Say Hello to Black Jack

[Andromeda18_]

I finished reading volume 1 of 'Say Hello to Black Jack' a couple of days ago and the first thing I thought was: "I hope I never end up in a Japanese hospital"!
'Say Hello to Black Jack' talks about the reality of medical care in Japan. It's extremely popular in Japan and because of it the Japanese Ministry of Health was forced to do some (much needed) changes to the Japanese health system.
In one single volume I found out that, although there's 1 doctor for every 500 people in Japan, the number of hospitals there is so high that on average a hospital only has 3 or 4 doctors. 90% of hospitals there have no doctors working at night, it's 1 or 2 interns that do all the work! How can that be?! Not to mention that doctors there care only about money and their careers. If an ambulance is carrying a car accident victim, hospitals will willingly take the victim in because they earn more money by treating a car accident victim than, let's say, a heart attack victim. If they think a person will die in 4 months they'll interrupt most of the treatment just to save up some money instead of doing all they can to save that person's life. The different medical departments don't get along properly which endangers the patients' lives. It's terrible I tell you. And then there's the intern's salary problem. An intern in Japan earns about $350 a month! They can't possibly live with that little money! But in a single night working as full fledged doctors (which they're not!) in a hospital they earn twice that amount!
How can a rich and developed country like Japan have such a louzy health system?!!!

[Ossie]

mmm, thats pretty messed up.
This may sound slightly unfair, but I think it is in part a bi-product of adopting an americanised model of healthcare. This market based approach has been shown as over-complicated, wasteful and most importantly to the detriment of treatment standards. America spends more money on healthcare than any other country in the world and yet rank's in 37th position for the overall quality of care provided (WHO statistics).

edit: Check out http://votenader.org/issues/index.php?cid=4 . Ralph Nader proposes an interesting alternative system.
The sites being a bit wierd but just scroll down to see the article.

[israfel]

the only people in america who get the short end of the stick with health care are the working poor(they are pretty much the majority). If you are rich you can afford health care, and if you are poor living in section 8 and/or getting welfare the government pays for it all, with the taxes that are payed by the working poor. our country has a sick sense on who gets help. i see people who work thier asses off every day, don't get paid much, and they struggle to have food, a car, medical issurance, and everything else. and some asshole on welfare who doesn't work or do anything, gets a place to live, is well fed, and all medical is taken care of. we need to also take care of the people who make our system work. we live in a country of consumers and no producers(look at our lack of industry). i really don't know where i am going with this

[Puppet Master]

the only people in america who get the short end of the stick with health care are the working poor(they are pretty much the majority). If you are rich you can afford health care, and if you are poor living in section 8 and/or getting welfare the government pays for it all, with the taxes that are payed by the working poor. our country has a sick sense on who gets help. i see people who work thier asses off every day, don't get paid much, and they struggle to have food, a car, medical issurance, and everything else. and some asshole on welfare who doesn't work or do anything, gets a place to live, is well fed, and all medical is taken care of. we need to also take care of the people who make our system work. we live in a country of consumers and no producers(look at our lack of industry). i really don't know where i am going with this

That is the messed up reality we live in. The fact that those who are lazy and do nothing get everything handed to them for no reason as you said basically and everyone who does work is stuck paying for it. What the hell is wrong with this world??? Pretty messed up if you ask me. You make a good point to about the lack of industry and jobs and all that it's a major problem that leads to a lot more problems. Till that's fixed everything will most likely continue getting worse..

[Ossie]

mmm, who exactly are these lazy people who apparently get so many handouts?
The only people I can think of that get such such support are the disabled and mentally ill.
Are they included in youre 'Lazy' category since they dont contribute so much to the GDP?

Maybe this wasnt what you meant but I think youre being kinda naive and simplistic.

[Gemini]

i belive there are lazy people out there that does not want to work for a living and take free stuff from the government. lazy - disinclined to work or exertion, encouraging inactivity or indolence

disablities, i believe there are some that knows whats going on in the world and still wants to be pampered. i dont mean to be negative about this but, there are people who have disabilties and still can do alot, then there are others that wants to be pampered all the time.

i have a brother that is handicaped, he was born that way. his left hand can not function as good as his right and he has to use a walker to walk. if not using the walker he uses a wheelchair and at home he crawls around the house. i forgot what the term for it. but with that disability he still works and goes to school. i know its hard for him too, but he still goes on. the doctor says there was a slight chance he can ever walk normally, he'll have to go through surgeries and work out his legs a lot. he's 21 now, gone throught so much surgeries and goes to the gym almost everyday and still not much progress, also there's school and work for him.

i don't blame the other people who have disablities and can not work because of medical reasons or do things like normal people can do. but if they can why not try.

[Ossie]

lol, sorry about deleting my post. decided that I had misunderstood what the guy was saying.
What youre sying seems fair enough but just because youre brother is able to achieve so much dosnt nessesarily mean that those who dont are just lazy. There obviously gonna be some who abuse the system and take it easy but I reckon desire to help those who are genuinely unable to work should outweigh the anger at these folk.

[Andromeda18_]

I agree with both Gemini and Ossie. There are handicaped people who try hard and achieve a lot and that's important to give them a feeling of acomplishment but there are also people who, no matter how much they want to, can't do much. I do agree there are some handicaped people who could do something and do nothing but it's a complicated situation for them, it's not easy being handicaped and while some fight back others simply deal with it in a different way.

There is indeed something wrong with the world! And then we see series like ER and get full of hope imagining that's all true.