http://news.yahoo.com/nordic-welfare...052604736.html
One line from the article "In Sweden, visitors are sometimes surprised to learn about year-long waiting times for cancer patients, rioting in low-income suburbs and train derailments amid lagging infrastructure investment."
I thought that this article would be interesting after all the discussion we have had here about welfare, right to healthcare etc. from an area that has been held up as a model of cradle to grave care by many here.
I'm glad our trains only blow up and don't derail or anything, derailing would be bad. Only seriously, do trains in Sweden derail more often (taking into account number of trains, milage etc.) than trains in the U.S. and elsewhere? I don't know. You hear stories of trains derailing sometimes here. Because the article doesn't say so it reads like sensationalism: "and what is more a train derailed!"
As for riots that's neither here nor there, it doesn't tell you anything about how bad things are. Avoid rioting by having the largest prison population in the world maybe that's a better model ....
I don't think you're likely to learn much about Sweden from a yahoo news article which reads as very biased. How would you learn? Basically Swedish papers and the like I guess. Possibly following Swedish commentators especially on Twitter and so on. Unless your able to visit Sweden for awhile I guess.
Aren't some of these countries moving forward fairly rapidly in green power? (despite their "lagging infrastructure investment").
Trees don't grow on money
Seeing no data or sources cited behind the any of claims at the link, I don't believe the "year long waiting period for cancer patients" (actually, I don't believe any of what's written there). I am a cancer patient, and every single practitioner I spoke with urged me to move forward on treatment, even when I was considering waiting due to lousy insurance. I do not believe there's a physician on the planet who would tolerate this kind of wait, nor do I believe that there is a health care system that would do so, because of the exponential increases in treatment costs with waiting.
Don't believe everything you read on the Interwebs.
I think you're right, there is no year long wait in Sweden......not anymore. According to a report by the British Columbia Medical Association, in 2003, as an effort to deal with the long waits, a national guarantee of no longer than 6 months was instituted.Originally Posted by redfox
See the linked report for info on wait times in various countries: http://www.bcma.org/files/waiting_too_long.pdf
In 1996 a revised guarantee was introduced that focused on setting maximum wait times for first contact with GPs and outpatient visits to specialists. Then in 2003, a new national treatment guarantee was agreed to. The guarantee is based on the “0-7-90-90” rule, meaning instant contact with the health care system, seeing a GP within 7 days, consulting a specialist within 90 days and waiting no more than 90 days after being diagnosed to get treatment.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
When DW was diagnosed the surgery to remove her melanoma was scheduled for two days after the lab results came back. Here in the USA. That is an acceptable waiting period.
"Back when I was a young boy all my aunts and uncles would poke me in the ribs at weddings saying your next! Your next! They stopped doing all that crap when I started doing it to them... at funerals!"
what is interesting is that it is very difficult to find up to date Statistics from reliable sources. Alan, your link was to a report from 2006, with the research done years before, and a lot has happened since then globally. One thing I learned was that even in many countries people that can afford it buy private health insurance too and wait times were often cited. Current wait times were difficult to find. There is a lot of unrest all around the world, with article after article of the worker bees questioning the money that is going to benefits even in the most generous countries, just like here, as well as more money going to the few at the top.
Despite the money that we have to pay for insurance, I for one know that my experience has been like Gregg's. DH had his melanoma surgery a few days after detection and has subsequent surgeries very timely. I had some odd symptoms last friday, x-ray on my MD visit Monday showed something suspicious and I am scheduled for further testing tomorrow. the MD even called me at home about some results from blood work that are already back. I feel very lucky I was able to get in and there was no hesitation about ordering the testing which my insurance company immediately approved.I can't imagine how agonizing it would be to wait even weeks to get testing and diagnosis.
I think most developed countries are suffering from the same general things. People are living longer, requiring more years of pensions, social security and healthcare. Many countries have had lower wages with jobs outsourced and also more unemployment. Many countries have a low birthrate with fewer young to support the aging population. When times are good, you have to keep up your infrastructure, work on things like energy and save for the bad times so you can meet your obligations to your citizens. that is not always the case.
In the U.S., 49 million people do not have insurance, and many more that had not great insurance could not afford $20K in deductibles for elective surgery, so I would think that would cut down the competition and wait times for doctors.
In the U.S. because of the high cost of medical care, unnecessary surgeries are more of an issue for the well insured rather than long wait times. One of my kids got multiple opinions on a foot injury. One doctor wanted to to major surgery when a different doctor showed him simply how to wrap it to prevent further injury. I had a dentist tell me I needed to have surgery to rebuild my jaw followed by years of braces for a chipped tooth because it was a sign my bite was off. I went to a different dentist, who put some bonding thingie on my tooth. It looks perfect and I have had no issues for over a decade.
You're right, I didn't find any up-to-date stats although I found it interesting in the material I did find that wait times were so long in some countries, and specifically in the country you were challenged on, that the government took great pains over a period of years to bring wait times down to a maximum of 6 months.
Now, I haven't had any personal experience with cancer, although 2 years ago an abnormal EKG suggested that I was on the verge of heart failure. This was discovered at 5pm in the afternoon, I was seen by a cardiologist at 8am the next morning and had a stent installed in the left, descending, anterior artery, commonly known as the "widowmaker" at 2pm. In less than 24 hours I was seen, referred, diagnosed and repaired. I'm not at all sure I could have survived Sweden's 0-7-90-90 guarantee. When I hear folks rave about the "superior", state run medical systems in other countries I can't help but thank goodness for the inferior care we've traditionally been stuck with in our free market system.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
I think most international reports on health care look at a wide variety of metrics such as overall costs, percent of GDP spent on health care, infant mortality, life span and percent of population insured, not just wait times for elective surgeries for a particular segment of the population that has above average group health insurance coverage.
I think if you factor in the wait time for the uninsured and the preACA underinsured who had a wait time of basically "forever" for elective surgery, the U.S. numbers wouldn't look so hot.
If you want to look for isolated areas where U.S. health care is superior to some other countries, I am sure there are more to be found. What counts are the big, overall metrics. On those counts our health care system overall sucks. Check out this chart on our health care costs per capita compared to other countries, and that is with 49 million uninsured:
http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-efficient-health-care-countries
In all sincerity, those metrics mean nothing to a person who dies while waiting.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler." ~ Albert Einstein
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