[Nyororin]

I`m going to try not to step too deeply into the US/Japan healthcare debate - I`ve done it COUNTLESS times before on here, and am tiring of it, but can`t resist.

You can get care 24/7 in Japan - no problems, no people "dying in waiting rooms" - though I hear about that pretty often from the US. No, wait, in the US it`s "Dying while you wait for your insurance to approve your surgery, which takes years for them to do."

Yes, in the US you can get care at any time, taking priority over everyone else regardless of their needs if you have the cash. If you don`t, and your job doesn`t provide top notch insurance (most don`t), you`d almost might as well give up. No one in my family in the US has ever gone to the hospital without encountering insurance issues. My grandmother passed away in the hospital, and the insurance refused to pay for any of her care because *gasp* the condition she died from had to do with having worked in a factory during WWII. It was a "previously existing condition" despite no one knowing about it until 50 years after the fact, including more than 30 paying into the insurance. Not to mention the hospital tried to add on every additional treatment in the book to get more money (Speech therapy? Water therapy? Intensive exercise program? My grandmother was unconscious, and never left the bed.)

If you take a dive into the frightening world of premature birth, I cannot even tell you how many stories I`ve heard of parents having to sell their homes to pay for their baby`s medical care. Even great insurance companies cut you off after a certain monetary amount it reached - if your baby is on 24/7 intensive care, using expensive equipment and expensive drugs - what do you know, you hit that limit in the first few weeks of your baby`s 6 month hospital stay. The rest is cycled around to collection agencies, and you`re chased for the rest of your life as the average family simply cannot ever afford millions in medical bills.

On the other hand, in Japan, it`s all covered. In my little town, medical care for children is 100% free up until 12. There is no "limit". You start to see the big differences when you REALLY need the care and really need the insurance. Otherwise, it`s whining about waiting a few hours for an appointment because someone who REALLY needed the care is given priority, not the guy whose insurance is known to pay well, or the guy who flashes the cash. (By the way, I`ve never waited at all for anything serious. Colds, fevers, etc - yes. My son`s hernia becoming inflamed - something that could be quite serious? We were ushered in to see a doctor within 5 minutes.)
My son has a huge array of medical issues, and I have seen pretty much the most extreme levels of medical care... And compared to all the stories I have heard (both negative and positive) about children in similar situations in the US...... I would choose Japanese hospital care over them without the slightest doubt.

Almost all of the necessary medical trips (in contrast to vacation/resort medical trips - which have little to do with the conditions and more with the flaunting cash aspect of it) to the US from Japan are made for one reason - to receive transplants from children. Japan bans organ donation from children under the age of consent. Parents can`t consent for the children, and the children can`t consent for themselves...
This has very little to do with waits for care - as long as it`s illegal, there is nothing that can be done. (A number of groups are working on this though.)

Would a healthcare system like in Japan work in the US - I VERY seriously doubt it. Things are too different, and there are too many people who would look for a way to abuse the system.

As for the quality of doctors in Japan - I talked about this in another thread, but I was *finally* diagnosed properly here. The US doctors couldn`t agree on anything, and tried to make money by pushing drug after drug after drug, and various treatments even when they didn`t have a clue what was wrong. I certainly would not put my son`s life in the hands of a US doctor - I`ve seen WAY too many screw ups over there.