Public Health Care: My Experience

So much has been debated recently on the health care issue in America especially when it involves the public option. Because of this I want to share with you my recent encounter with "the public option" as it exists in Hong Kong.

Last Wednesday I developed a pain in my side that kept getting worse and wouldn't go away. Finally I realized I needed to get to an Emergency Room. I hopped on a speed ferry (I live on an Island)and zoomed downtown where I took a taxi ten minutes to Queen Mary Hospital. The ER receptionist asked for my Hong Kong Identity Card. As a resident of HK my trip to the ER would cost me HK$100 (US$ 13).

They then sent me to the Triage station and when I told them that I had a heart stent placed last year they immediately performed and EKG to determine if the pain I had was possibly heart related. It wasn't. I was then given a slip of paper categorizing my priority as semi-urgent. No doubt because of the obvious pain I was in.

My semi-urgent status got me in to see a doctor in about 45 minutes and after a consultation had an x-ray and urinalysis done. I was also given an injection & a pill for the pain. There is nothing like the sweet relief of pain killing drugs when you are in agony .

I had to wait a fair bit as I jumped through various hoops at the different stations. After about 4 hours the doctor suspected a kidney stone but was unsure, so I was admitted into the general ward. I was put in a wheel chair and brought to a hospital room with six beds, 4 of which had other patients. A single flat screen TV was on the wall for everyone to use and as I was the lone Englishman, the default channel was Cantonese. Fortunately I had my iPod Nano with me loaded with music, podcasts, and episodes of 30 Rock!

I was eventually taken for a CT scan which immediately identified the painful culprit; a small 2mm kidney stone making its way from the kidney to the bladder. Think of a small BB traveling through a hair follicle. Ouch!

I was immediately transferred to the ward that deals with this area. Of course it was 11:00 PM by this time and as the nurses wheeled me into my new overnight digs they gave no noise consideration to the 3 sleeping patients in my new room...causing me no little embarrassment.

I was monitored the next day and then finally discharged about 6:00 PM. Now in Hong Kong you have a private option as well as a public. Although I have insurance and could have gone private with much nicer personal care and accommodation, in my pain, I simply went to the closest hospital I could get too...which was a public one. Granted I saw multiple different doctors (whichever one happened to be on duty) and my bed sheets, while clean, had a couple small holes and a faded stain or two. I shared a room with multiple other patients and we shared a single, albeit clean, bathroom. The meals were hardly appealing but my nurse allowed me a quick run to the Starbucks in the hospital lobby where a nice sandwich wrap was available.

But the reality was I had:

* an emergency room visit
* an x-ray
* an EKG
* a urinalysis
* bloodwork
* a CT scan
* a night in the hospital
* a weeks worth of medication at discharge

and the grand total I paid: HK$ 200 (about US$ 26).

Now keep in mind...this is Hong Kong. A territory that is so capitalist it makes the United States look like a socialist Eastern bloc country. This is a city where the national past time is to stand around TV's tuned to the business channel to watch the stock price crawls on the bottom of the screen. Arguments about it being "socialist" don't work here.

So it is a relief to know that in this "capitalist mecca" there is a safety net available to me and my family in the event of an insurance problem...or lack thereof. I think many Americans would welcome that relief as well.

Bad Form Rep. Wilson

In 1998 President Bill Clinton, along with Hillary and Chelsea, made a trip to Hong Kong where we were living at the time. The President's limousine slowly traveled right past Tammy and Gabriel at one point quite near. Chelsea saw Gabriel in Tammy's arms and motioned to her father to have a look. Bill waved, Chelsea waved and Tammy excitedly waved back.

Now, we're Republicans who never voted for Bill Clinton and probably given the chance again, still wouldn't. So why were we so excited...

Because at the end of the day, he's still the President of the United States!

It's for that reason I join the rest of the blog-o-sphere in loudly proclaiming the "bad form" of Republican South Carolina Representative Joe Wilson. Wilson delivered a MAJOR faux pax by yelling out "You Lie!" to President Obama during a speech to a joint session of Congress.

The particulars at this point are irrelevant. I don't care what your position is on the health care debate...I don't care if you're Republican or Democrat. There are a number of things one can do that quickly earn my contempt;

and disrespecting the office of the President is high on that list.

Honest disagreement?...fine. Anger at certain policy...it happens? Some political parody on Saturday Night Live?...its part of the American way.

But when the the President of the United States addresses you in a joint session of Congress you have one, and only one, responsibility.

You shut up and listen....

Bad form Rep. Wilson. Very bad form!

On the Healthcare Debate Pt.1

My friend and reader of this blog Bob recently asked me to do a post on my take of the healthcare debate. Ahhh...healthcare!

First of all the Republicans are reaping what they sowed. The American people have consistently voiced healthcare reform as one of their top issues over the years and in two terms of a Republican led administration, it failed to even register on President Bush's radar. Now President Obama is the one in the driver's seat framing the debate and the Republicans once again look like the party of "no".

Second, the fact that our healthcare is tied to employment is one of the reasons we are in this mess. During World War 2 when wage freezes were implemented, companies needed to find non wage package inducements to lure top employee candidates. In the following decades the American healthcare system got hopelessly entangled with employment benefits. Is your employer responsible for your car or home insurance? People have been afraid to leave their job for no other reason than the status of their family's health insurance. Healthcare reform must include the delinking of healthcare from employment.

One of the reason's President Obama has lost some steam recently on healthcare is because he has been more focused on providing a government run single payer option rather than addressing the real problem of skyrocketing health costs.

In order to drive down costs, insurance has to go back to what insurance is supposed to be for; those unplanned catastrophic events in our lives. You get cancer or heart disease, health insurance comes to the rescue. You don't use insurance for a 5 minute check up at the doctor's office. You shouldn't have to produce an insurance card if you have the flu.

Take for example; auto insurance.

What is it for?

You get in a crash or your car is stolen, insurance kicks in and takes over. You don't produce an insurance card everytime you tank up for gas. Can you imagine what your auto insurance would cost if paperwork had to be submitted and administrated everytime you needed wiperblades or an oil change? This ridiculous use of insurance for mundane issues is what has driven up medical costs beyond all reason.

Personal story: A couple years ago I had to have a nuclear stress test. It was a 2 hour test using a pretty expensive piece of medical machine. Fortunately I DID have medical insurance because I saw the bill paid for by the insurance company and my little exam cost US$ 5000!! Now I'm not saying such a test should be cheap (maybe $500)... but $5000??

And that not the kicker. Just to show you how screwed up and out of control our system is, a week later I get the signed diagnosis from the doctor. It was a single line that basically said all was OK. Doctor's diagnosis cost? ...$200
You think if you pay $5000 for a test the diagnosis would be included...but not in the insane crazy world of the American healthcare system.

Well...lets make this a multi-parter. I have a lot more to say on this subject especially on the current debate in congress right now...but I actually have work that pays the bills stuff to do now!