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ISSUES
Health Care Around the World
South African Doctors Conscripted: In the last few
years, Nelson Mandela's African National Congress has
introduced free care for children and conscripted medical
practitioners, according to Jim Peron, executive director of
the Institute for Liberal Values in Johannesburg, South Africa.
After full conscription of doctors was strongly opposed, Health
Minister Nkosazana Zuma opted to mandate one year of service to
the state, and call it "training." Zuma also "fired hundreds of
qualified doctors from their positions and replaced them with
students fresh out of medical school." Many of the young
doctors work their mandatory one year and then choose to
emigrate. The result: South Africa lost the doctors who wanted
to stay and kept the doctors who do not plan to stay. Patients
got doctors will little experience in exchange for experienced
and qualified practitioners. Doctors who wish to stay in South
Africa must now apply for permits to practice in certain areas,
thereby giving the government control over where each doctor is
allowed to practice.
Newly proposed legislation will also force pharmacists and
dentists to work for the government. Mandela, now retired, is
attempting to stop the country's brain drain by asking the
British government to pass a law forbidding South
African-trained nurses from practicing in the country. Some
14,000 of them already work in Great Britain. ("South Africa's
Polarized Politics, Ideas on Liberty, January 2001)
Sending American Health Care Dollars to Mexico?
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services,"The United States and Mexico have reached a formal
agreement to establish the U.S. - Mexico Border Health
Commission (BHC)...The Commission will serve as a forum to
discuss shared health concerns and find ways to improve the
health status of people living along the border." Secretary
Shalala signed the agreement on July 14, 2000.
Australian's Health Care Services rationed. According
to the Center for Independent
Studies, a January 1999 report issued by the Perth
Metropolitan Health Services Board shows most seriously ill
patients fail to receive surgery within accepted time frames,
and more than half the patients wait two months or longer for
their operations, while some wait more than a year. Since the
beginning of Medicare in 1985, private insurance has dropped
from approximately 50% to 30% . Because law mandates "community
rating"--charging the same high premium for all enrollees
regardless of health status--the healthy have dropped coverage
while the ill and injured remain.
British patients wait to get on waiting list.
According to the New York Times, in an article
printed 4/18/99 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, British citizens
wait for at least one year to see the specialist who may
schedule a surgical procedure for which the patient might wait
another year. There are 1.12 million people on the official
waiting list and now citizens are discovering another list, the
list to getting on the official list, a list which the British
government does not acknowledge. British citizens are upset.
Those waiting to see a specialist are on the unofficial list,
but are not included in the government statistics. Only the
those on the official list are counted as waiting. As Ann
Widdecombe, the Tory shadow health secretary said, "...until
you get in to see the consultant, no one has made a judgment
about the urgency of the case... It's literally playing
politics with people's lives."
Brazil government to slash health care spending by $840
million in 1999. "When Selma Duarte suffered stomach pains
recently, she had to line up at 4 a.m. and wait two hours just
to make an appointment -- for two months later -- at the
nearest public hospital." Impending cuts in health care
spending will only jeopardize access further. The cuts are the
result of agreement reached as part of the $41.5 billion
International Monetary Fund bailout announced November 13. "
'If the health cuts go through, they will mean fewer doctors,
less medicine and worse care for the majority of Brazilians,'
argued Elias Jorge, an adviser to the Nation Health Council,
and independent lobby group." (St. Paul Pioneer Press,
November 20, 1998)
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Citizens' Council on Health Care
1954 University Avenue West, Suite 8, St. Paul, MN 55104
Phone: 651.646.8935 / Fax: 651.646.0100, e-mail
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