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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAn American got sick in Taiwan. He came back with a tale of the 'horrors of socialized medicine.'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2019/03/01/an-american-got-sick-taiwan-he-came-back-with-tale-horrors-socialized-medicine/An American got sick in Taiwan. He came back with a tale of the horrors of socialized medicine.
By Eli Rosenberg
February 28 at 10:50 PM
Kevin Bozeat, a 25-year-old student, wrote about coming down with severe gastrointestinal symptoms while studying in Taiwan: stomach cramps, bouts of vomiting that would not abate and, perhaps worst of all, the inability to keep any fluids down.
Around 3 a.m., he decided it was time to go to the hospital for treatment, not knowing what to expect having never been to a hospital in Taiwan a country that has a national health-care system, or as Bozeat wrote, socialized medicine."
He was checked in and given IV fluids within 20 minutes of his arrival. Phlebotomists drew blood and the lab ran tests on it. Hospital techs performed an ultrasound to make sure he didnt have gallstones or appendicitis. And eventually they diagnosed stomach flu, gave him two prescriptions and discharged him.
Each day since Ive gotten progressively better and am now pretty much back to normal, Bozeat wrote. The bill for the ER visit? .?.?. US $80.00.
He sarcastically titled his tale The Horrors of Socialized Medicine, noting he didnt even have health insurance in Taiwan or the United States. If he had Taiwans national health insurance, his costs would have been a fraction of $80, he wrote.
SCantiGOP
(13,871 posts)Trying to force health care on people.
Read that twice and then try to understand how the mind of a Teabagger works.
George II
(67,782 posts)PatrickforO
(14,574 posts)packman
(16,296 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)his hamburger.
George II
(67,782 posts)...in the ground beef when she made hamburgers.
Now even the thought of that gives me the creeps.
cannabis_flower
(3,764 posts)I used to make tuna salad when I was a kid. I heard someone say that putting a little mustard in the tuna salad gave it a good flavor. I'd been making the tuna salad with about two teaspoons of mustard (along with the mayonnaise, eggs, onions and pickle relish) for some time when my mother saw me and told me she didn't want any in her tuna salad. I told her she'd been eating it like that for months.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)In the South, we were mostly Mayo or Ketchup, or both on burgers. I personally never had one with mustard, but it sounds intriguing, I love mustard on sandwiches now, but I eat mostly grilled chicken sandwiches now.
JHB
(37,160 posts)lastlib
(23,238 posts)Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)Blue_true
(31,261 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,687 posts)His crimes included living up to all of the american tennants that they all fail at, and making them all look bad.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,347 posts)Putting tax money into health care means less tax money goes to Disney and Exxon and defense contractors. We can't have that crazy stuff going on here.
lamsmy
(155 posts)It saves them money in the long run both in actual costs and in administrative paperwork. It's a big reason was these systems have been so successful in Europe, Japan, Canada, etc. - businesses understand they benefit hugely from a relatively low cost (compared to US) set up that requires little or no effort by then and results in a universally healthier population. No business leader in those countries ever demands the privatisation of healthcare for sound financial reasons. This an important argument that Dems fail to make over and over again.
In the US, the insurance and healthcare industries are huge and powerful. Everybody just keeps their mouths shut and prays someone else is willing to take the heat and solve the problem.
I wish more people would point this out.
Single payer HELPS business. Health insurance is a huge drain on their profits. And our private market healthcare with NO regulations on drug costs, for example, is a nightmare for them. It is why they routinely "lay off" (fire) people over a certain age, weakening their organizational strength.
Yet these same companies like the socialistic 'business' tax cuts from the GOP more, so they keep their mouths shut about the obvious. It is crazy.
Strelnikov_
(7,772 posts)I could not agree more.
Although a single payer plan will 'cost more' when the control volume is drawn around government spending, when one enlarges the volume to the US economy, it will result in a significant net savings.
Further, the R types like to bleat on about the 'nation of entrepreneurs' thing. A health insurance system not tied to employment would free a lot of people to take a risk that today they cannot due to their family insurance being tied to employment.
Liberal In Texas
(13,553 posts)flying_wahini
(6,600 posts)And soon.
