Health Care frustration

After reading a friend's blog, I feel the need to respond. Actually I have three reasons to write my opinons about the health care system and insurance. 1)because I am very opinionated 2)because I've had good and bad experiences with it and 3) because I've had two glasses of wine and am feeling very chatty. Yes I know,I'm a light-weight, but I don't drink often so two glasses does it for me.

Okay, before I start on my soapbox, I have to say that we (i mean America) have some very talented people working within our health care system. There are some amazing nurses and techs and doctors. People who go above and beyond what they are required/expected to do in order to give their patients the care they need and deserve. Now I'll say it, our system is a disaster. We have 46 million people uninsured (16%). This doesn't even include those people who were underinsured. That is, have insurance that doesn't even come close to covering their expenditures. And about 70% of these people had someone in their family with a full-time job. My age group is the worst about having people uninsured. Fresh out of college and your parents insurance, you start a new job that either doesn't offer insurance or you just can't afford to pay it. I have gone a few months here and there without insurance and I've gotta say that it's scary. Of course with my luck, I accrued some major medical expenses during that time. And America is the only developed country that has this much of a problem with health care. Most other developed countries have some form of universal/government subsidized health care. And they don't have that because they are spending more money than us on health care. I'm making comparisons with Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. Our government actually pays a higher % of our GDP (16%) for health care than other countries (the closed being Germany and Switzerland with 11%). So maybe our trade off is that we pay more money out-of-pocket but we get better care. Well not exactly. We have a shorter life expectancy and a higher infant mortality than all of these countries. Plus we have more medical errors and less access to the doctor for acute care (i.e same day appts). The only thing that we do have is a shorter wait for a specialist. So, if you're sick then you are screwed, but if you need to get your botox then come in right away.

I guess right now I am just frustrated. Frustrated that the very people who need help can't get it. Frustrated that I live in one of, if not the most powerful countries in the world but my family, friends and I can't afford to get the health care that we need. Frustrated because I am going to be working in this mess of a system. I'm going to have patients that I know I have the capability to help but can't because they can't afford to pay for treatment. I know that it is going to break my heart to turn people away, but I know that I just can't not charge for care. And I'm frustrated because no one is doing anything about the problem. The Republican (Health Savings Account) plan will help the middle-class and healthy people but do nothing for the people who really need help. And the democrats, well I don't know that they have a plan.