Senator Barack Obama wants to bring in health care for all Americans. Has he taken a look at the Irish system? It might be of some benefit to open those starry eyes filled with wonder.
Will the Obama system allow doctors see patients in a private practice? That's a bit of a problem in the Emerald Isle, as physicians make more money seeing people who can afford to buy their own health insurance. Then when someone with nothing more than national health coverage comes calling, there aren't many slots open for consultations. And so the poor have to wait. Months in some cases. Literally, waiting to see a specialist and if they die in the meantime, sure and 'tis a pity.
Will the Obama system allow hospitals to offer beds to those with private insurance? Ireland has a few hospitals that are not open to those on the national health, run for profit by independent companies. The government runs the rest, and they have beds set aside for people carrying private insurance. Should all those beds be filled, and someone with government coverage gets sick, they end up on a trolley in the hallway.
Every so often, the newspapers run horror stories about old pensioners being housed outside of a room, as there is no room at the inn, so to speak. No hot meals served in the corridor, so Granny makes do with a cold ham sandwich. Not a pleasant prospect for the elderly, to be spread out in a drafty corridor, everyone walking by, hoping that no one gets tangled in the drip line and pulls out the I.V.
Mary Harney, the current Minister for Health, is trying to force through a new contract between the government and the country's doctors. Physicians want to see more private patients and she wants them to see more public cases, but who wants to work a job that pays less when the same work is available at a higher rate of return? She'd like to hire a boat load of consultants to work public practice only, at a higher salary than the current level, and then she would like to force doctors to work the number of government mandated hours on public care.
The costs to the Exchequer are phenomenal as it is, and it will only go up if doctors are to be compensated adequately (in their minds) for seeing poor people. The two sides are in talks, and discussions are going nowhere. Ms. Harney is trying to reform the health care system, with one eye on the money and the other on the outraged voters who want better health care. There is no middle ground, actually. What with capitalism so entrenched, any attempts to introduce more socialism get pounded down into pulp. And due to capitalism, it's the poor at the bottom of that pile, taking the brunt of the pounding.
Would any American citizen not try to buy their own insurance so that they could be seen by the doctor of their choice? Would the Obama plan result in a two-tiered health care system, one for the poor and one for those who would do anything to get their hands on private insurance? Is that any different than the situation now in Chicago's county hospital? Mr. Obama, being a
Chicago resident, must surely be aware of the public care alloted to the poor of Cook County. Does he think that expanding this system from the county level to the national level is a good thing?
It sounds lovely, to prattle on about taking care of everyone. So charitable and kind, but one has only to look to Europe to see how much of a disaster it is, financially as well as socially. All men are created equal, but that's pretty much where the equality stops.
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