Five years ago on a trip to Scotland my wife and I made a late afternoon check-in at a small hotel in the Highlands. Out on the lawn we saw couple with whom we had a great deal in common. He was a white Englishman and his wife was a black Brazilian. They had driven up from their home in Southampton accompanied by their black miniature poodle. We had a black standard poodle waiting at home in Sutton. Miles was a former English teacher, and I was a retired English teacher. He left the profession because they pay was terrible, and he joined the police department. He told me the police in England do not carry guns.
We had cocktails together, met for dinner, talked into the wee hours, and met the following morning for breakfast. We still follow each other on Facebook and communicate on occasion.
He was a tall guy who walked with a slight limp, and I asked him what was wrong with his leg.
One night when he was out on patrol he had to chase a burglary suspect. It was dark, and he fell into a ditch and broke his leg. It was a serious break that required surgery, but the National Health Service (NHS) he was brought to ( the United Kingdom’s version of universal health care) only did these surgeries two days a week. He had to wait four days for his operation, and in that time his leg became infected. The infection was so aggressive it couldn’t be controlled, and his leg had to be amputated.
He’s still a cop working internally, and he wears a prosthesis. Miles and his wife, Lilian, have no problem with the National Health Service. They considered what happened bad luck and sort of a fluke. But can you imagine the reaction if something like that happened in America?
Wouldn’t this one story be embraced by Medicare-for-All naysayers in a litigious country like ours where doctors are inundated with malpractice claims and high insurance premiums?
Moreover, if surgeries were only performed two days a week, isn’t that a form of rationing?
At the beginning of June I had pain on the big toe of my right foot. It only hurt when I pressed on the nail. Don’t press on it, you’d say. It will heal by itself, I thought. But my wife insisted I go to our primary care physician. This is why married guys live longer than single guys. We’ve got someone to whack us upside the head to do the right thing.
I went to my PCP at Reliant Medical in Auburn. She (my last three PCP’s have been female) looked at my toe and said I needed to make an appointment with the podiatrist on the premises.
By the time I got home there was a message on my answering machine telling me to call for a podiatry appointment. This was on June 11. I couldn’t get an appointment until July 3, this coming Tuesday. Reliant only has two podiatrists in my health care area. What if I was in excruciating pain rather than having it just hurt when I touched it (don’t touch it)? They said I could go to a Reliant facility in Fitchburg or Milford. I declined and said I’d see them on July 3.
You know what happened? Last Wednesday, June 27, I woke up and my toe was perfect. No pain. All gone. I e-mailed Reliant and canceled my appointment, leaving a message that I’d experienced “natural healing.” Do people in health care have a sense of humor?
But couldn’t my experience be considered “rationing?”
I have a Bernie Sanders supporter friend who confessed to me she has to wait THREE MONTHS for some medical tests. She has the same public sector (police, fire, teacher) health plan I do.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton, “It all depends on what the definition of ‘rationing’ is.”
Europe has universal health care, but here’s the problem: Scotland and Norway each have a population of 5 million; Switzerland 8 million; Portugal 10 million; Greece 11 million; France 65 million; Germany 82 million.
Those are manageable numbers for universal health care.
The United States has 330 million people.
If that number of people suddenly becomes eligible for free health care, where do you get all the doctors who are already in short supply? How do you come up with enough specialists, enough hospitals and nurses and beds and medications and everything else that is necessary to give health care to more than a quarter billion people?
It’s a problem that would cross a rabbi’s eyes. Medicare for All sure sounds good, though.
by 
