Private Health Care vs Public Health Care
Greetings friends,
Today we will discuss a few things but this turned into a private health care vs public health care comparison by none other than yours truly, someone who unfortunately, has received a lot of medical care in his time.
My stay at this hospital is coming to an end. In a perfect world I would NOT have a cracked front right sinus aka frontal lobe aka I have no clue because I’m not a Doctor. That being said, the hospital experience here has been superb. I showed my parents the place on skype video chat today and my dad who is a ridiculous clean freak kept remarking “wow, it’s so clean Robert” and I was like “yeah Dad this place is really clean”. Truth be told, it is really clean.
The nurses were incredibly professional and the Doctors incredibly insightful. It’s weird how back home, it’s “free” but you have to wait around and often times when you get in the Doctor acts like THEY ARE DOING YOU A FAVOR when I feel like slapping them with their these-scope and saying “This is MY LIFE MAN”. Here, they take their job very seriously and you pay “big bucks” so they better. Frankly, I like this setup.
One could argue that in Canada it is “Free” but is it “Free”!?!? It’s only free if you don’t work and collect welfare. If you have a great paying job, you are taxed to Tasmania and back. You almost feel as though the Tasmanian Devil himself tortured you in his tornado of egregious taxation. Let me tell you about a few “experiences” I have had.
I ripped a stomach muscle in a skate competition when I was 16, they thought it was a hernia, they canceled like a month before I was going to get my operation and reschedule, then I tell them “hey, the new one is too close to ski season let me do it later” then when “later came” they said “go see a specialist again”. Of course the specialist said “oh it’s not serious, just a ripped stomach muscle”. So now I’m like, ok, so you were going to open me up for nothing? Or you figure you can just kick me to the curb and save some coin by not opening me up!? Make up your mind man, make it up!! Long story short, I still have that “whatever it is” in my stomach.
Another common scenario is this… People who have lots of money in Canada fly to the USA and get private care. If you have cancer or need a transplant, you are often put on a waiting list. We call it the “death list” because many people die waiting on that list before they get their treatment. If someone offered you a free lunch would you take it? Remember folks, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!
Anyways, I have a “Frontal Sinus Fracture”. I have the most common one and luckily least deadly! I believe this is the one, I’ll confirm again tomorrow, CT scan dude pointed out that my head is holding air in the cavity, I think that’s good as he only gave me thumbs up.
ANTERIOR TABLE FRACTURES
“These represent the most common fractures and the least complex of the frontal sinus fractures. These are very rarely associated with injury to the drainage system or CSF leak. Linear, nondisplaced anterior table fractures may be managed by observation and close follow-up evaluations to ensure that the sinuses remain clear and air containing. Minimally displaced anterior table fractures with no gross external deformity may be managed by observation. However, if there is any question as to the possibility of a noticeable deformity in the future, the fracture should be explored. Grossly displaced anterior table fractures require reduction and fixation in the anatomic position to restore the normal forehead contour. Titanium microplates are generally preferred over wires and other techniques. Fixation may not be necessary in minimally comminuted fractures if the bone is stable after reduction. “
My fracture is 3.5cm long and 4mm deep, is that a lot? I dunno but my face is looking better and I’m feeling better. I realize the healing will take time and I’ll have to be very “slow and steady aka living like a grandpa styles”. No bikes, no moto’s only walking and taxi’s while ALWAYS looking both ways a few times first.
Do I plan on going back to Canada? Absolutely! Do I plan on jumping on the NEXT plane home and doing cart wheels and somersaults so I can wait in line and have some dude look me over quickly and say “you’re fine” and whatnot? Then afterward spend like $15 on the most horrible “Chain Restaurant” food known to man or like $60-$80 for a good steak at a place that I don’t feel the need to clean the silverware with my napkin!? Then go get a lackluster coffee for $1.50 and eat a sh!tty sub for $5us!?
I know I need to be monitored which is no problem, my hotel is ~5 minute walk from this hospital and I can tell the ladies at the front desk that if I don’t walk out in the morning and greet them with my usual fun loving spirit in broken Vietnamese to ask if I’m ok. Done. If I need a CT scan, I can afford it, done. Also, I need pain killers for next week or two, here they are DIRT CHEAP.
Check this, before I left Canada I was given like 5 pills in case of “stomach bug” aka 1 dose and it cost me $55CDN, here I had a horrible bug and it cost me $4US and it was gone… I don’t get it to be honest. If you had no money, free health care is definitely best but if you do have money I’m going with private is better in a major way for anything that requires prompt intense treatment. Also, had this happened in Canada, I’d of been sent home immediately.
Furthermore, this whole “Free” is a misnomer. People work to get health insurance in Canada as well, if you don’t you have to pay ridiculously high prices for any type of medication as most people “just have insurance pay for it”. All those part time workers or shift workers in Canada have no benefits, that is why the Emergency rooms are clogged, let me get to that…
I’m not knocking Canada it’s a great country and I’m very happy and proud to be Canadian but free health care is NOT what you think it is and emergency rooms are always crowded, why you ask? Well it’s free so people who don’t go to a regular doctor / have “benefits” just wait until they fall apart and show up. Picture it like this…. A normal Doctor is like a Jiffy lube oil change / brake specialist, you take your car (you) for oil changes, small adjustments etc… If you don’t do these routine maintenance things… Eventually you break down and get towed to the hospital which is a major mechanic. That didn’t come out the way I planned, ha.
