I'm responding to this so long after the fact that I almost feel like perhaps I shouldn't do so, but I've been reading through some of your public entries (via your tags list) on topics that I find interesting.
And, I think when Americans hear socialised they think of communism and people waiting in long lines for the chance of bread and all that. Or they think of the kind of socialised medicine we have here today in Hungary. (Actually, I doubt most Americans think of Hungary specifically or could find it on a map. When I encounter them online and I tell them I'm from Hungary, sometimes they ask me what continent that's on. But I think they think of something like what we have here, without knowing it's what we have here. *g*)
In Hungary, doctors are paid less than teachers and teachers aren't paid very well. Many hospitals have closed in recent years because there's no money. Our economy has been quite badly effected by the global economical crisis so I don't see things getting better anytime soon. But we do have socialised medicine which means that I or any other Hungarian citizen with a social security number can go to the hospital and pay a "visit fee" of 400 forints (google tells me $2.07 canadian dollars) and be x-rayed or stitched up or have a tooth out or what have you. We also have family doctors, assigned by where you live, but you have a different one if you like. It's more for convenience to have one who lives in the same block of flats. I don't have one currently because I haven't gotten around to it since I moved in October and I have to find my birth certificate and I've been lazy/busy/sick.
The visit fee is new, it was instated a few years ago and people protested it greatly, because the people who are affected by it most are the elderly, who may need to see a doctor several times a week and are mostly living off pensions that are very small. The visit fees means that many of them can no longer afford to go to the doctor.
When I sprained my ankle last year, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance (for free, and it would've been free even if I wasn't a citizen because it was an emergency, so of course it's free.) where I waited about four hours and then I was x-rayed and told it wasn't broken, that they couldn't give me a brace because there weren't any, they'd run out, and that they couldn't give me crutches because the only doctor who is allowed to give out crutches was on mandatory leave for working the previous night. They didn't give me pain killers, but wrote me a prescription. They called a taxi to take me home and I scooted up the stairs on my butt.
There are private doctors too, which are much more expensive. Those who can afford them go there, because the free medicine is barely adequate.
I think Americans picture something like this when they hear socialised medicine. They don't realise that in the United States, socialised medicine would probably look a lot like it does in Canada, which is the ideal of socialised medicine.
Anyway, I just felt like sharing, in case you were interested in hearing what socialised medicine is like in Hungary.
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Date: 2009-03-08 04:39 am (UTC)And, I think when Americans hear socialised they think of communism and people waiting in long lines for the chance of bread and all that. Or they think of the kind of socialised medicine we have here today in Hungary. (Actually, I doubt most Americans think of Hungary specifically or could find it on a map. When I encounter them online and I tell them I'm from Hungary, sometimes they ask me what continent that's on. But I think they think of something like what we have here, without knowing it's what we have here. *g*)
In Hungary, doctors are paid less than teachers and teachers aren't paid very well. Many hospitals have closed in recent years because there's no money. Our economy has been quite badly effected by the global economical crisis so I don't see things getting better anytime soon. But we do have socialised medicine which means that I or any other Hungarian citizen with a social security number can go to the hospital and pay a "visit fee" of 400 forints (google tells me $2.07 canadian dollars) and be x-rayed or stitched up or have a tooth out or what have you. We also have family doctors, assigned by where you live, but you have a different one if you like. It's more for convenience to have one who lives in the same block of flats. I don't have one currently because I haven't gotten around to it since I moved in October and I have to find my birth certificate and I've been lazy/busy/sick.
The visit fee is new, it was instated a few years ago and people protested it greatly, because the people who are affected by it most are the elderly, who may need to see a doctor several times a week and are mostly living off pensions that are very small. The visit fees means that many of them can no longer afford to go to the doctor.
When I sprained my ankle last year, I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance (for free, and it would've been free even if I wasn't a citizen because it was an emergency, so of course it's free.) where I waited about four hours and then I was x-rayed and told it wasn't broken, that they couldn't give me a brace because there weren't any, they'd run out, and that they couldn't give me crutches because the only doctor who is allowed to give out crutches was on mandatory leave for working the previous night. They didn't give me pain killers, but wrote me a prescription. They called a taxi to take me home and I scooted up the stairs on my butt.
There are private doctors too, which are much more expensive. Those who can afford them go there, because the free medicine is barely adequate.
I think Americans picture something like this when they hear socialised medicine. They don't realise that in the United States, socialised medicine would probably look a lot like it does in Canada, which is the ideal of socialised medicine.
Anyway, I just felt like sharing, in case you were interested in hearing what socialised medicine is like in Hungary.