American and Brazilian heathcare…a user’s comparison
Mike Kimel posted American and Brazilian healthcare in 2011, but the post received a comment in 2013 that might be a interest. Anecdotal for sure, but then in political chatter anecdotal seems to be the rule. We do have readers who can compare Canadian health care to US experience…but the differences between city and rural services, regions, and medical practice can be quite sharp.
Hi,
I'm a Brazilian living in Texas for about 10 years, i got used with everything here, except health insurance!!! I can not believe how a rich Country can have such a poor health insurance, and believe me, my husband is an engineer and has a very good job,i also have a good job too. but it kills me all the time a have to go to the doctor, first of all, i always have to wait, then the nurse gets me, put me on a other room and takes my blood pressure and put me on hold again, if I'm lucky after 20 minutes the doctor comes.spend 5 minutes with me and prescribes a lot of medicine(i never buy, just if I really need it )and I'm free to go.
After 2 to 3 weeks a get a bill because my insurance has this deductible that until now i don't know how it works. Do I need a insurance if all the time we go to the doctor we have to pay??? The only time we don't have to pay is for our physical once a year, and if i say check up not physical they'll try to charge me. What do people without health insurance do in this Country? Is there such a thing as public hospital? Now talking about Brazil, i spend most of my life there, my husband used to work for IBM and of course i had the best health insurance.
I had two daughter there, stayed in a private room and left without paying a penny. Most private health insurance in Brazil you don't pay to visit the doctor or when you are hospitalized, this happened with my Mom and father, my mom has Unimed that she pays about $100 dollar a month, my father has a petrobras insurance that is even better, after staying at the hospital they send him home with hospital bed, nurse 24 hours a day, because his insurance provides this kind of benefits. i was comparing my private insurance here with Brazil private insurance..
Now lets talk about public health insurance, we do have a real public insurance in Brazil, it calls SUS that means Unified Health System.its a FREE health insurance for everybody, poor, rich, foreigner, nobody is left out, but it used by poor population. Is it perfect? No its not, there are so many thing to be improved , that's why Brazilian are going to street to change this and many others thing that is wrong in . Brazil. Brazil is a such a big Country and not all state are the same, if you leave in Sao Paulo the chance are you"ll get a very good public hospital, but if you leave in Northwest of Brazil, they will be not as great.
I go back to Brazil once a year since I moved here, and had two times experiencing with public health there. First it was in Barao Geraldo(Unicamp) Campinas, SP, where I'm from.
I woke up with a bad earache, my head it was about to explode,. I was going to schedule a visit to a private doctor, since i don't have insurance in Brazil anymore, my sister suggest me a public one, i wasn't sure at first, all my life leaving in Brazil I never used public hospital, but my sister convince me. I got there for my surprised there where just 4 people in front of me, since I forgot my Brazilian ID here, the person helping me said any document with my picture would be ok, i gave her my American driver license, she made no question about it.
before 30 minutes i was seeing a doctor, that treat me very nice, actually talked with me, saw what my problem was, prescribe me a medicine, and told me to get it for free at the public pharmacy they have at the hospital, he just told me if they have the medicine here they can not deny it for me. The other time I was when I was visiting a small city ( Itacare ) in a state called Bahia. The trip offer me insurance, i accept and paid a little bit more for my trip.
Getting there since they have a lot of sea food place( they have a lot of beaches there ) I could not resist to eat shrimp(its my favorite sea food) but after eating, i notice that my voice it was changing, i got worry and call the number on the insurance card that i bought, they help me with the closest hospital there, for my surprise i was told that they don't have private hospital in Itacare, just public( I should have saved my money with insurance). I went there, it was a very simple hospital, so different from USA and the ones I'm used in Sao Paulo. It was so empty , first thing that came in my mind it was , people don't get sick here or its closed. I walked a little farther and saw this lady, explained her my problem and she took me to this just one doctor that was at the hospital. I just fill this paper with my information, and the doctor helped me right away. He gave me some medicine and asked me to stay there for a couple hours to see how i would respond to the medicine. After three hours I got better and he let me go. The same afternoon I was enjoying the beach. I know a lot of people that had to wait much longer then me, and I know if you need a surgery you probable have to wait the one to a year, it depend where in Brazil you are. Of course Brazil do not have all the technology we have here in America( even Europa doesn't have) but believe me, we do have good doctor.s, our technology are in our doctors hands, they are as good as American doctor with one exception, they are so human, they talk to you. In Brazil you don't spend time with the nurse but with the doctor. They have a office and you go there and seat and talked with them as long as you want to.
Oh, other thing, you can find free dentist in Brazil too , believe or not. And we do have such a thing as public university too, actually they're better then private, i went to Unicamp one of the best one in the country. Its hard to get in, but if you really want to, there's nothing that is going to say no to you, it really depend on you.. Now they have the cota for poor and negro (we used the word negro in Brazil, not black, black is considered offensive)it gives priority for those classes to get in public university.
Brazil is not perfect and I think it will never be, but for a poor country its doing very good comparing to USA.. Don't be mean and tell me if I'm not happy go back to my Country. Here is my Country too, I'm an American citizen now. and pay as much or more tax then everybody., and i love here too, just don't like going to the doctor here. Sorry about my poor English, I feel that with all my time here I still have a lot to learn. .
