[lit-ideas] Re: The flu
- From: Judy Evans <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:20:24 +0000
Another question is, how can your insurers get away with this? I suspect
because they have no NHS competing with them. Still, it's staggering.
I have cheap medical insurance my bank talked me into taking out. I don't
really believe in private medicine, but thought I'd never need it (waiting
lists in York and the region were almost non-existent). Then I moved here:
*waiting lists*. I injured my knee -- both knees, it emerges. The insurers paid
for physio but after a letter from the physio said they would no longer cover
my knees as they didn't cover chronic conditions for treatment only aimed at
relieving the pain, would only pay for treatment that cured it. I was told I
should challenge the legality of their doing that but they went out of
business. The company they recommended instead are *good*: they cover anything
covered by the previous one. They don't anyway pay for that kind of physio (on
this kind of policy) but if I need knee ops they will pay (they told me), and
their rules say clearly that the op does not have to cure the condition. But
then I ended up with the best medical insurers here.
Also here there is no such category as totally uninsurable.
Incidentally, a lot of our doctors are greedy too. France can afford its system
(but may not be able to for much longer) partly because doctors there are paid
less than they are here. Spanish doctors are paid considerably less well
(Spanish doctors move here to work...). My GPs now work a 4.5 day week with a
long lunch hour and have a new appointments system that has led to hardly any
patients ever going there... yes it's still "free", but my taxes and NI
payments helped pay these people's incomes. The Labour Govt that brought in
the NHS made a mistake, they should have forced GPs to work as salaried
employees and made specialists do most of their work for the NHS: they and we
have paid for that mistake...
-- there is still, of course, NHS out-of-hours cover, but it's mainly being
contracted out (the GPs decided they didn't want to do it...), and done on the
cheap. It was fine when I used it but only because I got a good nurse (doctor?
what doctors!) who called A and E. And I live very near the University
Hospital.
**** these doctors, I say.
Jac> (mailto:lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Sent on:
>> The thing that I don't understand at all, is how you
>> can spend that much on healthcare and still not have
>> universal coverage?
Jac> ck: I hope some thinktank is working on this one. In the meantime, I'll
Jac> proffer a few guesses related to corrupt fat cats, lack of regulation,
and a
Jac> astonishing amount of unchecked greed. For one thing, prescription drugs
in
Jac> the US are more expensive than anywhere else in the world. (How much more?
Jac> Double, triple, etc. Depends on the drug.) Other factors are the extremely
Jac> well-nourished insuranceb(health and liability) and pharmaceutical
Jac> industries themselves, which enter into the overall healthcare costs in
many
Jac> studies.
han a few
--
Judy Evans, Cardiff, UK
mailto:judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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