Today was shot for productive work, but I was able to observe American health care in action.
My wife had extreme abdominal pain. I got off the phone, loaded her into the truck, and we took off for the local, community, hospital.
20 minutes later we were at the hospital. This is faster than we could have gotten EMS to the house and for them to transport her to the same hospital.
When we got there, I parked right in front of the doors. Went inside and grabbed a wheelchair. This was noticed by the intake personnel.
I load my wife into the chair, reach across the cab to turn off the truck, and grab my keys. Then locked the truck and just left it there.
The intake lady apologetically quickly finished what she needed, about 2 or 3 minutes. My wife is in pain, and her moans of pain are carrying very well.
The first thing she says as she looks up was “She’s already on the board. They will see her as soon as they can.” She had started things moving when we entered the ER.
The intake person gets her name, does person verification, hands me the wristband to put on my wife. Total time, maybe 3 minutes.
“We’ll deal with the insurance paperwork after you are seen.”
We are now waiting for the ER staff to get things started.
5 minutes later, the triage nurse opens the door to the triage room and gets my wife moving into the room. He asks me to wait. I tell him I’m going to move my truck and be there waiting for him.
They do this separation to be able to ask abuse questions safely. For all they knew, the pain she was in could have been caused by me.
She was under care, getting treatment in less than 15 minutes from entering the ER.
Once she was in process, there was a delay before she had her first meds onboard. This is because they had to have some idea of what was happening before they could medicate her. They got a bunch of fluids into her. Some pain meds and things settled.
She’s home, recovering.
Conclusion
American health care is darn good. It is responsive. People get seen, and they get taken care of rapidly.
While there, the ED had at least a dozen more people come in. Everyone was treated the same. All got served.
I would have hated to have this happen in a “free” health care country. The cost my be free at point of service, but the wait times and access to the actual health care are normally pretty damn bad.
First, I’m glad your lady is okay.
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“Free” healthcare is not free, except for those who have no job. Everyone who has a job is paying for it. It’s just harder to see that as clearly from inside the system – much like welfare costs in the US, it’s just another chunk of taxes paid and not broken out as such.
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And as with most things, making it appear “free” devalues it in the eyes of those getting it. It also disconnects incentives for the providers to be better, faster, less expensive, etc.
Hope your lovely bride recovers quickly and completely.
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And, I have seen what happens in a “free” healthcare country. What you described would have resulted in the truck getting towed, and likely you getting arrested. The shining star (per the socialists) is the NHS. Drive to the ER, and find out they are prioritizing the ambulances over walk ins for most cases. But, the ambulances are full of patients that are gaming the system to get in faster, average wait is like four hours. Which ties up the paramedics as well as the ambulance.
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Then, the ER folks will stabilize you (if you need that level of care) and move on to the next patient. You may get a gurney in the hallway, a room, or have to sit in the waiting room. If you are old enough or sick enough, they will admit you, and a doctor that specializes in whatever you were diagnosed with will see you… eventually. If you are healthy enough to walk around, they will send you home and tell you to expect a letter in four to six weeks with an appointment for a scan, blood tests, or whatever to confirm the diagnosis.
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And, I am not kidding about that at all. I know of people who occupied an ambulance for over four hours because they had an infection in their foot. And I know of one man who required emergency surgery to remove a portion of their small intestine, but was sent home without any effort to find out why. “The surgery was successful, you can go home.” “Why did it happen?” “I have no idea, I am just the surgeon. They will send you a letter with an appointment for a scan or MRI to find out why.”
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Are there reasons to criticize the US healthcare system? Sure, no system is perfect. But despite those critiques, we still have a damned good system, and I would not want to give it up for the NHS.
Holland is not precisely a “free health care” country in the British sense, or the Canadian one — instead, it’s somewhat between that and Obamacare. You’re required to have insurance, which is “free” if your income is low but you pay for it if you make middle class or better wages.
Anyway, one of my sisters got Lyme disease. It was diagnosed and she was treated (antibiotics). After a while, symptoms either persisted or returned, I don’t remember. She went back for more treatment. She was told “can’t do that — you were given the standard treatment so you must be cured.”
A 100% bureaucratic answer. I would expect nothing less from government run health care.
If I remember right, Canada is like the UK but worse. The reason is that the UK allows you to get healthcare via other channels, you just have to pay for it. But Canada prohibits that. (Well, I think you can leave the country for care elsewhere such as in the USA. But within Canada it’s the government offering or nothing.)
There is a thriving private healthcare system in the UK. In fact, I had a friend get so frustrated by the NHS that he paid over 16,000 pounds sterling to get a necessary operation at a private hospital. And, even that rate was not too bad compared to the overly regulated and insurance driven US system. A full abdominal wall reconstruction for about $25K? You cannot even get a hangnail clipped for that price in the US.
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See what competition does for everything. Reduces prices and improves service.