Part One in the series on Socialized Medicine in Brazil. My friend Jill (http://brennekids.blogspot.com/) recently watched Sicko and dedicated a blog entry to share her reaction/frustrations with the health care system in the United States.
As part of her reflection, she included a very nice video from YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxLag-EXiZk) highlighting the current, utopian-like state of Norway (where there is socialized medicine, among other socialist characteristics benefitting the general public).
As a result, several of my blogger friends and I have been wondering what is the answer to the current state of American health care. Many of my American friends, living stateside, give the impression that they might think socialized medicine is the answer to our problems. Many others continuously scratch their heads, wondering what the answers may be. As a bonafide resident of Brazil for nearly two years, I have a few experiential comments to make regarding socialized medicine in an effort to find what my opinion on the topic actually is. To attempt to illustrate this, I will collect various points about Brazil's system with photos to demonstrate what is happening here.
Is simply saying; "socialized healthcare is the answer" what we're looking for in the US?
Concern number 1: Reality of available care. The building at the top of this photo is called "Ponta da Saude" Health Point. It is one of the many public clinics found throughout the city to serve the general population of 11.5 million. It is mainly a shot clinic for vaccinations or allergy shots, but it is also what Americans know as a walk-in clinic to serve minor injuries or illness. Although there is a bus stop in the middle of the photo, the dozens of people surrounding the bus stop are not waiting for bus transportation. They are waiting in line to enter the clinic--at 6:45 a.m.--which will open at 8 a.m. This is the typical scene at all of the clinics. Now I know I would not choose to wait in a line like this for an allergy shot every couple of weeks; I get irritated when my doctors are 10 minutes late for my appointment time and force me to sit in the dreary, germ infested waiting rooms.
The fact that people have to wait in a line like this definitely deters me from promoting socialized medicine, and this is the minor side of the waiting. People typically wait for treatment for serious illness months--but that will be my next topic in this series.