Wednesday, October 6, 2010

public vs private health care

In one of our recent visits with our dad to a private doctor, he (the doctor) started a whole tirade about public vs private health care.

'I'm [one of] the best doctors in my field. It's impossible for a doctor working for the public health system to have the expertise that I have.
I go to the US once a month and participate in medical conferences. I'm up to date on the latest medical advances.
Does any hospital / public health care system send their doctors to participate in medical conferences? (and on what frequency).
...
I can give the prescriptions for the best medicines in the market.
A doctor working for the public health care system cannot.
Even if he knows about the better medications (doubtfully so, since he doesn't participate in any medical conferences, and he's probably not up to date), his hands are tied. He's not allowed to write prescriptions of medications that are not in the public 'basket' (because that would be like saying that the public health care medicine committee is wrong abut not adding this medicine to the basket).

Yes, the doctor was somewhat arrogant.
But, putting that aside, he still had some points to be made.

What do you think?

P.S. Although we still have issues with my dad's health, for the meanwhile this doctor seems to have helped more than any other doctor has.

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