#1. Though it wasnt necessarily easy to schedule with the same provider because of schedule constraints and the fact that I had to request her every time I was able to see the same provider throughout my pregnancy upon request. Also, at our hospital if you went through the family practice you had no problems with consistency of care.

#2. You’ll have this problem in the civilian world too. With tricare you are allowed to change your provider if you have grievances. Though they try to limit this which only makes since to help them defray costs. They dont want people changing doctors a dozen times a year for frivolous reasons.

#3. I had two u/s during my pregnancy with Tricare. One early on to check gestational age and one at 20 weeks. No other u/s is really necessary medically unless the provider sees a reason during regular exams (i.e. growth, low heartrate, etc.). In the past more then 2 u/s was not the norm, now many civilian doctors only provide this care to appease their patients but the downside of this is that it is just making yours and others insurance premiums higher. A big reason the healthcare system is so costly in America is because of unnecessary procedures.

#4. I havent experience this myself but it really matters all on who you talk to IMO.

#5. Not in my experience. Again it really matters on what clinic/hospital you are going to. Plus the military is having a shortage of providers too, esp. nurses just like the civilian world is.

#6. Havent experienced this. It may be the case with some medications – I think Tricare prefers to give generics. I even asked for a compound medication that I had received through a civilian provider with my 1st pregnancy and they said they had it (it is an uncommon medication).

#7. This has been true for the past 60 years but it is in the works to change this. It is called the Carmelo Rodriguez Military Medical Accountability Act. It started its long way through Congress early last year.

On the quality and consistency of care that keeps being brought up, when I went in for my prenatal care I was assigned a different resident each time until I asked to have the same one, which I saw until my last month when he was done with his residency at which point I saw a third resident for my last prenatal exam. I saw a fourth resident when my water broke, 3 weeks early, and with in the first hour of being checked out (before even being admitted to the hospital) she was already pushing the “vitamin P” (Pitocin) and I fought with her for the next 8 hours and asked her to let me birth naturally for a while, she finally broke me, I took the “vitamin P” which didn’t work and within two hours of her shift being over and getting a new resident (count ‘em, I’m on resident number 5) I had a healthy baby boy. It would have been nice to not have to pay for this superior healthcare

In my experiences as a member of the military and a civilian there isn’t much difference. The care is hit or miss and it’d be nice not to pay $400 a month for the misses.

Either pick a side or claim neutrality (stating the pros and cons of both), but try not to portray hating both.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Insurance/InsureYourHealth/whats-most-likely-to-bankrupt-you.aspx

In the public system we:
1. Have the choice to see any doctor that we desire and I have never waited more than 15 minutes (and in extreme cases even without an appointment).

2. Ditto to Heather. Once you find someone you like you stick with them or move on if you are not happy. Just like in the private system in the States.

3. Care here, seen as necessary, is followed up. My friend just had a 3-D ultrasound, for free, as part of the routine pregnancy care. My neighbour just had her last appointment, with a specialist, for pregnancy-induced RSI and she had the baby one year ago. They finally gave her the a-ok (even though her symptoms stopped months ago).

4. I have never had a hard time getting a referral to a specialist. And neither have my children. Even when I didn’t personally find it necessary. My son developed a blood disorder this week and we were in the public hospital on Tuesday. He will have weekly blood tests and specialist visits each week – all through the public system. Luckily it is not chronic and should correct itself in a few months. But my GP sent us straight to the emergency room after he saw my son. They knew we were coming because he called to ensure we would be seen right away.

5. I can get an appointment, to see my Doctor, the same day. Otherwise there are “drop-in” clinics if it is after hours or urgent. There are also travelling doctors that come to your house (especially if you are in a rural location). If you have a medical issue, which has a long wait time in the public system, you can choose to go private (if you pay for private health cover). We have public and private hospitals. I had my daughter in the private hospital because I had complications with my first natural child birth. And because of this, I “opted” for a c-section. That does not mean that the public system would not have granted my wish (in fact their recommendations would have probably had the same result). I just wanted that extra reassurance.

