Shalom, Feral Nation!

Today’s topic is the EU healthcare-o-rama and why you should care.

I strongly advise that voters in the US pay careful attention to what is going on with the socialized medical care system in the EU, cause that is very likely what you will get if Obama ends up in the White House.

Therefore, the latest in the EU is this:
In an effort to shift around the service delivery problems inherent in a socialized medical care delivery system, the EU is now going to allow medical care tourism.

EU plans cross border healthcare

“The European Commission is poised to unveil a healthcare package that could give patients new rights to seek medical treatment elsewhere in the EU.

Patients would not have to get their doctor’s approval for non-hospital care abroad, officials are quoted as saying.”

Bottom line is, if the que by you is too long, you can go elsewhere for treatment. Of course, the real issue boils down to payment.

“Only costs similar to those in a patient’s home state would be covered. About 1% of operations performed in the EU involve people from other countries.

Non-hospital care would be reimbursed by the home state up to the level the patient could expect at home, according to reports.

But the state would not reimburse expensive treatment received abroad that was unavailable in the patient’s home country.”

So what you will have is people shifting to service delivery areas that run more efficiently and probably overwhelming it. Then when the service delivery site goes to get paid the problems will occur. I expect that the service delivery site will either get stiffed and eventually cut services offered or will go after the patient for the difference.

Again, keep an eye on this situation folks, this is what many politicians have in mind for the US.

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by 3-wood
Source: EU Healthcare-O-Rama
images: Outraged Spleen of Zion