[lit-ideas] Re: Guess where the USA ranks in terms of health care

Judy: witness British doctors in private practice (almost all of whom of course work also for the NHS and most of whom will only take a patient on referral from their, usually NHS, GP): they do not (IMO/IME) do ops an insurance policy would pay for when they would not do that op on the NHS. Nor do they 'screw' people without insurance who consult them privately.
Universal Health Care (such as exists in Brazil) yields this situation: Doctors are paid the same amount whether they see 5 or 25 patients a day. Patients who present to doctors with symptoms requiring a certain treatment will be told, "Yes we can do this, if you wait four months. On the other hand, if you pay me ___, I'll be able to do the procedure next week."
This extortion is not legal, but it is widespread under the national system...at least according to the Brazilian physician who gave me the information above. It's part of the human condition, I suppose, that whatever system is in place will yield numerous exploitive practices.
By the way, did anyone know the US State department does the same thing (only it's legal) with visa-processing? It's called "premium processing." For an extra fee of $1,000, the State department will process a visa in two weeks that would otherwise take "up to six months." 

Eric
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