I had a customer buy a mattress from me to take with her to India for surgery a couple of years ago.

At least the India example is a model that makes sense, a certain quality level at a more competitive price.

The insurance model is whacked, I agree with Prudence that the insurance company incentive is to deny coverage. The gatekeeper role is they play is a huge pain in the ass as anyone whose dealt with it knows. But even the programs intended to mitigate are difficult to deal with. I have a health care reimbursement account, I contribute pretax dollars for health care expenses, but sometimes getting them to pay is like pulling teeth. Or weird things like the Insurance not paying because they didn't receive a bill from the MD office in 90 days - hey if insurance doesn't have to pay under those conditions why should I? For god's sake we're already funding a huge bureaucracy - can we somehow kill that one without building another?

OK, I'm venting now over my own frustrations with the existing system. I don't know what the solution is, but this can't be the best way of doing things.

Canadians Waiting Longer for Medical Treatment in 2006 According to Annual Survey

From the article -

and....

Waiting for medical services in Canada: lots of heat, but little light

The problems are immense. Not anecdotal in the least.

Oh fine; just muck things up with the facts :D

Well, Kevy Baby is the one who brought Canada specifically into the discussion, so I guess it's okay if he dances on the grave of that particular sidebar.

This topic seems on the verge of reaching the endless barking circle stage, so, I'm signing off of it, left wondering along with a lot of others, is our current system the best we can do?

As I recall the story, it was about employer health plans requiring people to go to India for their surgery. It may be irrational, but I'd take a lot of convincing that I'd be just as likely to come out alive over there as at UCSF.

Interesting to note that in Denmark and Finland, roughly 80-90 percent of the people are satisfied with their (universal) health care. In America, 40% are satisfied. So, perhaps the Canadian model isn't our only option.

Here is an interesting study: US Healthcare System: Best in the world or just most expensive?

For the record, the link is a PDF file.

Our youngest son was a high-risk pregnancy for Crystal that included too-many-to-count visits to the doctor and required our son to be born at UC Davis Med Center. Everything was covered and/or preapproved by our large, nationally known health insurance company. After Todd was born, the bills started rolling in.

Basically, Crystal spent 14 months fighting the insurance company over every fvcking expense. Everything was covered but they did their damndest to screw us. Crystal battled and battled and in the end we incurred no out-of-pocket expenses. But Crystal spent hundreds of hours on the phone forcing the insurance company to do what they were supposed to do.

So I'm fine with the current system....as long as I'm allowed to take matters into my own hands when they pull out their Fvck You Over stick. But, alas, i cannot. So give me a bloated universal health care system over legalized corporate piracy any day.

I, too, have spend way too many hours on the phone disputing bills that should have been paid without question. It's been a real and gorwing problem and it really shouldn't be.

I'm always baffled why people put so much stock in our healthcare system. Is it because we are American therefore making whatever we do the best? Is it because we are one of the richest countries in the world, so logically our healthcare system should be the best?

Having a baby? Congratulations! You're baby would be more likely to survive it's first year of life in 35 other countries. (Granted, this is due as much to cultural practices as it is Medical, but still.)

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the rest of our medical system was just as subpar. Our dental association just now recognized that mercury in fillings may be damaging to your health. Nearly every other industrialized country eliminated them years ago. I'm sure there are loads of examples just like that.