SiCKO

[Tender Branson]

I saw the movie and I appreciate the Austrian Social Security System even more. I mean it´s clear that he picked out the Horror-Stories, but I share the eyebrow-raising with the Canadian doctor when he was told about the American guy without insurance if he wanted his ring finger attached for 10.000 $ or his middle finger for 60.000$. For me it´s obvious that this system sucks if the money goes before the patient´s life. It´s good that we treat patients first and then care about the financials. I´d rather be solidaric and would be willing to pay for my countrymen who are in need rather than beeing an egoistic nut.

The list of possible diseases that made you ineligible for an insurance freaked me out too. Here you have an insurance no matter what disease you have or may have had. That the insurance companies deny you their services because you had one of the trillion diseases and that they even tried to gain at the expense of the sick really stunned me.

20% of Austrians find our Health-care system "very good", 62% "good", 11% neither good or bad and just 5% "bad" and 2% "very bad" - a proof of confidence.

I know our system too has its flaws like every system does, but at least noone needs to make a movie about it and it´s certainly not regarded as "Evil Socialized System" ...

[Tender Branson]

I saw the movie and I appreciate the Austrian Social Security System even more. I mean it´s clear that he picked out the Horror-Stories, but I share the eyebrow-raising with the Canadian doctor when he was told about the American guy without insurance if he wanted his ring finger attached for 10.000 $ or his middle finger for 60.000$. For me it´s obvious that this system sucks if the money goes before the patient´s life. It´s good that we treat patients first and then care about the financials. I´d rather be solidaric and would be willing to pay for my countrymen who are in need rather than beeing an egoistic nut.

The list of possible diseases that made you ineligible for an insurance freaked me out too. Here you have an insurance no matter what disease you have or may have had. That the insurance companies deny you their services because you had one of the trillion diseases and that they even tried to gain at the expense of the sick really stunned me.

20% of Austrians find our Health-care system "very good", 62% "good", 11% neither good or bad and just 5% "bad" and 2% "very bad" - a proof of confidence.

I know our system too has its flaws like every system does, but at least noone needs to make a movie about it and it´s certainly not regarded as "Evil Socialized System" ...

What is the waiting list to see a specialist?

Depends on what "specialist" you mean I think and how many patients currently have an appointment with him/her. If I want to go to a skin doctor for example I can take just 1 day to get an appointment or up to a week or 2. The same with a dentist. If he has lots of clients it may take 2 weeks ... That doesn´t mean you don´t get an appointment if you have serious toothache. You normally get one within a day then. I can´t complain about long waiting periods and I´m certainly middle-class. On the other hand I never had to apply for a kidney-transplant, so I don´t know about that issue ...

[Tender Branson]

Well I live in a country with what is really socialized medicine, and let me tell you it's got nothing on that. Even today, a Ministry of Health study came out saying the average waiting time for a cancer patient to get surgery to remove the cancer was three and a half months, reaching seven months in some cases.

On the whole, I'd prefer people have to wait for surgery than to never get it in the first place.

Hospitals don't turn anyone down.

Yeah. But what is better ? Wait 3 months for cancer therapy (which I find rather extreme) and be insured, or let you treat uninsured and face debts of a trillion $s ?

I don´t know a lot of persons around me with cancer (thank goodness) but I can say that I googled a bit and can say that at least Salzburg State government did a good job in bringing down waiting periods and that cancer drugs are fastest to get for a cure in Austria, Switzerland and Spain, while slowest in the UK. Basically cancer treatment starts right away here.