John Ensign's Gynecologist Speaks

[Boreas]

This guy is a disgrace to his profession. Prostitution, not medicine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuRDFeqmZNk&feature=player_embedded

John

[merrylander]

The best healthcare system in the world?

Jingo bells, jingo bells, jingo all the way:rolleyes:

[Fast_Eddie]

The best healthcare system in the world?

That's what I thought. If I knew who did have the best system I would ask how our health care reform would effect them.

[doucanoe]

Shouldn't we make a distinction between the health care provided and the current cost to the people.

Too involved to go into here, but my wife went through a cancer scare recently. We went from identifying a potential problem to further analysis (CT scans and x-rays) to biopsy and multiple specialists with diagnosis in the course of a few but emotionally taxing days.

I'm not convinced that would happen elsewhere.

A broken system, yes, but I believe the argument could be made that it is in fact the best from a service standpoint.

RC

[Fast_Eddie]

A broken system, yes, but I believe the argument could be made that it is in fact the best from a service standpoint.

I agree with you. Don't mean to get pedantic, but we said "health care system" not "health care". May well be that the best health care on Earth happens in the U.S. for those who have access to the best. However the system is woefully broken.

[merrylander]

Shouldn't we make a distinction between the health care provided and the current cost to the people.

Too involved to go into here, but my wife went through a cancer scare recently. We went from identifying a potential problem to further analysis (CT scans and x-rays) to biopsy and multiple specialists with diagnosis in the course of a few but emotionally taxing days.

I'm not convinced that would happen elsewhere.

A broken system, yes, but I believe the argument could be made that it is in fact the best from a service standpoint.

RC

Well there are some 90,000 people a year who suffer or die from medical errors, strikes me there is room for improvement.

Florence has had more radiation than she should have had. Then there is the agony of that machine from hell. They saw something in the last mammogram and so we went through the waiting. Then the method of getting the biopsy, the Marquis de Sade would be proud. It was benign. I realize that we are a male chauvinist society but dammit there are limits.

I seriously would love to exmine the inventor of that device for testicular cancer - one at a time. The machine is no damn good and comes up with more false positives than enough and it should be scrapped in favor of something better.

There was a profesor at University of Wisconsin working on a method that used radar and it did not even toch the patient. I guess they either bought her off or shut down her research. If you think the military/industrial complex has power try messing with the medical machine industry, you might not get out alive.

I had some of the finest doctors in NorAm treat me when I lived in Canada, their system does not need to take a back seat to anyone. It is this constant braggadoccio that gets on my nerves. What happened to our spirit, we can do better and we know damn well we can do better.

[doucanoe]

Well there are some 90,000 people a year who suffer or die from medical errors, strikes me there is room for improvement.

Florence has had more radiation than she should have had. Then there is the agony of that machine from hell. They saw something in the last mammogram and so we went through the waiting. Then the method of getting the biopsy, the Marquis de Sade would be proud. It was benign. I realize that we are a male chauvinist society but dammit there are limits.

I seriously would love to exmine the inventor of that device for testicular cancer - one at a time. The machine is no damn good and comes up with more false positives than enough and it should be scrapped in favor of something better.

There was a profesor at University of Wisconsin working on a method that used radar and it did not even toch the patient. I guess they either bought her off or shut down her research. If you think the military/industrial complex has power try messing with the medical machine industry, you might not get out alive.

I had some of the finest doctors in NorAm treat me when I lived in Canada, their system does not need to take a back seat to anyone. It is this constant braggadoccio that gets on my nerves. What happened to our spirit, we can do better and we know damn well we can do better.



We can and we will, hopefully.

It gives me comfort in knowing that your real life experiences with the Canadian system were a positive one, Rob. I rely much more on the reporting of real experiences than any article for or nay.

When Kate and my oldest daughter journeyed to Germany, my wife needed to seek medical attention Hamburg. The ended up spending a whole day there trying to get a prescription filled. Granted, That should be no easy task for a foreigner here or there, but spending in spending that day there, Kate came away appalled by the medieval conditions in this major hospital. We don't how well we have it by comparison on many levels.

RC

[noonereal]

A broken system, yes, but I believe the argument could be made that it is in fact the best from a service standpoint.

RC

Well, if you don't have health care coverage the service may not be the same. ;)

[doucanoe]

Well, if you don't have health care coverage the service may not be the same. ;)

I would have to agree. How many people don't, again?

