RE: health system-TINA

[Guest guest]

Tina,

They were talking in Australia a while ago about everybody being a donor

unless you state you don't want to. As it is people have to fill in a

card, and a lot of people mean to do it but never get around to it.

I am all for everyone being a donor unless stated.

(Australia)

health system

Hello,

In Holland we have two kinds of insurance. The lower paid people have a

state insurancy, paid by the government and partly by the people. Your

boss

takes it off your paycheque. The more rich people have an insurance paid

by

themselves.

There is no difference in treating people in hospital! Whether you are

rich

or poor, if you are insured, you get medical attention. You can choose

wherever you want to go. We are nearest to Alkmaar and get our

treatments

there, because luckily it is a CF centre. (We have got 13 of them in

Holland). For myself I have been to Amsterdam for surgery last month,

because I liked it better there.

We do not get any bills, all is paid for by the insurance.

Medicines are mostly free. If there is a general medicine it is free. If

you

want it from a special brand, you have to pay the difference. Is there

no

othere medicine than the brandmedicine is free also.

If I read the mails, mainly from the USA, where you have to work so hard

for

insurance I am very lucky that we do not have to deal with that burden.

We have problems here with transplantations, because of the lack of

donor

organs. You can arrange to be donor, but it is volunteerly. Now people

speak

up for the other way around, you are a donor unless you say otherwise.

But

it is a long way to get that through parliament.

Best regards from Holland,

Tine Zwaan, mother of Gwendolynn (10 years old with CF and doing well)