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Here's a contrasting story. On holiday in Rarotonga, our 2 year old got a chest infection. We made it way up the hill to the hospital. A stray dog watched fro

by abraae 7y ago

Here's a contrasting story. On holiday in Rarotonga, our 2 year old got a chest infection. We made it way up the hill to the hospital. A stray dog watched from the side of the road as we drive into the parking area. No one in sight. Eventually we saw someone who pointed us to a building wherein sat the duty doctor. Super efficient, trained in new Zealand, she examined the sprog, diagnosed him and gave us the appropriate meds. No waiting, all sorted in less than 20 minutes. Finally she said apologetically that we would have to pay - $2.50. She took the money and out it into an old fashioned money box and cheerily sent us on our way.

zanny 7y ago
To be fair that isn't the whole story and doesn't really make for a convincing argument to the contrary. Doctors should be paid well, and in the case of the Cook Islands I assume they have public institutions providing doctors and medicine. In which case, tax payers are paying for it. Which is almost always the most ethical way to do it, and the only really right way we have working practicably in the world today, but it isn't some impossible efficiency that $2.50 supports the costs of operating the hospital, the cost of the drugs, training the doctor, and paying them a wage to justify their skill and expertise required. Its largely where many politicians in the US arguing for fundamental change to the system come from - its really hard to imagine anything much worse than what they US has now. It would actually take considerable effort to design a more inefficient, more obfuscated and incomprehensible, more exploitative and harmful way to organize medicine professionally. People just don't want to acknowledge that the United States federal government is not acting on the behalf of its citizens in its decisions whatsoever. It hasn't for decades, but coming to terms with the dissolution of democracy and the reality that US citizens don't have a meaningful, statistical say in government anymore is a hard pill to swallow, because the answers to the question "what do we do about it, then?" are all ugly.
- abraae 7y ago
  It wasn't meant to be a convincing argument to the contrary - merely a contrasting story. And certainly if I had a rare cancer I would rather be in the Mayo Clinic, as long as my insurance was all lined up. Certainly these are difficult problems to grapple with, and bewildering to people outside the US - the current situation and also the extreme proposals currently being touted.

by abraae 7y ago

zanny 7y ago

To be fair that isn't the whole story and doesn't really make for a convincing argument to the contrary. Doctors should be paid well, and in the case of the Cook Islands I assume they have public institutions providing doctors and medicine. In which case, tax payers are paying for it. Which is almost always the most ethical way to do it, and the only really right way we have working practicably in the world today, but it isn't some impossible efficiency that $2.50 supports the costs of operating the hospital, the cost of the drugs, training the doctor, and paying them a wage to justify their skill and expertise required. Its largely where many politicians in the US arguing for fundamental change to the system come from - its really hard to imagine anything much worse than what they US has now. It would actually take considerable effort to design a more inefficient, more obfuscated and incomprehensible, more exploitative and harmful way to organize medicine professionally. People just don't want to acknowledge that the United States federal government is not acting on the behalf of its citizens in its decisions whatsoever. It hasn't for decades, but coming to terms with the dissolution of democracy and the reality that US citizens don't have a meaningful, statistical say in government anymore is a hard pill to swallow, because the answers to the question "what do we do about it, then?" are all ugly.

abraae 7y ago
It wasn't meant to be a convincing argument to the contrary - merely a contrasting story. And certainly if I had a rare cancer I would rather be in the Mayo Clinic, as long as my insurance was all lined up. Certainly these are difficult problems to grapple with, and bewildering to people outside the US - the current situation and also the extreme proposals currently being touted.