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| Europe |
| French surgeons threaten to leave to protest working conditions |
| 2004-07-30 |
| More than 3,000 militant French surgeons are threatening to down scalpels and cross the English Channel to Britain for a week of symbolic exile next month in protest over rates of pay and high insurance premiums. "We are going abroad because nobody will be able to force us to work when we are there," one surgeon, Philippe Breil, said. French law would oblige them to work if asked to do so by their local authority. The surgeons are planning their protest for the week beginning 30 August and say they will meet up at a conference centre in Wembley. With more than half France's 6,000 surgeons out of the country, only emergency operations could be practised during their protest, organisers say. On a campaign website, a urologist, Gerard Maudrux, appealed to fellow surgeons to join the protest. "If you don't do it for yourselves, do it for surgery itself, for your patients, so that tomorrow they are operated on by real surgeons who have the time and financial means and equipment to carry out surgery worthy of its name," he said. The surgeons are angry that patients' fees have not increased for 15 years, but their insurance premiums have increased tenfold over the period. They are also concerned about the future of their profession. Many French surgeons are nearing retirement in the next few years, their average age is 55, and poor pay means fewer medical students are choosing to specialise in surgery. "Doing nothing today is irresponsible. Being responsible today is to warn that the situation is serious: tomorrow we won't have any more surgeons," said Dr Philippe Cuq, on behalf of a French surgeons' association. The protest increases pressure on the conservative government of the prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which is trying to reform France's indebted health-care system by cutting costs. Ah, don't you love socialized medicine? Seems to be taking the same disasterous nose dive in Canada, UK, Fraaance. This "terror" folks is coming to your neighborhood soon, if Kerry/Edwards/Hildabeast have their way. |
| Posted by:rex |
| #11 OP, your right, socialized medicine s*%ks! IMO, this is because socialized medicine (being an arm of the government) is granted immunity from lawsuits for the kind of BS you're being put through -- so, there's no downside to delaying care and indulging all kinds of bureaucratic SNAFUs First off, OP, I take it you are in an HMO of sorts. Socialized medicine is much worse, and the latter is what the Troika of Democrat Lawyers Kerry/Edwars/Hildabeast want for us: equal access to mediocre rationed health care, but with no limits on frivolous lawsuits, full access to trial by jury, and no costs will be assigned to the loser. So what the Troika is offering is the worst of all possible worlds. I hope you can get faster medical care than you are scheduled for currently but unfortunately, HMO's do have the gate keeper thingie which hangs things up alot...that's how HMO's cleverly try to keep their costs down - through gatekeepers. I don't think a "threat" of legal action will help you much, but I'm not familiar with lodging lawsuits to get what I want in life. However, I will take this opportunity to address some "fuzzy" comments that Cingold brings up about socialized medicine. Socialized medicine is rotten for many reasons but the reason you quote, Cingold, that lawyers can't sue a gov't run system is hardly the reason. Nice try, no cigar. a) socialized medicine is supposed to bring down costs so everyone can enjoy "free" care, so it would be counter productive to allow personal injury lawyers continue to escalate costs as they have been doing for so many years with frivolous lawsuits b) because it's "free" everyone uses socialized medicine "freely", ergo long delays, because everyone goes to the socialized "trough" c) because gov't runs socialized medicine, physicians are treated like gov't "property", with no respect, and therefore and thusly after a while intellectually gifted college graduates figure there's no point going to med school and be treated like a postman, so there are too few physicians to handle all the folks embibing in "free" medical care. But who said "free" medical care would be prompt? All that is promised with socialized medicine is free and equal, albeit mediocre, health care. Also, there's another dirty little secret about "cost cutting" in socialized medicine countries - after you hit 65, well you are a poor investment to the gov't, to put it delicately...no expensive medical intervention for seniors...count on flu shots and arthritis medicine, and perhaps cataract surgery and hip replacements but there's an 18 month wait. d)One of the MAJOR reasons cited by liberals and Democrats to institute socialized medicine is to bring down the costs - yes? But as I have mentioned above, the Kerry/Edwards/Hildabeast version of socialized medicine