Compare to a system run the way we run another government monopoly; public schools. You get assigned a clinic by geographic area. You might be able to choose a handful of doctors from that clinic, but you can't go to another clinic. If your local one doesn't offer a service? Too bad.
Why do you think that would be the case?
I'm not heavily versed in comparative health care, but is that true anyplace else, or are you making up that idea out of whole cloth based upon notions of public schools?
Unless there's a history of this concept in practice, two reasons why that wouldn't work and thus probably wouldn't be implemented.
(1) America is an extremely mobile society, I think moreso than Europe (where DNA testing found Cheshire man's descendant living within a few miles of the ruins). Even within the same metropolitan area, I've lived in at least four cities, and I know many people whose residences have been even more transient. If part of the point of this is continuous coverage with doctors who can get to know a patient longterm, than this kind of geographical limitation would be counterproductive and makes no sense.
(2) Furthermore, even public schools are no longer as monolithic as you describe, what with magnet programs and school choice... Even though my parents house is across the street from the high school I attended, my younger brother went to a magnet high school at the opposite end of the county. He had trouble with the program academically, so after freshman year returned to our "local" HS. But because he preferred the other school so much, he suddenly developed a burning need for a particular class only offered at that school. And the district let him transfer back.
I may come back to dissect the rest of your comment later, but this point stood out for me like a sore thumb and I couldn't let it stand.
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Date: 2006-03-08 05:09 pm (UTC)Why do you think that would be the case?
I'm not heavily versed in comparative health care, but is that true anyplace else, or are you making up that idea out of whole cloth based upon notions of public schools?
Unless there's a history of this concept in practice, two reasons why that wouldn't work and thus probably wouldn't be implemented.
(1) America is an extremely mobile society, I think moreso than Europe (where DNA testing found Cheshire man's descendant living within a few miles of the ruins). Even within the same metropolitan area, I've lived in at least four cities, and I know many people whose residences have been even more transient. If part of the point of this is continuous coverage with doctors who can get to know a patient longterm, than this kind of geographical limitation would be counterproductive and makes no sense.
(2) Furthermore, even public schools are no longer as monolithic as you describe, what with magnet programs and school choice... Even though my parents house is across the street from the high school I attended, my younger brother went to a magnet high school at the opposite end of the county. He had trouble with the program academically, so after freshman year returned to our "local" HS. But because he preferred the other school so much, he suddenly developed a burning need for a particular class only offered at that school. And the district let him transfer back.
I may come back to dissect the rest of your comment later, but this point stood out for me like a sore thumb and I couldn't let it stand.