Everyone should see Sick Around the World: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

*long

Invocations (long) cannot be called by Mi1ler because Mi1ler is not privileged - sorry.

Does this count as long? There is a donation plea at the end which doesn't concern the matter of the video.

Oh noes!!! Socialism is eeeeevil!

The proof is in all the people from France and Canada and the UK coming over here illegally for our superior health care!

</sarcsm>

things aren't always what they seem... and while i'm all for a *good* national healthcare system in the us, i think this piece is deliberately trying to compare disparate aspects of us and non-us healthcare systems... to prove a preconceived point (that mccain is *completely* wrong)

for example, i'm an american who has lived in taiwan for over 10 years now -- i am covered by taiwan's national healthcare system here (through employment and taxation), and i must say that it sucks

when this piece interviews a taiwanese doctor and asks how many taiwanese suffer medical bankruptcy in a year, to which the doctor answers, 'none' i believe that the point is completely misleading...

taiwanese don't go bankrupt over medical bills because if they can't afford the secondary care or an expensive life-saving procedure... well, they die -- the attitude here is different, and sadly, many asian countries put a much lower value on life -- heart bypass, organ transplant, chemo, etc, are *not* covered by the national healthcare system -- non-affluent taiwanese just get the word from the doctor on how much such procedures will cost them, nod, and never return... literally

national healthcare visits are provided by swiping your medical id card at any doctor's office or hospital and paying the minimum nt$150 fee (about usd$5) plus any overage on the alloted prescription value per visit -- waiting times aren't much more than a few hours, but the concept of bedside manner is missing completely - a doctor will spend an average of 5-10 minutes per patient, and i've even had them never look up at me from their note-taking (just tell me the symptoms, quickly)

it gets worse, doctors and hospitals are reimbursed through the goverment plan *per card swipe* ... so in virtually every case the healthcare provider will only do so much before telling you to return the next day for another swipe, err examination (you can only swipe once per day), even if this means leaving you in pain or allowing your condition to worsen -- imho, this has to be in contravention of the hippocratic oath (do no harm... even if through inaction)

so why not just return every day for a new swipe and follow-up visit? well, people have to work, and it's extremely unlikely that a person will take a week's worth of half-days just to get something fully checked out (in the work-ethic environment here, it would be tantamount to resigning from your job)

a recent dental checkup of mine went like this...

*swipe*
-wait 1.5 hours
-sit in the chair
-dentist uses a vibrating water-pick to knock some tartar off the back of my teeth
-rinse
-i ask for a flouride treatment (standard in the us) and am told to return the next day
(all of this in less than 10 minutes)
-i return the following day and swipe again to get the flouride, and am told by the dentist that he thinks i may have a cavity
-i'm told to return for another swipe the next day for an x-ray and treatment of the cavity
-i can't ask for another half-day from my employer, so i wait till the weekend and return for the remainder of the treatment
*postscript - the filling fell out while eating sushi two weeks later

for these reasons, most taiwanese with a bit of money buy *private* health insurance plans so that they have a *second* swipecard to whip out and save themselves some hassle and/or a more serious problem due to the mindboggling indifference and inconvenience

keep in mind that my personal experience happened in the capital city, taipei, where many doctors are western-trained and speak english -- i can only shudder to think what healthcare is like in the more rural parts of the island

so again, think twice before accepting any of the glib avowals/disavowals of these international healthcare professionals - imho, it's often a case of comparing one's *good* apple to america's *poor* orange

Well, maybe Taiwan isn't a good example. But here in Europe most things are run quite smoothly. And you get insured for every important health related treatment.

*long

This video has been flagged as being at least 10 minutes in length - declared long by burdturgler.