This Space for Rent

It’s the most wonderful healthcare system in the whole wide world

A paraplegic man wearing a soiled hospital gown and a broken colostomy bag was found crawling in a gutter in skid row in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly being dumped in the street by a Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center van, police said.

The incident, witnessed by more than two dozen people, was described by police as a particularly outrageous case of "homeless dumping" that has plagued the downtown area.

(from The Chicago Tribune LA Times)

A "case of homeless dumping that has plagued the downtown area.", eh? That would certainly explain why the driver dumped the patient, then sat there and applied makeup before driving back to the hospital. And for this sort of compassionate treatment the USA spends almost twice as much per capita for heathcare than Canada does (more than that if you exclude the 43 million (1.3 Canadian populations) people who don't have health insurance in this godforsaken banana republic.)

(link via My Blagh)

Comments


I married a Canadian medical professional, and you have no concept of what you are talking about - absolutely none.

I, on the other hand, have total access to the horror stories of - what you believe - Canada’s “perfect socialized health care system”.

You will see more - especially if California goes socialist with their healthcare - of what you posted. Their will be ugly choices made to accommodate the already overflowing emergency rooms - most of which are packed with illegal aliens.

Enjoy the ride!

JustaDog Sat Feb 10 09:29:02 2007

So you married a “Canadian medical professional”, eh? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.

I’ve *seen* the wingnut arguments before, and I’ve seen the multitude of studies that pretty much point and laugh at those arguments. When the only wingnut arguments are friend of a friend stories (with a soupçon of “socialist” sprinkled on top to make it palatable to your dimwitted friend,) they don’t compare very well against all the studies, surveys, reports of GDP expenditures, etc etc etc that come from the rational side.

Find a compelling argument and try to keep from bringing up the loathsome SoCred arguments dating back from 1966, please.

David Parsons Sat Feb 10 11:21:17 2007

Perfect? Not hardly, especially since there’s a continuous lobbing effort on the part of medical services and pharmaceutical companies to run it on a for-profit basis. (and various politicians who are morally offended by poor people not suffering…)

It’s oddly enough Alberta where they’ve done the best recent job of efficient organization; I would guess that the hospital administrators are the most scared, there. But having done it, it can be pointed to as an example, and be used other places, and all.

But, be that as it may, the darn thing works pretty well. When deathly ill and unemployed, I got the necessary medical treatment, to, you know, not die. As a result, I got better and found work and last year paid not quite the median Canadian employed person income in taxes. This year will be about that much again, provided I avoid falling under a bus. So the public return in investment is, in my case and in the general case, pretty good.

If I was an American citizen, instead of a Canadian, I’d be stone dead.

You can’t have a market if no one can refuse to buy, and that’s the case with health care. No market, no market solution.

Graydon Sat Feb 10 13:44:27 2007

Comments are closed