Socialized Medicine, Part 2

Five weeks without hassle or out-of-pocket expense

Five weeks ago, my spouse fell and broke her arm. I wrote about the experience we had in the Czech emergency room in “If Anyone Tells You “Socialized” Medicine Is Crap …”

In this article, I want to follow up by relating my spouse’s further experiences in receiving follow-up care from the Czech system of “socialized medicine.” Yes, the Czech Republic has that government-run not-for-profit medical system. Right-wingers in the United States want to convince you that that form of healthcare system is horrible.

It’s not.

The American right-wingers and the insurance lobbyists who fund them want to convince you that “socialized medicine” means long waits, rationed healthcare, and poor quality if not denial of care. We saw no indication of any of that in the past five weeks.

After her initial emergency room visit, my spouse received weekly check ups on her arm the next four weeks, with x-rays and consultation. Each visit conducted efficiently and professionally. This week, they removed her cast, her arm perfectly healed. Then they gave her a voucher for ten sessions of physical therapy at a provider of her choice to restore full functioning of her arm.