RC

[Boreas]

I would have to agree. How many people don't, again?

RC

It's not just a matter of the number of uninsured. In addition there's the matter of the outrageous cost for those who do have insurance. Then there's the fact that your insurance may not be there for you when you need it because your carrier won't authorize the necessary procedure or you've run through your lifetime benefits or you get "recisioned" because you're beginning to look like a problem or any number of other reasons the insurance company can come up with to save themselves a little money.

John

[Charles]

Well, if you don't have health care coverage the service may not be the same. ;)

I'm a firm believer that if you have to go to the hospital, the best thing to do is to tell them that you DON'T have insurance. They'll patch you up and get you out the door. Tell them you have insurance after the fact.

Tell 'em you have insurance, and good insurance, they'll work on you until you're dead.

I watched them murder my father in law because he did have good insurance. It's not so bad that they killed him, but they made his life pure hell for the last 4 weeks. He would have lived longer and had a better quality of life had he never went to the hospital.

I'm shooting for a massive heart attack myself. I want to be dead when I hit the deck. The last thing I want to happen is to spend my last days being brutalized by the medical profession just because I have good insurance.

Chas

[noonereal]

I'm a firm believer that if you have to go to the hospital, the best thing to do is to tell them that you DON'T have insurance. They'll patch you up and get you out the door. Tell them you have insurance after the fact.

Tell 'em you have insurance, and good insurance, they'll work on you until you're dead.

I watched them murder my father in law because he did have good insurance. It's not so bad that they killed him, but they made his life pure hell for the last 4 weeks. He would have lived longer and had a better quality of life had he never went to the hospital.

I'm shooting for a massive heart attack myself. I want to be dead when I hit the deck. The last thing I want to happen is to spend my last days being brutalized by the medical profession just because I have good insurance.

Chas

I have had enough encounters with this to know you speck the truth.

[Boreas]

I'm a firm believer that if you have to go to the hospital, the best thing to do is to tell them that you DON'T have insurance. They'll patch you up and get you out the door. Tell them you have insurance after the fact.

Tell 'em you have insurance, and good insurance, they'll work on you until you're dead.

I watched them murder my father in law because he did have good insurance. It's not so bad that they killed him, but they made his life pure hell for the last 4 weeks. He would have lived longer and had a better quality of life had he never went to the hospital.

I'm shooting for a massive heart attack myself. I want to be dead when I hit the deck. The last thing I want to happen is to spend my last days being brutalized by the medical profession just because I have good insurance.

Chas

Chas, I'm sorry that you and your family have had such bad experiences in our health care system. I want to point out to you, though, that the problems you describe are all due to the for-profit nature of the system.

I believe it should be illegal for a hospital to be a profit-making enterprise and I'm not far from feeling the same about health insurance. When the bottom line and share value and executive compensation packages become the focus you can be assured that the quality of care will suffer.

John

[tincat]

you will get nowhere w/ the healthcare industry until you take away their monopoly on drugs, equipment and treatment. now, hop around and blather on about addiction and quackery; then go out and turn yourselves over to that anointed class who will kill 90,000 of you next year and bankrupt the rest. talk of tweaking, adjusting, or modifying the 'system' is pure horseshit. individuals can attain a certified(have to be ultra tough on the clowns administering this) level of education and proficiency in various facets of human body function and dysfunction, but that still makes him/her only an advisor to the person in need of those skills-if he/she is too expensive or too onerous in some fashion; there's likely to be a fairly meticulous seamstress down the street who can stitch people up fine-she's gotten quite a few of the certified professional's clients and now is better at it than him/her.

[merrylander]

That for profit prolonging of life by artificial means is the major reason for having a living will and someone with the power to enforce it.

My mother spent her last few years in a good home after it became impossible for my sister to care for her. She had a heart attack at 91 and she asked the doctors in the hospital not to use any heroic measures. The next one took her away, but they did respect her wishes. This all was in North Vancouver, BC. I was on my way to an overseas conference and changed planes in Vancouver so was able to visit her for a few days.

Advising people on the creation of such living wills was what all the 'death panel' flap was about.

[noonereal]

I believe it should be illegal for a hospital to be a profit-making enterprise and I'm not far from feeling the same about health insurance.

Take the profit out of healthcare. ;)