RE: Man Uses $1m Win To Finally Visit Doctor, Gets Terminal Cancer Diagnosis, Dies
February 6, 2018 at 10:01 am
In Portugal, Universities are mostly public... including med-school.
When doctors finish up their degree, they have to practice for a few years on a public hospital, before they're allowed to set up their own practices or work at some private hospital... or stay in the public hospital system. Many of these that stay grow up to become teachers of future doctors... they're the ones who really care for medicine, I guess.
Most hospitals throughout the country are also public hospitals, ie not paid for out of pocket nor by insurance - the income for staff, supplies and equipment, as well as upgrades, comes from the state budget.
Of course, since they have to care for basically the whole population, there ends up existing a waiting list for most services. But emergency ones always take priority. Some tests, like X-rays or CT scans can be outsourced to the private sector, where the client can go to the private clinics, carrying the required credential, and pay only the price that the clinic agreed with the Ministry of Health. I remember paying some 15€ for an ear CT scan some years ago.
It's not a perfect system and just last year there was the news of some poor guy who was in the hospital's emergency waiting room... and died there - it's shocking for its rarity... but it shows that, regardless of income, regardless of your ability to pay for anything, the system works, for the most part. It's not perfect, but it works.
And yes, we all pay for it through mandatory taxation. Our taxes have basically two components, one is standard tax which we coincidentally call IRS (Tax on income by singular individuals, with it's commercial counterpart IRC for businesses) and then we have Social Security which serves for both health service contribution and retirement "fund". You can always then add your own private health insurance and extra retirement fund(s) to the package, of course, if you want and can afford them.
It has its problems... but it mostly works.
I'm not saying the US should implement something like this country-wide, but perhaps it should be encouraged on a state-by-state basis.
When doctors finish up their degree, they have to practice for a few years on a public hospital, before they're allowed to set up their own practices or work at some private hospital... or stay in the public hospital system. Many of these that stay grow up to become teachers of future doctors... they're the ones who really care for medicine, I guess.
Most hospitals throughout the country are also public hospitals, ie not paid for out of pocket nor by insurance - the income for staff, supplies and equipment, as well as upgrades, comes from the state budget.
Of course, since they have to care for basically the whole population, there ends up existing a waiting list for most services. But emergency ones always take priority. Some tests, like X-rays or CT scans can be outsourced to the private sector, where the client can go to the private clinics, carrying the required credential, and pay only the price that the clinic agreed with the Ministry of Health. I remember paying some 15€ for an ear CT scan some years ago.
It's not a perfect system and just last year there was the news of some poor guy who was in the hospital's emergency waiting room... and died there - it's shocking for its rarity... but it shows that, regardless of income, regardless of your ability to pay for anything, the system works, for the most part. It's not perfect, but it works.
And yes, we all pay for it through mandatory taxation. Our taxes have basically two components, one is standard tax which we coincidentally call IRS (Tax on income by singular individuals, with it's commercial counterpart IRC for businesses) and then we have Social Security which serves for both health service contribution and retirement "fund". You can always then add your own private health insurance and extra retirement fund(s) to the package, of course, if you want and can afford them.
It has its problems... but it mostly works.
I'm not saying the US should implement something like this country-wide, but perhaps it should be encouraged on a state-by-state basis.
