Several years ago, a scary statistic circulated heavily in the press: The average managed-care doctor visit in the U.S. averaged a mere seven minutes.
I just read an even scarier health-related stat: A third of Americans who head to an emergency room for medical care will need to wait at least two hours.
In a Boston Globe article, New Republic writer Jonathan Cohn details how doctors and citizens in France and the Netherlands wouldn't trade places with U.S. citizens when it comes to medical care. He points out that usually we hear about Canada and Britain in this respect; the sentiment that America's health-care system is broken is spreading, apparently, and a two-hour typical E.R. wait is just one of the problems.
Just wondering--could this negative perception (entirely warranted, IMO) affect our tourism industry? Are people afraid to come to our country because they're afraid of the treatment--or lack thereof--they may receive if they become sick or get injured? And, as an extension of that, could our troubled health-care system eventually lead to a drop in immigration?
Hmmm....maybe that's what the Republicans' grand plan is when it comes to opposing Obama's health-care reforms?
Cohn's article sure made me want to trade places with the French. Instead of heading to an E.R. if you're very sick outside of your doctor's office hours, you're more likely to get a house call from a doctor on call. Ooh, la la.
My six-year-old son had an innovative idea for cutting down your E.R. wait time: Cover yourself with fake blood, like the kind he saw big kids use last Halloween. That might be something that gets the doctors' attention, he said.
Photo of Amsterdam canal by Ian Britton from FreeFoto.com.
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