-By Warner Todd Huston
Ever get a speeding ticket? Have you looked at that ticket in your hand and for a brief second imagined that you’d go right down there to that court and dispute it? But, then you realize that there is simply nothing you can do. No judge or police officer will care what really happened. You realize that government won’t do a thing for you. So, you sigh and just send in a payment.
Now take that feeling of helplessness, that surety that government is a faceless, impersonal and uncaring beast and realize that it will be that cold monster giving you your healthcare if Obama gets his way. The Brits have already realized this and that is why almost one in three national healthcare patients that have problems with their service don’t bother to complain to government. After all, it’s government and there is nothing anyone can really do to help.
Almost one in three patients in Scotland experience problems with their NHS care, but it goes unrecorded because many believe nothing will be done.
A report commissioned by the Scottish Health Council highlighted poor communication and staff attitude as the most persistent problems, but found “significant” barriers to making a complaint.
In all, almost one-third of patients had encountered a problem with the NHS, but 53% of that group did not complain about the service they received, with many saying that it “wouldn’t make any difference”.
This is the hell that President Obama wants visited on every American. A healthcare system that gives no choice, offers no customer service or satisfaction, and builds a brick wall between provider and patient so that problems remain impossible to address.
Of course, the same report I mention above goes on to say that the National Health Service says that most people are satisfied and that their offices did a good job responding to complaints. But, what would you expect the government office to say when asked how well they are doing? Sorry, but it is a bit hard to believe that a government office is doing well when it is the government office we are relying on to tell us how well things are going!
In any case, the feeling of resigned frustration, the despair of giving up on government solutions is common among British health customers. It will also become the helpless feeling that American ones have once Obamacare is passed.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
This is a tale of two MRIs that I have had to have, one here in the States and the other over in the UK.
I find myself lucky enough to have fallen in love with a US citizen and married her, my wife, SWMBO. And this is why I find myself living in Michigan. Let me give you some background, I am a KIWI (from New Zealand) and I moved to the UK with the rest of my family when I was an eight year old boy, not my choice which was is understandible. I married my wife of seven years when I was 23 having meet my gal from Zeeland Michigan when she came to Scotland to do a study leave at the Univercity of Edinburgh and we have made our home here in mid-Michigan, with employer based health insurance.
So to my MRIs
The first one that I had was when I was a 16yr old having damaged my knee playing Rugby Union. When I was told by my NHS GP that I needed an MRI to check for demage, fear enought right. Well when I asked her to send me for it she said that I needed to see a specilist before I would be referred for an MRI. OK I say and I wait for an appointment, 12 weeks later I go and see this guy and he tell me that I need an MRI so he referrs me and I just have to wait, another 12 weeks go by and then I go in and have my MRI, great right, well not so much, I move and when I finally find a new NHS GP at my new address and inquire about my MRI he tell me he will look into for me and low and behold the NHS has lost the results and my knee was feel so good that I just let it go, I was young and well I just didn’t care, having just spent 5 years of my life watching my mother die of CANCER wiating for the NHS.
The second MRI I have had to have was over here in the States, July 16th 2009 in fact, I’ve been having hip trouble and having listened to SWMBO tell me to go and get it checked out I do. So I go into the Doc office and she sends me for an X-ray and the results come in and she then says that I need an MRI, which her office arranges for me, something about a mass that is showing up on the X-ray that they are not sure about, so off I go. How long do you think it was between the first visit to my current GP and the MRI. 24 weeks, NO, just over 3 weeks.
Now if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a 1000 times to my freinds and neighbours
“A NHS COSTS to MUCH and KILLS to MANY”
P.S My older sister is currently going through the same thing that my mopther died of, over there in the UK.
Please continue to fight the good fight and keep US in flyover country informed of what the Dems want to impose on us.