Safe and Sound

Health care in the United Slates is generally quite different from most European health care systems. The biggest difference is that the medical care in the US is privatized while in Europe it is socialized. This means the U.S. government only plays a small pan in providing health care for its citizens. Because health care is private; it tends to be very expensive for the average American. Most Americans are not able to afford the high medical costs without medical insurance. Medical insurance is provided to Americans by their employers in their benefits package. (A benefits package is offered to employees when they begin a new job and often includes medical, dental and vision insurance.) Most employers only provide insurance to employees who work full time (40 hours per week). Employees who work part time are left to pay for pri­vate insurance themselves or (which is more common) go without med­ical insurance. Many part time employees are students who don't need insurance from their employer because they can visit the student clinic at their university for a very small fee. But for part time employees who are not students and cannot afford private insurance, getting sick can be a very expensive situation.

One option that exists for these people is the "free" or "peo­ple’s" clinic. These clinics are staffed by volunteer (or very low paid) doc­tors and nurses sympathetic to the health needs of the poor. These clinics often receive funding from the city government and from charity groups, but not usually enough to help as many people as they would like to.

Many Americans either don't like to or feel too busy to visit the doctor for minor health problems such as colds, allergies or stomach troubles. They prefer to visit a drugstore or pharmacy and purchase over-the-counter medicine. "Over the counter" describes medicines which one may purchase without a prescription from a doctor. A pharma­cist can often recommend the appropriate over the counter medicine for minor health problems. Over the counter medicines range in prices, but most are inexpensive enough for Americans to afford. Prescription medi­cines on the other hand are quite costly and can usually only be afforded if the medical insurance company pays for half or sometimes all the cost. Most Americans also prefer the advice of a doctor and technological medical advances to home or folk remedies. People simply put more trust in new medicines and high tech procedures (such as laser surgery or transplants) than in herbs, roots and grandmother’s advice. One thing that Americans place their faith is in the healing powers of chick­en soup. Most everyone will agree that a big bowl of hot, homemade chicken soup will help you get over a cold or even the flu. For skin problems ranging from sunburn to bug bites to rashes many Ameri­cans break open an aloe leaf and rub the juice inside on the skin. And for everything else many agree that a shot of whiskey does the trick!