BigmanPigman
(51,593 posts)A Swedish student came to the US for a long visit. While here he was bitten by a snake and the bill for the anti-venom was $250,000. Fortunately for him he bought extra traveler's health insur for the US before he came. His friends and family back home couldn't believe his true horror story of non-socialized medicine.
Doreen
(11,686 posts)For the citizens in Taiwan how much is $80?
dalton99a
(81,511 posts)kcr
(15,317 posts)The writer had to pay it because he isn't a citizen in Taiwan:
mathematic
(1,439 posts)Taiwan is a wealthy country but things are cheaper over there.
Taiwan's GDP per capita adjusted for differences in price levels between countries, called purchasing power parity (PPP) adjustment is
about the same as Australia, slightly less than Germany and slightly more than Canada.
BTW good luck getting out of an emergency room here with less than $5k in bills.
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)I bet Taiwanese people have a higher life expectancy than Americans.
OnlinePoker
(5,720 posts)In 2015, Taiwan was 38th in the world at an average (male/female combined) of 79.26 years. The U.S. was 43rd at 78.88 years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
SunSeeker
(51,559 posts)lanlady
(7,134 posts)Was very ill with traveler's diarrhea. Had been trying to self-treat with Imodium but it didn't work. I was seen at the hospital immediately by an English-speaking doctor, put in bed on an IV, and given meds and fluids for the next couple of hours. The doctor took the time to explain to me that taking Imodium for this kind of diarrhea was the absolute wrong thing to do; I risked poisoning my intestines. She gave me a prescription for Cipro. And she wrote out her diagnosis in English so that my insurance company back home could reimburse me for the cost - $70 total for the treatment plus about $5 for the Cipro and some de-tox meds. I told the tour guide the next day that in the US that visit to the ER would have cost around $2000 and involved completely unnecessary tests. She didn't believe me!
Aristus
(66,379 posts)Taking anti-diarrhea medications to plug you up can cause a condition called Toxic Megacolon. I know that sounds like a Japanese movie monster, but it's an actual thing. It can cause your large colon to swell to dangerous proportions and it's a medical emergency. If it wants out, it wants out. That's why I don't plug my patients up when they have diarrhea; I tell them to let it run its course, and to stay very well-hydrated in the meantime.
I don't know about doctors in Georgia, but, at least in the past, it has been the habit of doctors in Russia to prescribe antibiotics for every kind of acute ailment, even if it's not bacterial in origin. I remember when I was doing my family medicine rotation in school, treating a mother's three children for a viral infection. I prescribed symptomatic treatment and supportive care. The mother complained to my preceptor that I had not prescribed antibiotics. I told my preceptor "It's a viral infection, not bacterial"; he said: "I know. You prescribed the appropriate treatment; you did well in the visit. But the mother is Russian, and in Russia they expect to get antibiotics when they go to the clinic." Most acute intestinal conditions are viral in origin, so antibiotics not only will not treat the illness, they can make it worse by killing off beneficial intestinal flora (good bacteria).
Anyway, I'm glad you were able to get treatment overseas without going bankrupt. We have the most embarrassing health care system in the world.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)I would totally watch that.
Coming this July, The Toxic Megacolon! Because sometimes the worst move is no move at all!
calimary
(81,267 posts)I couldn't help laughing at that one!
kcr
(15,317 posts)So antibiotics would be entirely appropriate. Also, toxic mega-colon is a rare complication of IBD and Chron's. If someone is otherwise healthy and their doctor prescribes an anti-diarrheal, they're very unlikely to get it.
Aristus
(66,379 posts)Whenever I have difficulty with a diagnosis, I try to let the science do the work for me.
sinkingfeeling
(51,457 posts)room, at night, to treat my oral thrush in Warsaw, Poland. Total cost was $70 US.
Find an American doctor who makes house calls 24x7.
