On Jan 3, 9:35�am, BAR wrote:
Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:





Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:
wrote:
On Jan 3, 10:23 am, John H. wrote:
On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 06:11:48 -0800 (PST), wrote:
On Jan 2, 7:01 pm, Short Wave Sportfishing wrote:
Woman waits in California hospital for a bed to open up here
Wednesday, January 02 - 11:30:00 AM
Lyle Fisher
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - A Surrey woman's holiday in California has
turned into a healthcare nightmare. The 68-year old needed emergency
surgery after her appendix burst, but now she can't come home due
to a
lack of hospital beds.
Arlene Meeks has been in a California hospital since December 17th.
Her family has been trying to get her transferred back to the Lower
Mainland for 2 weeks now but they haven't had any luck.
Stephen Harris with the South Fraser Health Region says the issue
is a
shortage of ventilated intensive care unit beds, which are highly
specialized. He says over the holidays, it's not surprising to see
those beds filled up.
Harris says as soon as a bed becomes available, Meeks will be
transferred to a local hospital. Arlene's daughter Kim says her
mom is
'frustrated as hell', and she just wants to come home.
NDP Health Critic Adrian Dix says the issue is one that's
continued to
plague the Lower Mainland and he's blaming Liberal government cuts to
acute care beds. "The number of acute care beds in British Columbia
was reduced by 1,300 in the first mandate of the government, and some
of the new facilities being opened won't be adding to that number."
Dix says the Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health authorities issued
reports last fall indicating they are 650 acute care beds short right
now.
The trouble is, you right wingers only look for the bad things about
any system you don't like. Why don't you find the good things, and
post them as well, if you want to come off as balanced. Same with
global warming!
The only good thing about the overtaxed, crappy health system is
that it's
'free'. So what?
--
John H- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

So are you saying that the Veteran's Administration's health system is
crappy?

In many areas and aspects the VA health care does suck. �I am for
universal health care, because the system we have today is Universal
health care, but you just have to get very sick and go to the ER
before it is available. �We all are already paying for universal
healthcare, at substantially higher prices than we need to. �It is
cheaper to take care of a minor problem with a RN or in a clinic, than
wait till it is a major problem.

Plus, if we had Universal Health Care, most of the people who are
uninsured today, who we are already paying for their care, would pay
some or all of their healthcare insurance.

You are a "progressive" in disguise and I say that with all due negative
connotation.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You're a Progressive as well, unless you're willing to sit outside the
door to the Emergency Room door and stop every gurney wheeling
somebody inside. "Hey, wait! That guy bleeding from his artery goes
nowhere until we can be sure he has either the insurance or the money
to pay for his care! How do we know he isn't some illegal alien? Good
lord, worse yet, he might even be a liberal! Stop! Stop I say, until
we can determine whether this victim is financially and politically
qualified to be saved!" :-) (not that you seriously would ever do
that, of course)

In the end, the ER at the local hospital becomes the de-facto public
health clinic. Nobody is turned away, and those of us who can afford
insurance and buy it absorb, (through our premiums) the costs of
caring for people who cannot afford insurance. Like Reggie observed,
we are *already* providing at least emergency level health care to
everybody in this country- but in a very inefficient and ridiculously
expensive manner. It's like feeding the homeless by renting a banquet
room at the most expensive hotel or restaurant in town. (I'm sure the
owners of the 5-star restaurants and premium hotels would appreciate
the extra business). Money spent to treat disease in the early stages
is miuch cheaper than waiting until an ER situation arises.