The column written by Dr. John Quick is truly an "American" perspective based on "American" news input. While it is certainly a fact that our health care system must be reinvented, socialized health care is not the answer for our progressive country or compatible with our unique American culture.
I am suspect of the Fox News survey cited by veterinarian Quick in his column. We personally have three generations of American family members living in Canada. One was trained and worked in the U.S. as an ICU nurse. Her experiences with the Canadian socialized health care system have infused our family with gratitude for our American system. Fox News might do well to survey the U.S. and Canadian border crossings to determine just how many Canadians enter the U.S. for medical treatment. Further, Fox News and others, would do well to survey American hospitals located near the border. Canadian citizens routinely cross over to the U.S. to access "real" and urgent care from the American system.
My husband travels to foreign countries several times a year. During his decades of business travel, he has been cared for by socialized health care systems. In one situation, after expediting a medical release from the U.K., he flew to the U.S. and met his physician at the emergency room immediately after deplaning to acquire a higher standard of care and to obtain the appropriate diagnosis and treatment. He has "escaped" from the health care offered in China and Caribbean countries. Many times we fled well-developed countries together to rush home to access the American health care system. Our horrifying socialized medical care incidences in several countries over the decades can only be classified in the "yikes" category of experiences. We are personally familiar with the systems offered in the U.K., continental Europe, Asia, Middle East and southern hemisphere. There is nothing like personal experience to drive home the fact that America offers the best health care on the planet.
I have visited our international friends during their stays at hospitals. The American press and its politicians are completely ignorant of the "hidden" costs many socialized health care systems pass onto families. For example, I doubt American women can be responsible for preparing all hospital meals and bathing an ill family member during hospitalizations. American families are struggling to take care of their children with the help of schools, day care and healthy grandparents. We have a different culture and family structure in America. We cannot "donate" family members to act as nurse's aids, prepare meals and sleep on cots as they tend to their hospitalized loved ones. This socialized health care structure is heavily dependent upon its female citizens to contribute free labor while forcing these same women to ignore other family responsibilities. This cost-savings scheme is occurring in highly developed societies.
The BBC recently ran a report comparing the U.K. and U.S. health care systems. It cited numerous examples of women in the U.K. diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer who were denied treatment. As a cost saving measure, the funds were diverted to other patients with a more promising prognosis. The government literally selects who will die the soonest. Solid information gathering combined with in-depth reporting and international awareness is the BBC's News composition.
It is my wish that all of us - especially our politicians - be informed on all aspects of this issue before legislating sweeping changes under the guise of balancing our budget. Currently, we are comparing apples to oranges in terms of actual costs, standard of care, waiting time for services, technology, etc. I grimace at the huge mistake awaiting us if we don't get the "real facts," ask the proper questions and perform authentic due diligence. Our health care system, unlike many others, is adversely affected by other U.S. systems in need of adjustment, such as the influence of unbridled damage awards, frivolous litigation and malpractice insurance rates.
America was founded by incredibly enlightened human beings. We have become the greatest country in the world because of our ingenuity and strong value system honoring human life and demanding quality standards of living based on personal freedom of choice without government overbearance and incompetence. Balancing our budget by stooping to mediocrity is simply un-American. Throwing out the baby with the bath water is neither fiscally responsible nor prudent. We can salvage the superior portions of our health care system while removing deficiencies, inequities and controlling fraud and costs creating yet another worldwide respected and emulated American invention.
In every crisis throughout history we have invented our way to resolution. It's time for our leaders to stand up and get inventive. They owe it to our founding fathers, to us and to future generations. Perhaps constructive change is to put an end to career politicians and return to true patriots as leaders of our country. Are we going to go down in history as the generation that threw America away?
Judy Berkman is a Morgan Hill resident.
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