Truth be told, freak accidents aren’t “that common” for your average person living a normal life. If you have any money management skills, you should be able to pay for it no problem. It would suck but you should be able to pay for it in cash or arrange some type of private insurance. The issue is most people have the money management skills of a monkey. They can’t afford a CT scan or an other treatment because they are busy paying 20% on a wide screen HD TV that they can only MAYBE watch for 2-5 hours a day because the rest is at work, commuting to work or prepping for work.
Anyways, I move out tomorrow. I do have a mangled head so I will take it easy. I plan on staying in Hoi An until the end of the month or around there then returning home. Things are progressing here and I’m still “iffy” about 27 hours of air travel with a cracked sinus.
I remember being really upset when I had to go to the ATM to get $$$ before they would treat me. Then later upon reflection, I realized that had I been in Canada and not bleeding to death, I’d of probably still been just sitting in the emergency room had there been any type of auto accident or “anything more serious” in front of me.
If Obama plans on giving free health care to 300,000,000+ people when currently they have no real infrastructure and are up to their eyeballs in debt… Americans will soon be flying to Panama for health care unless they allow 2 tier systems, trust me. Not to mention he has to be living in a techno color dream world where trees are made from sweet candy and it rains sugary gum drops that taste delicious AND clean your teeth.
Sincerely,
“Scarface”
Amen!!! And oh my goodness!! we should skype soon to catch up, when will you be on next???
couldn’t agree more m’man!!!
Keep on feeling better! I knew a frontal lobe fracture couldn’t slow you down tooo much!
Very profound and well written. Gets you thinking.
Jill, whenever I’m online I am on skype.
Wilz – No doubt, no doubt, would take a mack truck.
Bean – Thank you.
“The issue is most people have the money management skills of a monkey.”
Yup. I’ve long thought that this need be addressed in some more structured manner.
Ensuing tangent: Money management is SO CRITICAL to success in the world. It’s not that I’m overly materialistic, so stop chastising me for that. But how obtuse do you have to be to ignore the fact that money makes the world go round? Like it or not, that’s reality. Learn to manage your money, people. Ask for help if you need it.
I think “They” whoever “they” may be purposely keep you ignorant to money so you can fall in financial murder holes. As a result of such falls, “they” have a guaranteed workforce.
Most people are slaves to the system and the sad part is, they attached their own chains. Also there is a weird phenomena of people getting deep in debt trying to act “rich”. You don’t get rich acting rich, and you can’t “fake it until you make it”.
I have other things to say but those are for another post. Your thoughts are always most welcome, kind sir.
As someone who just came across this post after seeing a link on Twitter, I can’t help but comment by stating a couple points. First, you’re there as a traveler paying for private services, but for its own citizens, Vietnam has a public healthcare system (see, for example, http://www.vietnamembassy-usa.org/news/story.php?d=20070403132005). So in that sense, the situation isn’t different to Canada – as a traveler, or a recent new immigrant (having been in the country for less than three months), in Canada you also have to pay for any healthcare you may need out of your own pocket.
Second, you’re absolutely right that there are no free lunches. Any healthcare, public or private, has to be funded by someone. But the argument for public funding is that when the money is centrally collected in taxes, the system is more efficient and better controlled than if the money was collected individually, through private means, only when people use the system, or through a complex web of private insurances, like in the US. And indeed, the situation in the USA proves that a private healthcare system can become much, much more expensive to manage than public, government funded healthcare: despite the fact that not all US citizens are covered by any healthcare, the United States has the third highest public healthcare expenditure per capita in the whole world.
All systems, whether public or private, can over time become mismanaged. The fact that Canada’s healthcare system currently sports long waiting times and compares rather poorly to public healthcare systems in Europe (http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/opinion/story.html?id=1ada3ef3-ffb2-499a-8d63-b79b5d15474f) doesn’t mean that all public healthcare is bad.
Third, I think it’s a little useless to compare costs between Vietnam and Canada. Labor costs in Vietnam are much lower than in Canada, and so is much everything else. What to a traveling Canadian is cheap in Vietnam because it costs only $4 can be very expensive to a Vietnamese who only makes the equivalent of $2 a day.
Interesting and thanks for your thoughts.
I went today and chatted with my friends and they told me if they go to any hospital here they have to pay. “Nothing is Free in Vietnam”.
I would say that when the gov controls it, they start thinking in regards to “rationing” so only the most severe cases get done. I believe if you work hard you should have access to the best possible medical procedures and services possible.
On the topic of comparing costs, I’m talking from the point of a foreigner. We buy our clothes from China because it’s cheaper for the same job, why not talk that way for medical? People travel around the world for medical purposes. We’d have a thriving textile industry in Canada were it not for the “overinflated wages” in relation to the rest of the world.
I don’t think within a nations borders. I think globally and many other people are starting to as well / have been for quite some time.