are slightly higher than America (by 5%), but I understand I get a lot more here with that extra tax rate. Universities are absolutely affordable and not designed to incur students an exorbitant amount of debt (an article for another day), public transportation is more easily available, and my medical care is way more affordable. I specifically say “affordable” because when I paid for a 3D ultrasound for our unborn child we paid $70.00 and were reimbursed $50.00 by medicare whereas in America it can range from $200 - $300. My antibiotics were $10.00 when I was sick with a sinus infection. In Australia, when I broke my foot and went to the emergency room, I waited for twenty minutes before getting examined, x-rayed, given pain killers, and then subsequently discharged. I paid nothing except $20.00 for the pain medications.
But surely their treatments are inferior right? No. It is 2016, any self respecting medical institution has access to published medical journals and shared world common medical practices. In fact, advanced cardiac life support is virtually identical everywhere in the world. There are not many ailments that cannot be treated in Australia that need “American Treatment”. The reason why people do fly to America for treatment is the same reason someone might go to England to receive treatment on a rare neurological disorder, or to Germany for a specialist in bionic prosthetics. America has well funded universities that specialize in new treatments for unique ailments. These universities can lead and develop new treatments on rare cases due to their funding. We also have over 2,600 universities in America in comparison there are 3,300 in the European Union. America is just one country and we are 900 universities short of 27 countries combined. That ultimately boils down to a lot more people who can research diseases to get their degrees in medicine in America than just one country in Europe.
This just highlights some of the major differences in healthcare between a socialized Australian healthcare system and an American system. I’m not advocating that Australian healthcare is perfect, there exists substantial room for improvement. However the existence of a socialized system does not me the absence of third party healthcare. It does not mean a lower quality service, or an oppressive tax system. It really means that everyone has access to essential service that is not designed to profit off the ill.