@bizman1951 the links below provide insight into health care systems run by government entities. Who are the "vultures" here?
Marcos Carvajal, a 34-year-old former pitcher for the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins, died of pneumonia on Tuesday. He fell sick in December, but the antibiotics needed to treat the illness were hard to find. Drugs for Carvajal eventually were sent from abroad but he relapsed, returned to the hospital on Monday and died the next day.
https://www.npr.org/2018/02/01/582469305/venezuelas-health-care-system-ready-to-collapse-amid-econom...
According to the “actual waiting list,” the record is half a year based on data from the last six months. Another patient waited 195 days for a transcatheter heart valve implantation. However, a wait time of 606 days (maximum) can be expected for this procedure according to the health care institutions’ database.
For other interventions, the actual wait time is:
148 days (almost 5 months) for urologic intervention
4,5 months for major intestinal surgeries
94 days for hip replacement surgery
62 days for major extended spinal surgery
https://hungarytoday.hu/waitlisted-it-can-take-half-a-year-for-patients-to-be-operated-on/
The Times newspaper said a survey by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCO) found tens of thousands of elderly people are left struggling to see because of an NHS cost-cutting drive that relies on them dying before they can qualify for cataract surgery.
The survey has found that the NHS has ignored instructions to end cataract treatment rationing in defiance of official guidance two years ago.
The RCO said its survey has found 62 percent of eye units retain policies that require people's vision to have deteriorated below a certain point before surgery is funded.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/07/c_137957421.htm
Back in 2014, Grijalva lived with his wife, Gloria, in Imperial Valley — about two hours from the VA hospital in San Diego. After spending 18 months deployed in Afghanistan, and a year in Iraq, he started having suicidal thoughts.
The VA tried to help him. Early in 2014, the doctors there seemed to get his prescription right. By summer, his psychiatrist had left the VA, but Grijalva was transferred to a nurse practitioner. He missed an appointment in September 2014, according to records provided by the VA, but the new provider agreed to refill his prescription over the phone.
Because San Diego's wait times were so long, under the new Choice program, Grijalva qualified to see a private doctor outside the VA system. He had an initial consultation with the private psychiatrist near his home, but he didn't live to begin treatment. In December 2014, his medication ran out.
https://www.npr.org/2017/01/31/512052311/va-hospitals-still-struggling-with-adding-staff-despite-bil...
and this . . .
The study estimates that 5 million people die every year because of poor-quality health care in low- and middle-income countries. That's significantly more than the 3.6 million people in those countries who die from not having access to care.
It's also five times more than annual deaths from HIV/AIDS (1 million) and three times more than diabetes (1.4 million) in the same countries — although, of course, poor health care for these conditions can also be fatal.
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/09/05/644928153/what-kills-5-million-people-a-year-it...
There is always a price to pay for access to health care.
Some folks pay dollars.
Others pay with waiting on care
And some pay with their lives.
Which system do you prefer?
Bark less. Wag more.