Government vs Private Medical Care

protectionist

Diamond Member
Oct 20, 2013
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This isn’t going to be complicated. Until I was in my late 50s, I never went to a hospital, and never needed medical care. Then when I started needing it, it came at a time when, in between jobs, I had no insurance.

I soon learned the disadvantage of private medical care. Over a period of 5 years, I went to the ERs of 5 different private hospitals. Each time, with no insurance, I was ignored with hospital personnel just waiting for me to get mad, and walk out in a huff.

Instead, I threatened to bring charges against them under the EMTALA law (which requires ERs to treat anyone who walks in). Only then, after frustratingly long waits, did I get treatment (of a minimal degree).

Moral of the story ? The private hospital exists not to see that you’re well, but to make money. You don’t have any ? (or any insurance?) They’re not interested in you.

Soon afterward, I got a job that gave me full insurance. I saw a doctor regarding a reddish mark on my face. He said it was a squamous cell carcinoma, and set up a surgery for me. I’ll never know if it really was a cancer.

In any case, I got the surgery complete with private room, all the trimmings, and people asking me if I needed this or that, every half hour or so. This is called overtreatment, with the hospital raiding my insurance company for every dollar they could squeeze out of it.

Now let’s look at the government health care side. Massively late in life, I finally signed up for medical care with the VA. Now, the worry I the reverse of the private medical system. The problem now might be undertreatment, with the hospital and doctors not gaining by how much they do for me. Hopefully, this won’t result in less care than I need.

The bright side of the government (VA) care is that multiple doctors and nurses are involved in just about any treatment you receive. This keeps each one of them doing their jobs fully, since each of them are checks upon one another. Each know that if they undertreat you, they could be exposed, and reported by the others.
 

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