Two-Tiered Health Care

[pandamao]

The other day I was standing in the emergency ward of the tiny Montfort hospital and was appalled at what I saw before me. Not only were the beds all full, but the beds were so full that an elderly man on a ventilator was shoveled off to some hallway, strapped like a psych ward patient to his ambulance cart. They were waiting for a bed somewhere to

Comments

[crudmonkey]

Right, so. Objections to two-tiered health care

[pandamao]

I don't know the UK system that well. If their public hospitals are having the same problems we are, then they're not any worse off. Two-tiered health would not cost the government anymore, so the same funding attention could be given to the public system as before. At least the private hospitals would have to spend efficiently because they're accountable to stock holders and have to generate profit margins. And they would have to offer competitive rates to entice new patients to move over. So we would have at least some efficient hospitals

[crudmonkey]

About lightening the burden. You'd THINK that it would lighten the burden, but in practice it doesn't really seem to. I don't know why this is, other than the fact that there are probably significantly fewer fabulously wealthy people. (Other, somewhat unrelated point: poverty among the elderly is an issue as well - not everyone has a fantastic retirement package

[pandamao]

Many immigrant doctors are already working in our hospitals - mainly, the ones from accredited schools. So steps are being made in this direction. There are a lot of second-rate Universities in India that give away MDs and PhDs like candy. The people working in cabs who claim to have PhDs are either full of shit or have degrees from these lesser schools. Most educated Indians will tell you that because they know the BS that goes on back in the homeland (watch some Russell Peters). I'm sure that applies to certain other countries as well