What On Earth Does Sweden Know That We Don't?

I just read a very interesting article. Here, read it for yourself: Even Conservatives Support Sweden’s Welfare State. Here’s Why.

The welfare system clearly works for them. Why can't we have the same thing here?

 

Because health insurance is nearly a trillion dollar industry, and they've remarkably spun that into a way to convince half of Americans that single payer healthcare is communism.

It'd be impressive PR if it wasn't wicked.

Revenue of U.S. life and health insurance industry 2017 | Statistic

 

These kinds of offerings are much easier when you only have 10 million people. The US has over 350 million. There simply are not enough hospitals, doctors or nurses in the US to provide support for everyone. The only solution I have seen anyone attempt so far is to bring more people in!

 

Panic

Most of Europe has universal healthcare systems that’s possible up to 600- 700 million people and you say the US has only 350 million?

 

So true, We have a population of about 68 million here in the UK and we are struggling. Attempts to change things by the government just seem to create more bureaucracy, rather than improve the quality of care. We also have a publicly owned ambulance service that is focused on delivering patients to where they can get the best care, rather than which hospitals they are connected too

 

Big part of our problem in the UK is the deliberate under funding of the NHS by the tories. They want to privatize it, as they think they can then make a great deal of money.

 

That is not really true.
Each country in Europe has its own healthcare system. The only link between them is a reciprocal agreement to treat each others patients when they are living in or visiting another European country.
Both Germany and the UK have world leading specialist doctors who worked together long before the EU.
The replacement of the BS kite-mark and the German DIN standard with CE, has caused countless problems over recent years in assuring the quality of medical equipment and avoiding substandard items from Eastern Europe. This has been a particular problem with items such as synthetic heart valves (they cost around £15,000 Each). We now have to check the 4 digits following CE to check the country of origin. ,

 

What isn’t true

I mean its seems to me that the problems within the public sectors (as Billy has pointed out) have come about because of flawed neoliberal ideology with it seems the final goal of privatisation.

Education is mainly now about examination results for league tables rather than teaching children, the marketisation of the NHS was a misdirection from the beginning and welfare ‘reform’ is about cost cutting rather than assisting people.

If anything that would imply bringing universal healthcare to the US would be much easier.

Which 'we' and could you cite your source i googled and could not find anything on this.

 

That is true, but no political party since WW2 has addressed the issue successfully.
Our main problem is bureaucracy and bad management. We have spent tens of millions on computer systems that simply don't work. Recent attempts to upgrade them have made them worse.
Last month, a top consultant held a surgery for 1 day at one of our largest hospitals. 28 patients that had appointments and only 2 arrived. The hospital was one of a group within a healthcare area and an agency temp working in the computer department had sent the patients to the wrong site.
Far more than just the consultants salary was wasted, He had an echocardiograph (a device for detecting scar tissue on the walls of the heart) and a mobile MRI scanner onsite for his clinic. This stupid error cost the NHS more than £80,000. To make matters worse, the waiting time to re-book the MRI unit is about 10 weeks.

In my opinion, little will change until the government appoint a minister for health who is a qualified doctor. Unfortunately, senior doctors don't seem too keen on running around door knocking to get elected to a seat in parliament. LMAO.

 

Wil

Was it a systematic failure of the NHS that the computer system cost that amount and failed or was that government officials involved in the contracting?

Do you think a senior doctors would be better at contracting an IT project?

You could say it would be better for the NHS to employ experienced staff rather than temps but in my experience temps are often used as a way of cutting costs.

 

I'm a veteran, but I pay for insurance. For me the VA is the very last resort. I went there when I was dead broke, unemployed, "hiking" across the country.

The old joke was that you'd go into the VA with a broken arm and come out with a vasectomy. The other problem is waiting, weeks, to see a doctor. I have back issues, a gift from the military. They come and go. If I have to wait 3 weeks, it's usually gone by then, so I look like a drug seeker.

The problem with private insurance is greedy doctors. I had one that was trying to push therapy on me that I knew I didn't need. I looked into his background and he pushes it because it's part of his research. So all of his patients are test subjects. Fuck that.

So I'm looking for another, but doing the background first. If your doctor only seems to have 1 tool, find a new one. To them you're just a nail. And NO, a CPAP doesn't do anything for ED!

 

Panic

In what way is that an argument against having a universal healthcare system?