6. Our prescription costs are capped at $37.50 AUD. The government eats the cost if it costs more. If we want specialist visits, without a referral, we can use our private health coverage (my family of 4 is $100 a month). Some people opt out of this and pay, out of pocket, for acupuncture, dental, physical therapy, etc.

7. We can sue for malpractice.

Socialized medicine works for most developed countries around the world. We need to look at these examples and use what works. In fact, France, with some of the best social care, has the best health care in the world – according to the World Health Organization (http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html). The US ranks #37. That’s why we need reform. I have lived in Denmark, England, New Zealand, and now Australia and have very very happy with the public medial care in each place. We need to be compassionate to one another (that’s what makes us human) and learn to “love thy neighbour”.

We have “socialized” health care here in Canada, of course. And while it certainly is not perfect, hardly any of your points are valid here.

#1. We have complete choice of who to see — provided they have openings of course. The limitations are due to an overloaded system, not due to us being “assigned” to particular providers (which we are not). Besides, US patients under HMO’s also have no choice of providers — it is hardly an issue caused solely by socialization.

#2. Quality of providers is hit-or-miss in all healthcare systems, both public (“socialized”) and private. There are some truly awful doctors out there that you still have to pay an arm and a leg for (hopefully not literally…)

#3. Those procedures are routine here. Again, it’s not a problem of the system being public, it’s just a problem of that PARTICULAR system you experienced.

#4. Specialist referrals can be tricky wherever you are. I’ve never had a problem, myself.

#5. Wait times are indeed long. This is the one issue I will agree with you about. Our system is certainly over-burdened and wait times are (occasionally dangerously) too long. Still, IMO it’s still preferable to not getting an appointment at all simply because you’re not lucky enough to be able to afford it.

#6. Medication/prescription coverage is treated seperately from healthcare, at least here. Most Canadians have drug coverage, as well as “optional” medical expenses (such as private rooms, chiropractic, dental, eye care, etc) through private (or work-based) insurance plans. All *essential* medical costs are covered publicly.

#7. We most certainly can sue for malpractice here, even under our “socialized” system. There are some high-profile cases ongoing right now, in fact… hundreds of women with incorrect breast cancer screening results, for instance.

The point is, don’t just assume that the one implementation of socialized health care that the US military exemplifies, is representative of what socialized health care MUST be like. It could be a rational argument to say that a US government-led model would be SIMILAR to this model since it’s what they’ve already done, but it’s still not a done deal. None of the problems you experienced are *directly* a consequence of socialized medicine, socialization can most definitely happen without those particular problems.

I still was able to get an epidural and plenty of my friends delivered via cesarean. The main difference between the epidural I had with my 1st in an Army hospital and the one I had with my 2nd in a civilian hospital was who administered it (a N.P. vs. a M.D.) And FWIW, the epidural that caused a scary drop in my blood pressure was the latter.

Here are the *REAL* cons of government-run healthcare:

#1. The patient has *NO* choice in which provider to see. You have to see whomever you’re assigned and typically you’ll see a different one for each prenatal visit.

#2. The quality of providers are really hit-or-miss. They tended to fall into two camps: inexperienced but good (these virtually always left as soon as their service obligation was up) and completely incompetent.

#3. Procedures that are considered routine by civilian doctors like a 2nd trimester ultrasound are simply not done. I had to drive to town and pay out of my own pocket to see a civilian doctor for one.

#4. Getting a referral to a specialist is a nightmare.

#5. Wait times to get an appointment are long.

#6. Only certain medications are covered so often you have to choose between something that does not work as well for you or paying out of pocket for the one you really want.

#7. You can’t sue for malpractice no matter how incompetent the provider is.

As much as I grumble about how expensive my current civilian PPO is, there is *NO WAY* I would ever want to go back to using socialized medicine.

I think everyone who is calling for government to be in charge of healthcare should have to spend several years using the military system and then see how many still favor socializing medicine…