Japan's hospital emergency room crisis

[Tankweti]

In comparison to other areas of the world, let us look at sub-Saharan Africa (where I have lived in past). In general, there are private hosp & govt hosp. Private hosp only accept cash (there is no insurance). So if you cant pay, then you must go to govt hosp where care is free but very limited. In many cases, people get bloodwork out in community, are given their diagnosis & sent home to die. Again, our system here is only being sustained on govt borrowing and that cannot last forever.

[Tankweti]

I am a nurse and I can tell you that E.R.'s here are only continuing to run because of govt borrowing. Most people dont have private ins anymore, having lost their jobs. The majority of people in E.R. either have M'care, M'caid or no insurance at all in which case the hosp has to "eat the cost". Ambulances are mobile E.R.'s, which is why amb rides cost so much. It would not surprise me, current laws or not, if U.S. eventually comes to same situation as Japan

[gungasc]

Ambalance!

[DVDluvr123]

Oh yeah and what's the deal with those helmets? They look really dorky.

[XxLIVRAxX]

@DVDluvr123 You do realize that Japan is a nation threaten by earthquakes and other natural disasters? The helmets are common sense

[DVDluvr123]

@XxLIVRAxX So then why doesn't everybody wear a helmet? America is also threatened by earthquakes and other natural disasters. But you don't see people here walking around wearing helmets. Sorry, but your comment seems to be lacking common sense.

[XxLIVRAxX]

@DVDluvr123 Perhaps Japanese have tighter safety policies...America has very different safety policies depending of the country...America goes from Canada to Argentina...so is not very specific what you meant..I will assume you are talking about the Republic of the US, well the US is not the stick that the rest of the world is measure upon...I consider the helmets a good precaution measure.

[DVDluvr123]

@XxLIVRAxX So you are saying that the ambulance workers are the only people in Japan who know there might be an earthquake or other natural disaster?

[XxLIVRAxX]

@DVDluvr123 No, am saying that considering that they will be in the first line of assistance after a natural disaster occurs, they should be properly prepared, that includes using protective gear such as helmets, is just plain common sense

[ybunnygurl]

@XxLIVRAxX Your English needs some help, I think I understand what you are attempting to say but its not clear. When most Americans say America they are talking about the United States of America U.S.A. there is no Republic of the US.

[XxLIVRAxX]

@ybunnygurl Well I think the practice of monopolizing the term America only for an specific nationality is, at least politically speaking, questionable, considering that America is in fact a continent, it includes a wide ranges of countries and nationalities, the term "republic of the US" is a bit archaic, but it was used in the past, in fact in the pledge of allegiance includes the phrase: "and to the republic for which it stands.", the US is a Republic

[NvidiATI]

Money money !! life has no value. until you need a ER!

[MrCropper]

Strangely, I hear a lot about how good Japan's universal free healthcare is supposed to be. Amazingly, people want this system to come to America.

[unoriginalnick]

@MrCropper Apparently you need to check into your sources. Japan has neither "free" nor universal healthcare. Japan has a private for-profit healthcare system with public/private insurance. Insurance only pays 70% of medical costs so patients must pay the other 30% up front. The only major practical difference from the US is that in Japan everybody is required to have insurance (not really enforced) and insurance premiums are fixed as a percent of your annual income.

[MrCropper]

@unoriginalnick From Wiki: "The Health care system in Japan provides healthcare services, including screening examinations for particular diseases at no direct cost to the patient"

.

There is no country, not even Japan, with as private and for-profit a system as America, sad as that is.

[unoriginalnick]

@MrCropper I live in Japan, perhaps that Wiki author would like to see the receipt from my last doctor visit. Ordinary visits and emergencies are most certainly not provided at "no direct cost to the patient." It is 30% up-front. The only free "screening examinations" I can receive are through a once-per-year checkup program provided by my ward office. You're right about one thing though, Japan's insurance system is nowhere near as bad as the US. For that I am very thankful.

[hyperseauton]

@MrCropper shut the fuck up.

[ryukXsayu27]

@MrCropper Yeah, because profit-based private healthcare does not run on profit. :P

[XxLIVRAxX]

@ryukXsayu27 Not at all...in runs out of goodwill and compassion...Ill send the bill later ;)

[thorington]

1:25 makes me think on trauma under the knife for DS

[XenoAlex2222]

I Love this

punkrockclique!

Also see my YouTube site & receive FREE Gift Cards!

[yanin28]

weird. i lived in japan for a couple of years and i've got the best medical treatment ever. japan is great and if i get the opportunity again - i'm there!

[imdakid97]

i would love to go there and im 11 i akways wanted to go their people tell me bad things about it like you will get robbed and everything

[yanin28]

if there is one place you don't get robbed - it's japan! i have never seen this anywhere else, for example: if you go to a starbucks in a book store, you see a lot of purses and laptops on tables while the owners are looking for books. no one absolutely no one will steal anything from that table!

[imdakid97]

they have starbucks in japan wow they have everything. i now really want top go there. but not till im 22 im only 11 how crowded would it be

[iloveallecchianime]

it will be all old people by then cuz of the low birthrate

[stearmer]

when i was in japan i got sick so bad and when i was in the hospital the doctor didnt even see me they didnt even take any blood presure or anything not even medicine they just say take alot of water. i just take medicine on my own coz they know nothing.

[josephkwood]

Even the most extreme pro-capitalists, if they are intelligent (e.g. Milton Friedman), admit that there are public goods which only the government can provide for (e.g. due to externalities, the free rider problem, etc). One example of a public good is healthcare which is why most industrialized nations have a government-provided system. The free market fails at providing proper, comprehensive care, hence the term "market failure"

[jetwinslow731]

The same thing can easilt happen here and does happen to a lesser extent-Emergency physician

[LK1998]

Japs dont have brain

[sexycheerchick1]

thats racist u bitch

[hzzn]

That doesn't make any sense. How can you shut down emergency rooms. That's insane.

[FurankuCha]

Oh wow. And Japan is one of the country with the highest Life Expectancy.

[Sam26100]

@FurankuCha which raises the question how exactly the life expectancy is measured.

I am always astounded how MIchael Moore keeps parroting the line that Canada has 3 years higher life expectancy than us on average, and yet I know that they have towns where people's names are drawn in a lottery for treatment, with the names which aren't drawn being abandoned

[unoriginalnick]

@Sam26100 The difference is that people in Japan tend to have healthier lifestyles. They have much better diets, good access to preventative care (ordinary doctor visits are very cheap), low violent crime, better road safety, less proclivity toward high-risk entertainment, etc. Thus a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality despite a sub-standard emergency medical system. Healthcare systems are complicated, trying to sum it all up in a single criterion is misleading and useless.