Medical

[Mark_]

At the root of the issue are the questions "What compensation should health care providers receive for their services?" and "As a society, how will we distribute resources so that some or all may benefit from healthcare?".

 

[MarkK]

"What compensation should health care providers receive for their services?" and "As a society, how will we distribute resources so that some or all may benefit from healthcare?".

But this doesn't answer the question I'm posing, not that you are necessarily responding to me.
- We can probably agree that there are basic human rights, like food, shelter, clothing, and we will strive to provide these as a matter of justice. Regardless of how poor they are or for what reasons, if our neighbors are starving, we should act.
- We can likely also agree that it is strictly a matter of economics that you are not entitled to a BMW if all you can afford is a Chevrolet.
- Which of these, as a core value, it Health Care more akin to?

"As a society, how will we distribute resources so that some or all may benefit from healthcare?".

To answer this, you must first answer, "Is healthcare a human right, or a privilege of wealth?" If it's a human right, you will distribute so all will benefit. If it's a privilege of wealth, you will distribute differently.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

• As an ideal or abstraction, is the provision of health care more a concern of justice, or of economics?

In the sense that economics also touches on supply and demand, and that undocumented immigrants in the USA will use emergency services because they can't (safely) establish a regular doctor/patient relationship due to hospital reporting requirements, I think justice is slightly behind the curve. In my area, we are lucky to have two robust hospital groups that attract some decent to very good doctors. But there are still stresses regarding patient-to-doctor ratios that are bound up in supply-and-demand issues.

Speaking from the U.S., I always worked jobs that offered good family health insurance, medical, dental, vision, and so on.

That was, in fact, the reason that I retired 2 1/2 years AFTER my nominal retirement age (which, because of my birth year, was 65 years old). I stayed until 67 1/2 because I was having medical issues and needed a couple of (relatively minor) surgeries. I stayed under the corporate insurance plans for an extra 2 1/2 years and, once things were under better control, I retired. Can't say it was all a bed of roses but I survived it and protected the wife, house, and retirement savings. Even now, we aren't wealthy by my understanding of the word, but we have good retirement healthcare and just have to pinch pennies on some other things - like the fact that I'm driving a 15-year-old mini-van. I'll repair it before I'll replace it despite rising repair cost issues. But for the most part, we are comfortable old folks who don't do extravagant things.

 

[Cotswold]

Whilst Cotswold has accurately summed up a lot of the general publics frustrations with the NHS I for one remain grateful.

While suffering from pneumonia almost 2 years ago and on my second admission to an isolation ward an incidental finding was picked up on a CT Scan showing I had a congenital heart defect (bicuspid aortic valve) which in turn had wreaked havoc in my ascending aorta.

Yeah I waited 12 months for an operation, but after open heart surgery and a new ascending aorta, aortic valve and aortic root I'm back in full health. I had to cover travel costs to and from London for a while but nothing else except an annual prescription payment.

I'll be forever grateful and I certainly met a lot of staff who genuinely did take an interest in me and my after care.

So it's not all doom and gloom!

I am pleased to hear of your successful operation. My son in law had the test for bowel cancer and it was totally clear. Then within three months he was admitted and had half of his bowel and half of his stomach removed. The operation was concluded by preparing him for a reversal and that has now been completed successfully. The treatment he received after the op until he was discharged was first class. Quite brilliant. Their support of our daughter during that time was exceptional. Between the dated of the operation from removal to reversal he also had a cancer removed from his forehead. From diagnosis to removal was only a little over a month. In all of those cases he was lucky on who he met. In fact for the first operation at least one surgeon turned down completing the work due to its complexity. A surgeon from another hospital completed it. A person to which we all will be forever grateful.

Maybe in the after care support in the months following by the GP and general NHS was somewhat more, shall I say casual. But I can only say, that if he had gone private he would not have received better treatment. The big jobs they do well, very well. World class. Just like the police do an excellent job on a major road accident. But tell them you have been burgled, or a store identifies a shoplifter then all you get are excuses.