More about Our Experience with "Socialized" Medicine

Some people talk about socialized health care systems as if they were the anti-Christ. Certainly, some countries' standards of living are not high enough to support decent health care for the entire populace. And I know there are plenty of horror stories about bad experiences in places like Canada & the UK where health care is under the government's control. I would argue, however, that there are plenty of horror stories here with our privatized system of health care. Are there not? I know plenty of horror stories of people who received bad care or substandard care or no care at all or who were bankrupted by medical bills. Pick your poison -- that's my opinion. We should feel lucky to live in a country that can afford good health care. Now we just have to decide how to pay for it.

While I don't personally care what kind of system we have in our country, I do care about people making informed decisions instead of ranting about things they know nothing about. Just because you heard it on Fox News or read it in an email doesn't make it the "truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God." People are very good at distorting "truth" to meet their own agendas.

At any rate, I promised to tell a bit more of our experience with health care in the Czech Republic, now one of 27 member nations of the European Union. At the time we lived there, however, they were still rebounding from 40 years of Communism. They have a state-controlled form of health care. Even the salaries of doctors and nurses are set by the state.

Both of our kids were born in Prague hospitals with Czech doctors. Jericho came by way of C-section since he was in the breech position. I was able to be present for the C-section, even though it wasn't customary for them to allow dads in for this. Honestly, I would rather have NOT been in there. I'm not a big fan of seeing one's wife have her belly cut open.

They typically want the mother and child to stay in hospital for a week after a C-section. Even a normal birth usually results in a 4- or 5-day stay in hospital. They want the mom to actually rest and they want to ensure that the first immunizations get done according to plan. These policies seem to have made a differnce. Czechs (at that time) had the second lowest mortality rate among newborns, behind only Sweden. The US mortality rate for infants in the first month ranked around 20th in the world. One thing to consider is that the Czechs might tend to abort more troubled pregnancies in the US, but the numbers nevertheless impressed me as a parent.

Jacob came by way of natural childbirth. I'll never forget the morning when we were waiting for the baby to come, the doctor got there a few minutes early and actually stood around talking with me. At one point, she even brought me a cup of coffee from the vending machine. Talk about service! Of course, Julie was suffering through it all like a champ. I wasn't a great breathing coach, but I tried. And she wasn't one of those women who curse their husbands during childbirth -- at least not out loud.

Julie was in the hospital 4 days with Jacob. She was more than ready to come home, but I think she would agree that the standard of care was excellent.

We were a bit unusual in that we paid cash both times for our births, hospitalizations & medical care. We were legal residents but did not have the national insurance. Our coverage was through a global company that insured expatriate workers. They would then sift through our paperwork and reimburse us after we met our deductible.

The cost of each birth (including hospitalization, pediatrician's and ob/gyn's bills, blood work, immunizations, etc.) was about $4,000 (or 100,000 Czech crowns).

Now I realize that the Czech health care system has all kinds of problems. I'm not about to glorify that as the model for the US system. And I'm not a fan of government oversight. But I was impressed with (a) the standard of care in these two instances at two different hospitals, and (b) the cost for our care.

Call me a Socialist if you want. That's honestly not my agenda, but oh well. I'm not too worried about labels. They are ways of cutting off dialogue, preventing us from listening to one another. For what it's worth...