does not include a lid on medical lawsuits because all three are lawyers and are looking out for their own. e) Before implementing socialized medicine in the USA, I'd like to see a trial run done on another profession first, to iron out the bureaucratic kinks, so to speak. Also, rather than using a profession that deals in life and death issues to "experiment", I think we should use a less essential but very costly service in society, especially in the USA - ie. Legal Services. I suggest we socialize the law profession, make all lawyers gov't civil servants, and see how that works out first. I am sure personal injury lawyers, in particular, would be thrilled at the thought because it would make them even more "available" to the little people in society, whose rights, I'm told, they seek to champion. |
| Posted by: rex 2004-07-31 12:31:03 AM |
| #10 Cingold, the problem is that the AF Academy, where MRIs are done in this part of the world, makes its own appointments. They have one machine, six technicians, and service 41,000 active duty, reserve (we have 4200 that qualify for medical care) and retired military folks. The problem is that Congress refused to fund a second MRI facility at Evans Army Hospital, about 25 miles south of the Academy. It's either wait, or go downtown. I'm just waiting for my PCM to recover enough from a rafting trip on the Arkansas (broke an arm and a couple of ribs) to decide which way is best to go. It's still a run-around, but I can't blame either Tricare or the Air Force - just a Congress that cuts every last dime it can from the military budget. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-07-31 12:22:16 AM |
| #9 OP, your right, socialized medicine s*%ks! IMO, this is because socialized medicine (being an arm of the government) is granted immunity from lawsuits for the kind of BS you're being put through -- so, there's no downside to delaying care and indulging all kinds of bureaucratic SNAFUs. You might have a way out, though. The difference (in your case) being that TriCare in Colorado (where you're from, if I remember) is administered through TriWest Healthcare Alliance. Triwest is a private company, and would not be immune from suit and might be more concerned about doing right by you if they knew about the hell you're going through. The contact page for TriWest is at this link. The phone number is 1-888-TRIWEST (1-888-874-9378), 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Monday through Friday. The relationship between TriCare and TriWest is described here. Your situation still might fall under the federal Tort Claims Act, and/or ERISA preemption, but (to make a long story short) I'd call TriWest directly and bitch them out. The care you're being given sounds ridiculously delayed, IMO. |
| Posted by: cingold 2004-07-30 8:19:55 PM |
| #8 Is it hot in here or is it me? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-30 7:30:08 PM |
| #7 As someone that currently has to live with socialized medicine, it's no fun. I have a bad back. I've been having problems with my legs going numb on me off and on for the last eight or nine months. My primary care doctor scheduled me for an MRI of my lower back, where I have several ruptured/herniated disks (there's a good possibility something might be pressing against the sciatic nerve). The appointment was made July 12th. I get the MRI August 30th. That's just for the scan. THEN I get to schedule an appointment to see a doctor to discuss the results. At least with TriCare, my prescription medications are free, except the ones for the medications the local pharmacy no longer carries. Then I get to pay a co-pay. All of this is my "free, lifetime medical care" promised me and my dependents by my Air Force recruiter. Oh, and I have to pay $460 a year for it, on top of all that. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-07-30 7:22:28 PM |
| #6 Sounds more like "Medicens San D'Argent". |
| Posted by: dreadnought 2004-07-30 1:39:15 PM |
| #5 "We are going abroad because nobody will be able to force us to work when we are there," one surgeon, Philippe Breil, said. So would these guys be considered like, "Medicenes Sans Vacations"? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-07-30 11:18:31 AM |
| #4 Man I cant wait until we get socialized health care! |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2004-07-30 10:42:37 AM |
| #3 Always extolling the virtues of the socialist paradise that is Fwance... until somebody tells them to do something they don't want to do. Then it's strike time. Did somebody forget to translate Hayek into Fwench, or do they need a comic book version? |
| Posted by: BH 2004-07-30 10:27:51 AM |
| #2 "How come we don't get the cool new blue scrubs like John Kerry?" |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-07-30 9:20:45 AM |
| #1 How could it come to this when their government is in control of things?! /leftist ignoramus |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2004-07-30 8:38:45 AM |