 

I agree that Doctors and other trained medical proffesionals should run the NHS. As I recall, back in the 70's, before Thatcher, that was the way it was run. I saw a documentary some time ago (link below)where they were saying that during that epoch, management accounted for about 5% of the NHS budget, and is now some 40%.

I know the population has increased and there have been advances in medicine and technology since then, but it's does look a bit eye watering that it's now nearly10 times more..

My local Labour candidate last 2 times was a nice lady doctor - she was beaten by the tory, and I won't be voting for her again because of Labour's stance on Brexit - which will proabaly mean the end of the NHS in the long run if it goes through as looks likely with no deal.

 

You will not find anything about this on Google, the issue is far to complex. The main 2 problems were with medical equipment and household electrical items being certified in Poland.

I will give you 2 examples.

The manufacture of a balloon and a condom follows the same general process.
As you know when blowing up balloons, one in ten of them will burst or deflate within a few hours,
This is due to dross forming in the liquid latex and small particles entering the molding tool. Since oxidation continues to the point of injection the problem is unavoidable.
Therefore EACH condom is inflated with helium (due to its small molecular structure) and test equipment rejects condoms with a permeability in excess of 0.05'ppm
These condoms carry a BS kitemark and the European equivalent is CE0086.
Back in the 90's the NHS bought 100 million condoms without the correct CE mark and they were simply balloons. Fortunately the mistake was discovered and they were incinerated.
The frightening thing is that people are still importing this rubbish and selling them though corner shops and vending machines. They avoid prosecution by not calling them condoms and adding the legally required wording on the box "this product must not be used as a barrier".
As you know, when we rush to the vending machine after a night out, we all carry a magnifying glass and read all the smallprint on the box LOL.

A simple example on the electrical subject is the non color coded cable used on insulated table lamps. This results in a 50/50 chance of a switch on the cable breaking the neutral.
Dangerous when changing a screw bulb, but far more so on a tubular picture lamp where as you are inserting one end into the live connector, current runs through the filament to the end that you are holding in your hand.

Do you now see why you will not be able to research this subject on Google.
When asked to describe Google recently, I called it the worlds largest dustbin.
Plenty of good stuff thrown in, but with technical and medical issues, people who understand them would not need to look them up on Google in the first place.
I was recently looking for pictures of an old London theater on Google images. Less than 10 out of more than 500 images that I waded through were even the correct building.

 

Take a look at my last reply to "balbus" and you will see just 2 examples of the extent of the problem.
For what it is worth, I support Brexit. I think that the opposition that is making it so hard for us to leave comes from Eastern Europe who need our financial support.
I also think that Brussels are petrified that if it works for us, France will be the nest country to jump ship.
Perhaps the worst thing is that although we have imported 25 million pounds worth of milk per year from Ireland since long before the EU. Brussels appear to be offering them a 50 million pound grant to pour all their milk down the drain after we leave.
Perhaps we should ask the European court whether their actions are legal.

 

After Brexit bye bye NHS.

 

That really is the million dollar question

While they would be incapable of designing the hardware and networks, they need to be responsible for what is loaded into them. Hospital administrators also need an input.
Computer systems require 3 stages of development.
Engineers to design and build the hardware and networks.
Programmers to convert the data into computer coding.
Most importantly of all, Doctors and hospital administrators to work as data annalists to tell the programmers EXACTLY what they need.
It is this third category that is constantly failing.

Again a simple example.
As you no doubt know, an ECG is the short term for electrocardiograph, a graph that shows heartbeats, ectopic beats and base line nerve stimulation.
An echocardiogram is a sonar device that gives a visual display of the heart walls muscles and valves. It is mainly used to detect scar tissue, muscle degeneration and tears in the mitral and tricuspid valve. It can also give additional information on the muscle stimulation during an ectopic beat.
Clearly, agency admin staff can easily mix these procedures up. On one occasion a programmer combined the 2 files.
You can imagine what happens when an consultant who's first language is Indian asks his temp administrator who's first language is Polish to book the procedures and follow on appointments.

All this is far from simple.

 

I hope not, perhaps more control of our finances and less restrictions will help.

My bigger fear is the governments crazy ideas about privatizing our police force.

 

Read up on Indias system

They actually have the worlds biggest universal welfare scheme at the moment

 

It explains why Sweden is doing so well compared to the US?