Socialised healthcare in Norway

Last Friday, we had a talk session at work where human resources (HR) gave out information on health insurance that's provided by the company that I work at.  You might ask yourself, "wait a minute, isn't healthcare in Norway free?  Isn't it good?  Why would anyone want to buy their own health insurance?"  To the disbelievers who have drank from the kool aid fountain for too long, let me say, it's not too late to discover the truth, there is always light at the end of the tunnel.  And who better to tell you than me, hearing another first hand account from a Norwegian, actually two Norwegians, who were absolutely tearing up the so called "healthcare" system.

Don't get a hard on, she is not Norwegian.

Patient X from work had some back problems, and he went through private health insurance, he mentioned that if he had to go through the traditional system, it would have taken him weeks to get an appointment.  Going through the private health insurance system, only took him one day.  Pretty efficient.  So he saw the physio, had some treatment that was completely paid for by the private insurer.  He had a relapse a few months later and relied on the same private health insurance to get an operation performed on him.  There was no way he was going to go on the "free public healthcare system" that Norway provides (or rather, steals from you through high taxes), and he made it very obvious.  He was really, really, really glad that he had private health insurance.

Patient Y, a rather unfortunate fellow, probably provided the greatest horror story that I have heard in a while.  He had the luxury of first not knowing about the health insurance provided by the company and went through the "traditional" route of going through the absolutely "wonderful" Norwegian healthcare system.  First after many months, he went through a scan and found out he had a brain tumour that was 4 centimetres long.  Now I don't know about you, but if I found out that I had a brain tumour in my head I want it out of there faster than I want a pencil jammed up my ass, and you would think that the doctors would think that, but no, it was worse, worse than getting a pencil stuck up your ass, the geniuses here wanted to "wait and see if it gets bigger".  Yes you read that right, they wanted to wait and see if it gets BIGGER.  I don't know if there was ever a case where a brain tumour was beneficial to anyone, maybe if you're a member of Professor Xavier's X-men?  By the name of Tumouruine perhaps?  Close relative of Wolverine?  But you know, that's just beyond belief.  So this guy, he gave up on the system and sought an expert opinion from experts in the US and they agreed something had to be done.  About a year later he said some top doctor from the Norwegian hospital that he went to apologised for his colleagues' behaviour, but by then he had already had his operation performed outside of the Norwegian healthcare system.  He said the Norwegian doctors were useless, and this is coming from a Norwegian.

Would he still be alive if he had waited?  You know, I highly doubt so, he probably would have died.  But hey who knows right?  After all it's only a life, a statistic in the health care system, you know, just a number.  That's how the public system treats you here, a number, not a human, a number.  Don't forget it.

Don't worry man, it's only a brain tumour!!  Worst case you just become Wolverine Tumourine!

In conclusion, these two people were extremely glad for the private health insurance provided by the company.  In one case, it most likely saved the guy's life.  I would say highly likely it did.  But hey, what do I know?  I'm not Norwegian, these guys are.  All the smart ones know the system blows, only the dumb kool aid drinking morons are the ones praising the system and I bet they're also praising to get more pencils stuck up their ass as well.

To end this post, I'm going to quote what someone else has said, a certain Margaret Thatcher.

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money"

The best advice that I can give anyone living here, is to get private health insurance.  You know, if you cared about your life and your family's.  But maybe.. just maybe, you might live through a brain tumour growing in your head and get to tell others how wonderful the experience was!