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Old 06-24-2007, 08:32 AM
tmont tmont is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2006
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Finally, I believe we simply need to “nudge” the real market-makers -- that is the private HMO execs -- into a new reality. How do we do this?

We’ll see in the coming months…
Well, that'll be interesting to watch but I don't see how this can be done in the 'culture of greed' that reigns in the US regarding healthcare. We(or I should say 'you' since I'm outside the system) won't be able to get anywhere at all until caps are put on the prices and profit margins for health services rendered RIGHT ACROSS THE BOARD (and how we do that is beyond me--sometimes I wonder if anything short of mass rioting will make our lawmakers concretely react).

The first step is a broad change in mentality ('ha ha, she's cute'..) to that which is already written in the French Code of Medical Deontology: 'medicine must not be practiced as a commerce' (gee, how many docs/organizations need to read and absorb that one, d'ya think?? ). And no, it's not because you're brilliant and went to medical school and might be up to your eyeballs in debt that you deserve to make money hand over fist at the expense of the people you treat. Yes, you're wonderful and we need you. But why did you go to med school initially? What drives you, the Hippocratic or Hypocritic (al) Oath?

For starters, there should be no ads for meds in magazines and on TV, as prices for drugs should be fixed: treatment should not be based on pharmaceutical warfare, putting the patient in a position to 'ask his doctor' about meds solely based on advertisements rather than medical knowledge!

Secondly, if you pay insurance premiums there should be NO DISCUSSION about any non-cosmetic and FDA-approved procedure being covered. None at all. They take your check every month or trimester, then they should be covering your butt when you need it, period.

I could go on and on ('oh please don't Trace') but the US is supposedly the richest and most technologically advanced nation on the planet and yet prime--hell, skip 'prime' and replace with ' basic and decent'-- medical care seems to be largely reserved for those who can pay for it themselves. It really hurts to watch people struggle to pay for care that includes immorally high profit margins for those who provide treatment, as well as every single element involved in the production/distribution of that treatment.

I'm from 'Taxachussetts' as well but have been outside the country for so long that I will not even pretend to understand HOW what's going on is actually possible (the 'Big Dig' still ain't finished??? Last time I drove through in 2003 there were leaks everywhere; added 3 hours to my total travel time ).

I will say that over the years, on each visit home, I have been struck by--and at times shocked by-- cultural changes insidiously creeping in over time, among them the rampant ads for drugs which use a cheezy, emotionally manipulative approach: 'oh we love you so freaking much; buy our product or ask your doc about it'.

Right. I doubt the makers of that famous pain-killer hit the ground running every morning and go into work thinking 'OOh, I am gonna put SO MUCH LOVE into every pill today'...puh-leeze....

I read comments in the newspapers, and would really love to have the chance to reply directly to the author(s) who criticize this French system about which they know little, yet have decided to cherry-pick data on (probably off the Net), such as the comment above: 'France is starting to restrict access to specialists'.

Uh...not exactly. You can choose to go to a specialist without a referral from your GP, but if you do, at times you pay out-of-pocket. Admitted. But that would be, I believe, something like 25 bucks roughly converted in most cases. "25 bucks??" Oops. Kinda left that cherry on the tree, didn't he??

I am not trying to say that our system here in France is a perfect one, nor that it is THE solution for the US. I don't have enough systemic knowledge of either country to be able to determine if what works in the Hexagon can be applied to a country as large and diverse as the US. However, there are examples to be taken note of, and above all the awareness that what is happening Stateside is neither normal nor acceptable.

People, we need to react all together, on local, state, and national levels, before we've got a chance of really being heard. No government alone can push through the reforms needed without the full weight of a determined and fed-up population behind it.
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