Not only is this anecdotal, it is an extremely poor and incomplete anecdote. How are doctor visits handled better in Brazil? How is Brazil’s health care better than the U.S?
If Brazil health care is so great, why does the WHO rank Brazil 125th out of 190 countries?
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
Sammy:
It is not so great but after 24 years it certainly has had an impact on healthcare for citizens. Life Longevity is increasing and birth fatalities has been cut in half with far less money being spent. The writer knows where to go and what to do if there is an injury or illness without a concern for money. In the US, you can go to the ER, be stabilized by law, and be hounded by the hospital bill collectors. In comparison and for the money spent, our healthcare system is nothing to boast about.
excerpt of a letter from a friend now living in korea:
my wife had an accident falling off one of the golf carts..
the lady driving was going too fast and was out of control
thank god my wife is ok.
no broken bones or anything like that.
just a lot of pain but we will know more tomorrow.
the ambulance took my wife to the hospital
when we see the doctor my wife mentions the cyst on my back.
so now get this.
taking the cyst out, an antibiotic shot more treatments cost less than $18.00
thats right an $18.00.
that includes the medicine for three daysl
It is our right as Americans to make a profit off the suffering of others. The more they suffer, the more we make. Let’s hear it for American healthcare — the most profitable healthcare in the world. We are number 1.
Jerry:
There are people who actually support such a premise until they do not have healthcare insurance and have to pay for those blood pressure meds.
Surprisingly, it is the Cosctco type of big box stores who will sell meds cheaply to people.
Yes, indeed. In fact, Costco has a program for people who do not have drug coverage to reduce their drug costs. I can even use the plan for our dog! Costco also has excellent coverage for their employees plus paying them a livable wage. There is a good reason why Costco has low employee turnover.
A well run business can pay a good wage and provide good benefits. The problem is not poor employees. The problem is poor owners!
This actually strikes me as a prank.
Purposely stilted English alternated with nationalized health care talking points.
Sammy…there was not a way to contact the commenter but anecdotes have a place, although they do not prove anything, nor was that the claim in my introduction, nor Mike’s in his post..
Your ‘why is Brazil so great if..” comment simply reveals your own hysteria about quality issues…Brazil is still a poor country, and its rural areas are gossly underserved…a pattern here in the US but obviously much less severe.
Brazil is a poor country, and I don’t think anyone has ever suggested that the Brazilian health system is the best in the world. On the other hand, we often hear precisely that about the American system from certain circles, despite the astounding cost (which doesn’t seem to include the waste of time dealing with the paperwork or fighting with health insurance companies) and ho-hum outcomes. I’m starting to think a lot of Americans are absolutely insane. Lord knows it would explain a lot.
– See more at: http://angrybearblog.strategydemo.com/2011/12/american-v-brazilian-healthcare.html#sthash.4Dmnfr2B.dpuf
Hi,
“I’m a Brazilian living in Texas for about 10 years, i got used with
everything here, except health insurance!!! I can not believe how a rich Country can have such a poor health insurance”
“Now lets talk about public health insurance, we do have a real public insurance in Brazil, it calls SUS that means Unified Health System.its a FREE health insurance for everybody, poor, rich, foreigner ”
It sounds like Ricky Ricardo channeling Kathleen Sebelius.
Sammy,
Do you have an intelligent comment that adds to the conversation, or do you just make troll-like meaningless comments?
Jerry,
I am questioning the veracity of the source here. It looks phony to me, therefore the whole post is phony.
Show us some evidence of mis-statements?
Jerry,
The purposely stilted broken English (she has been here 10 years?), interspersed with perfectly phrased statements such as “Now let’s talk about public health insurance”….and following the scripts used in the Obamacare debate. Hmmmmm…
Her English is this bad, yet she has the confidence to go onto a blog and write a 1,500 word post?
Both these things are improbably possible, but WHO ranked the Brazil Health Care system #125 in the world. Seems like a fantasy poster.
If you do use an anecdote for a post, and I don’t recommend you do, at least use one that can be vetted at least a little bit.
So in your opinion how she said it is more important than what she said? I repeat, show us some evidence of her mis-statements? What did she say that is not true?
show us some evidence of her mis-statements? What did she say that is not true?
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
I’m not sure what your point is since she did not mention the WHO rankings. Perhaps you are suggesting that we should have the same healthcare system as France since they are ranked number ONE while we are ranked number THIRTY-SEVEN, a pretty poor showing for the richest country in the world.
Sammy
we do not have free mental health care in this country or i would recommend you seeking help.
or possibly, given your expertise in distinguishing “fake accents” from genuine difficulty writing in a foreign language, maybe you could find a university that specializes in language and mental health and offer yourself has a research subject.
as for anecdotes vs data… i used to teach statistics but i will trust an anecdote before “data” every time.
but you aren’t the only person here who won’t understand that.
coberly,
Why do you believe the post is authentic?
Sammy
probably because it sounds authentic to me. and fits what i think i know about the world.
on the other hand, your “case” that it is inauthentic sounds to me like the paranoid rationalizations of a true believer in the party line.
is there a way for either of us to be “sure”?
i don’t think so.
I have a facebook friend who is an American living in Nicaragua. (She could not afford to retire in the US.) Her descriptions of health and dental care there are similar to the description in the above post from the Brazilian lady. It is amazingly cheap, and she is happy with the quality of the care.