Raster
(20,998 posts)YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)KPN
(15,646 posts)I had an abscessed tooth. Was admitted into a hospital in the City of Bloemfontein and stayed overnight. During my stay, the tooth was extracted, the abscess drained and I was given pain and antibacterials. The bill? 25 cents (SA Rands -- so about 29 US cents).
luvtheGWN
(1,336 posts)its government took a good, hard look at all the countries with single-payer, or universal health, systems. And the Taiwanese government did the SMART thing by taking the BEST of each of those countries, and created its own unique healthcare system.
underpants
(182,811 posts)Is a real thing
Blue Owl
(50,383 posts)Healthcare here is fucking ridiculous...
durablend
(7,460 posts)Pence will be telling us how much of an "anti-American" terrist Kevin Bozeat is soon enough.
meadowlander
(4,395 posts)Crashed my bike without wearing a helmet (wear your helmet kids!), went to the ER, exam, x-ray, CT scan and an ambulance ride home (the paramedics were going off-duty, knew I didn't have another way to get there and offered me a lift) cost like US$30.
marble falls
(57,093 posts)the VA, and I love it. When you add the health care of Congress, Federal employees in including active duty military - The US is already one of the largest socialized health care systems, gotta be top five.
How would these GOP and allied legislators feel about losing their own socialized health care?
McKim
(2,412 posts)Because my husband worked at a French government science center when we lived there in the 80s, I had a miscarriage, a tumor removal and a uterus sewed back together. This cost us nothing! The next year I had a healthy baby. God bless the socialized medicine of France! I wish we had that here!
Response to dalton99a (Original post)
cannabis_flower This message was self-deleted by its author.
cannabis_flower
(3,764 posts)Here's the embedded picture that you can't really see from the image
This is from this webpage:
https://www.ntbt.gov.tw/etwmain/web/ETW118W/CON/2420/5126516707569746702
This is in Taiwanese money and 540,000 is approximately $17,500 USD.
By the way, he liked my reply.
IronLionZion
(45,446 posts)along with taking the best ideas from various other countries' systems
$80 bill is doable for most anyone. $80,000 bill can ruin someone's life.
gopiscrap
(23,761 posts)in a top notch German Hospital total bill to my parents was 35.00 that would 319.00 in todays money, but that included everything, medicine, xrays, hospital stay and a million other things
carolinadem
(5 posts)on a recent trip to Berlin I had to go the dr to get a prescription filled. They struggled with figuring out what to charge me and ended up charging me an OUTRAGEOUS ... $ 26.00...the Doctor was very nice..
years ago I was in Brazil and managed to get 2nd degree burns on the tops of my feet. I went to a clinic where they treated me and when I offered to pay they were struck dumb, they laughed and said they had no way to accept MONEY for HEALTH CARE !!!
another backward country where taking care of people comes first.. outrageous !!!
then there was the recent emergency room trip due to a high blood pressure spike..i had insurance for the EMT ride,, they still tried to bill me $500... the Emergency room tried to pull a oh your only covered for the visit NOT THE DOCTOR who attends you..BS still fighting over that charge of $240 oh and my deductible was $500
but I will say this THANK YOU BARAK OBAMA !!!!
ACA is a miracle and my insurance costs peaked ion 2017 for my wife and I at $30,000 !!!! ouch
this year under $10,000
DonaldsRump
(7,715 posts)Healthcare in the US is a complete joke. For the buffoons who cannot disengage their lips from Trump's, Sean Hannity's or Rush Limbaugh's respective ample asses, single payer is the solution.
For the rest of us normal folks who actually think with our mind and pocketbook, single payer makes enormous sense. I am fed up the huge health insurance bills that don't cover much. We have lived in numerous countries and have NEVER seen the absurdities that we see here in the US.
I am truly fed up with the ridiculous costs. All of you that are against changes, please ask yourself exactly why things are like they are here.
As I told my child this morning while coming back from piano lessons, her generation will hopefully get a reasonable form of universal healthcare (as well as education). However, this will only happen if we make absolutely sure that the education system, media, and election laws are restructured to keep the BS that is destroying the minds of many people who are otherwise decent.
Let us all do everything we can here to stop this from being a vehicle to poison the minds of our greatest generation (that is, the ones that are young and the ones that are yet to be).
Signing off to watch how SNL's cold open deals with this week!
Peace and love.
Beartracks
(12,814 posts)========