Hear today...

[den]

I can hear again. About 2 weeks ago a lump of earwax deep in my right ear -- beyond cotton bud range -- pressed against the ear drum, dried and stuck hard. The doctor could not syringe it out without damaging my ear drum, so he gave me a script for various drops for infection, inflammation and to soften the wax. Every few days I went back to see if the lump would come out, but no-go.

I had to rely on my left ear for most of my hearing. Many years ago I had something explode off to my left, damaging my hearing on that side. I never realized how bad the damage was until I had to rely on my left ear for everything. It must have about 75% of the hearing my right ear usually has. So for the last two weeks I've heard the world as though I were wearing high density foam earplugs.

Today he syringed my ear and the lump came out. I could hear again! The 2 weeks of rest made everything seem louder than usual.

The five doctor visits were covered by Medicare, and the drops were all listed under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme**. Total cost = AU$30.00 I don't understand why people are afraid of socialized medicine.


**The Government was under great pressure from US drug companies to stop the PBS before the Aus/USA free trade agreement was signed

Comments

[weyrdbird.livejournal.com]

I empathize about the impacted. I have learned to clean my ears before being immersed in anything as a result.

[targaff.livejournal.com]

Mostly they're scared because they're ignorant, and too self-centred to see past "me me me".

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

I miss the health care system from Down Under... the US system is bogged down and tainted by the profit before patient ethos of the Health Insurance companies and drug companies.

[hallan.livejournal.com]

People are concerned about socialized medicine because of what they see happening with it in Canada. -LONG- waits, poor quality.

Hallan

Over here...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

People who don't want the waits can pay for private medical insurance. The way it's set up now, *no one* is without medical cover.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

People are afraid of it because of the aggressive PR campaign run by American insurance and pharmaceutical companies, the sole purpose of which is to convince us that under a single-payer plan (1) we won't be able to see our regular doctors, (2) we'll have to wait months or years for treatment of anything that isn't a life-threatening condition, and (3) we'll end up paying more for medical care, in some way that's never clearly defined. IOW, they're taking everything that people already despise about HMO plans and saying that a single-payer plan would be like that. And they keep saying it, loudly and repeatedly, using the Big Lie technique to convince people that "where there's smoke there must be fire".

Not to mention that "socialism" is a thoroughly demonized word in America; didn't you hear about the McCampaign's last desperate attempt to bring Obama down by repeatedly (and inaccurately) calling him a "socialist"? This is why I greatly prefer the term "single-payer plan" -- it dodges that bullet and is more accurately descriptive as well.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

We still have the option of taking out private medical insurance if we want private rooms, speedy service and our own doctor. I have one to cover ambulance, dental and optical ie all the stuff not covered by Medicare.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Because in some countries, socialized medicine means incompetent doctors and inadequate pharmaceuticals.

-=TK

But...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Would this be the case in the US? Over here, truly incompetent doctors are publicly vilified, and the last company to produce sub-standard pharmaceuticals was driven to bankruptcy by the boycott and backlash.

As I mentioned above, we have socialized medicine and can still take out private medical insurance if we want. Everyone above minimum wage pays a tax of 1.5% with a maximum contribution of $1500/year. No one in Australia is without medical coverage.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

Re: But...

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

Well, as has also been mentioned above, America is still afraid of the word, "socialist." When it's spoken of in terms of Medicine, we see mental images of incompetent Canadian (and some European) doctors, and fear the worst. Governmental programs in our country tend to be the worst examples of an industry. Likewise, the word, 'socialist' itself carries with it a lot of fear. Remember, all but the very youngest Americans have been raised in a state of constant fear of our enemy, the USSR, for the last eighty years. Add to that frequent Red Scares, the worst example being that led by Senator McCarthy, and you can begin to get the picture that it just won't fly here, no matter how good it can be.

-=TK

Re: But...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

I heard one bloke say that socialized medicine would cause more problems than it fixed, and I was really curious about that attitude.

Re: But...

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

The problems would be McCarthyism reborn, and Canadian healthcare on our side of the border. And 350 million Americans with their fingers in their ears, screaming, "nonononononono!"

-=TK

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

Because to many Americans Socialist = Communist = bad. All that cold war crap still warps people's brains.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

We're afraid of it because Our Betters have run huge propaganda campaigns to make us afraid of it.

Hades, I don't like the idea of socialized anything myself, but when we in the You Ninety States (thanks for that term, by the way) pay more per capita for health care than where it IS socialized, and more and more of us aren't even covered at all, it's kind of hard to argue that it wouldn't be an improvement.

[ccdesan.livejournal.com]

Yarg... I'll bet it felt good to get that out of there.

[quen-elf.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Glad you got it sorted.

I sometimes have problems with earwax too. I've only had to get it syringed once (that was when *both* ears were blocked, must have been about eight years ago now). Obviously, like you, the total cost for this was approximately zero.

Other times, I've used warm olive-oil drops and lying-for-a-long-time-in-the-bath which has cleared things up after a few days or weeks.

My hearing is about the same in both ears, but the thing that gets me is the loss of stereo sound which helps you to discriminate voices. If I temporarily lose hearing in one ear, I'd naively assumed it would just be the same but half as loud; it's not. Well, in quiet places like my home, it is; but in the supermarket for instance, all the background noise sounds MUCH louder and the checkout assistant's voice MUCH quieter. (Not that you usually need to talk to them, but you get the idea.)

The feeling when you finally get it back is so good, isn't it? :)