Photo courtesy of Lazar Dinu Colentina Hospital Patients 1989 |
I wrote
about socialized medical care in communist Romania in my autobiographical book,
“Echoes of Communism,” (http://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Communism-Lessons-American-Choice/dp/1456535080/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419872185&sr=1-1&keywords=Echoes+of+communism)
and in a recent article on ObamaCare. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/68532
Judging by
the comments of Romanians today, twenty-five years later, not much has changed.
A few private hospitals were built, the
bureaucrats and politicians are getting rich off the EU funds that are supposed
to go into health care, a Palestinian doctor wants to install a monopoly over
healthcare, state-run hospitals are still dirty, deficient, money run out early
in the year, doctors and nurses still take bribes to care for patients,
patients are still housed in wards and cared for by their families, drugs are
more easily available when bought out of pocket, and medical insurance pays
modest and inadequate sums for various procedures and for drugs.
If you might
think the situation in Romania is bad because they have to overcome 44 years of
communist totalitarian dictatorship, you would be right, however the socialized
medical care in many EU countries is not much better. Take for instance Ireland
- their overworked doctors and nurses are wonderful but conditions in some
hospitals are dreadful.
The patient
named Maureen I described in my previous article (http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/68077)
had to share a room recently with five men. One was 94 years old and had
dementia, shouting incessantly, and another was a mental patient who kept his
clothes piled on the floor, while two security stood guard at the door in case
he became destructive or dangerous.
There was
one bathroom for all six patients, with no rails to hold on to and the shower
did not work. The entire room stunk to high heaven. There were two holes in the
wall where the rail had been. Maureen was lucky that a kind nurse gave her a sponge
bath each day. On the day Maureen’s
husband was visiting, one of the men urinated into the water jug.
Family
members were told not to alert the media in case their loved ones needed to be
hospitalized there again. One visiting
family member who wanted to speak to the media was asked not to do so.
The hospital
was supposed to be closed down but people marched and it was kept open under
these horrible circumstances. People felt that a hospital with such ghastly
conditions was better than no hospital at all.
Apparently
co-ed wards are now the norm. When wards are full, it is common to keep patients
on gurneys in the hallways. Most doctors come from third world countries and
have limited training. There is not enough money for adequate medical staff or
hospital administration. Medical personnel are frustrated because they cannot
provide proper care to all patients.
If you are lulled into a false sense of security because this
cannot happen in the United States, think again. ObamaCare is causing a wave of
small hospital closures across our country. According to Paul Bremer, “Eighteen acute-care hospitals across
the United States shut their doors in 2013. At least 12 more hospitals have
closed this year in rural areas alone. More are getting out the plywood to nail
over windows and barricades for doors.” http://www.wnd.com/2014/12/obamacare-blamed-for-killing-hospitals/
Small and mid-size hospitals are closing in inner cities and
rural areas with a disproportionate number of Medicare/Medicaid patients.
Reasons for closures are low reimbursements rates,
bureaucrats telling doctors that some patient services are “not medically necessary,”
physician practices heavily dependent on government reimbursement, ObamaCare
regulations that are too expensive to implement, high out of pocket expenses
for the insured under ObamaCare, causing less people to go to the hospital, and
economically depressed rural farming towns where locals cannot afford to go to
the doctor or to the hospital.
Additionally, California hospitals are in danger of closing
their doors due to the overwhelming influx of illegal aliens who are treated
for free and have their anchor babies delivered free at huge costs to
taxpayers.
Madeleine Pelner Cosman wrote a five-page report titled “Illegal
Aliens and American Medicine,” in the spring 2005 issue of the Journal of
American Physicians and Surgeons in which she stated that “84 California
hospitals are closing their doors as a direct result of the rising number of
illegal aliens and their non-reimbursed tax on the system.” http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf
Lee Hieb, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, wrote, “Today, all over
America, small and mid-size hospitals as well as hospitals in inner-city, poor
areas are closing.” In her book, Surviving
the Medical Meltdown: Your Guide to Living Through the Disaster of Obamacare,
Dr. Hieb said that “Events happening now give us some idea of what medicine
will be reduced to in the future.” http://www.naturalnews.com/048141_Obamacare_hospital_closures_health_care_system.html
For people like me who survived the maltreatment and lack of
proper medical care under socialized communist healthcare, there is no surprise;
we know exactly what is coming. If Americans would only listen to the voices of
reason and experience! If something sounds too good to be true in this “fundamentally
transformed America,” it is going to be rationed and miserable.
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