Free medicine - the ghost of Belarus socialism
Do you think that free medicine is a good thing? most people will answer yes! But I rephrase the question: Is there "free medicine" in fact?
In this article I will tell you what is "free medicine" in fact and try to answer the question - how much does it cost to remain healthy in socialism.
Belarus stood on the edge of the abyss, and I helped her take a step forward.
- Alexander Lukashenko
Annual funding for medicine in Belarus
According to the official data of 2017, Belarus financed 878 800 000 rubles (439 400 000 $) in medicine. Does this figure seem impressive to you? I hasten to disappoint you. First, it is a beautiful figure for the public. Secondly, everything is known in comparison, so we will compare this figure with another government spending.
For military needs, 924,500,000 rubles ($ 462,250,000) were spent. But this is also an "easy" comparison. Police and maintenance of internal law enforcement in the country spent ~ 2 times more - 1 800 000 000 rubles (900 000 000 USD). If this is not enough for you, then that's not all. The service of public debt was spent ~ 2.8 times more - 2 500 000 000 rubles ($ 1,250,000,000).
What conclusion can we draw from these figures? First of all - the state every year has to spend a huge amount from the budget only to pay foreign debt. This is the first sign of an inefficient economic model and mediocre management. Belarus takes a loan from Russia in order to pay off debts on a loan to Russia. It's funny.
Secondly, another regular question arises: Why is such a small state spending on internal security an amount that is almost 3 times higher than the financing of medicine?
Interesting fact: Belarus is the absolute leader in the world in terms of the ratio of the number of police officers to the population. According to Wikipedia data, there are 1442 police officers per 100 00 people. For example, in the USA there are 256 policemen per 100 00 people.
There are no internal enemies in Belarus and there is practically no organized crime. There are only simple and dissatisfied people. The state convinces the population that there is a thunderstorm and the police are called upon to protect them. Obviously, one thing - a strong and numerous police - is primarily the protection of the regime of power from dissatisfied people. And the number of dissatisfied people is constantly growing.
Interesting fact: the salary of a policeman in Belarus exceeds the wages that workers in any industry, including science, receive.
Engineers take part in creating details and mechanisms, scientists develop science. A policeman does not produce anything, but earns more. Social injustice.
Doctor work in a "free" and "paid" hospital
Do not complain to me about the disease! There are a lot of patients in the government.
- A. Lukashenko
For starters, let's look at the official sources and find out what salaries doctors receive in public, that is free hospitals. According to official statistics, it ranges from $ 300 to $ 500 (depending on the length of service and position). But according to unofficial data - this figure is overestimated by 2 times. For information, taxi drivers get far more doctors.
And now for comparison, let's look at the salaries of doctors who work in private clinics. In many private clinics, a good specialist is paid a salary of $ 500 to $ 1000. That is, the difference is significant.
Do you think the difference is only in wages? You are wrong. First of all, they are excellent working conditions and, accordingly, good and new medical equipment. Good working conditions and good wages are a worthy motivation for any doctor. Everyone strives to improve their financial situation and doctors - not an exception.
A private clinic is NOT a free medicine.
Personal Hospital of the Dictator
To repair the state clinic in the city of Gomel, money is collected from the pocket of ordinary people. And at this time, for the money of the state, the president is building a new hospital for himself. People are forced to collect money for repairing a state hospital for which they pay taxes on a monthly basis. Some hospitals have been building for 10 years already. When building the President's hospital, there were no such problems.
The new presidential hospital, built on "budget" money is equipped with the latest technology. There is installed the best European equipment, which is not in the usual "free" hospitals.
What I did not see in Europe! Dirty everything! People rub against each other ...
- A. Lukashenko
According to unofficial information submitted by experts - the cost of the presidential hospital is more than $ 500,000,000. According to official data, the figure was 5 times less, so as not to anger people. At the same time, only $ 5,000,000 was spent on the reconstruction of the "free" hospital in Minsk. Do you feel the difference?
The main achievement of the presidency hospital will be the use of innovative technologies in surgery. Operations can be carried out by using a robotic surgeon.
The president promised that soon the hospital will be accessible to ordinary citizens, but with one exception - for ordinary citizens, it will be worth the money. This hospital is "free" only for the higher caste. A simple person will pay if he is admitted there.
The Presidential Hospital is NOT a free medicine.
What is the real price of "free medicine"?
In 60 years the guy — it's a horse on which one can still plow, and not with a plow in one body, but with three hulls - and pulls
- A. Lukashenko (Yes, yes - these are his real words on camera)
Having reached this chapter, you could learn that "free" medicine is not a promising and developing direction in Belarus. She looks like a unicorn - She does not exist.
The first place is given to the security of the ruling regime, and not to human health. Therefore, if you want to be healthy in a country with "free" medicine - be prepared to pay either your health or your money.
Ordinary pensioners are not able to acquire a good imported medicine. Its cost is too big for them. Most ordinary citizens buy Belarusian medicines. No, not because it is qualitative but because it is cheap.
If suddenly you get sick and are hospitalized in one of the "free" hospitals, then be ready to support yourself. Nutrition in such hospitals is severely limited. Patients are fed just that much - that they would not die of hunger. Therefore, relatives and friends of the patient traditionally carry food to the hospital and this is considered the norm.
In many regional polyclinics, what would be "free" to conduct ultrasound of the heart - the patient can wait up to 6 months. Many patients wait for a limited number of "free" coupons. Therefore, if you want to know the state of your heart more quickly - pay money. For your money, you will be checked on the same day.
According to statistics, many young medical specialists do not want to work in public clinics. They do not see the prospects for growth and development and the main disadvantage is the very low wages. According to the social survey - young doctors receive 140-200 $ per month. Agree, this does not motivate.
In this short article, I expressed my objective opinion and stated publicly available facts. The majority of the population of Belarus is dissatisfied with medicine. Many complex operations are not carried out in a socialist republic. Therefore, people turn to financial help for other people because their native state cannot help them.
Many polyclinics were built during the Soviet era and equipment in them of the same times. Most services are paid. Free services are either very substandard or just look free. As the saying goes: "Free cheese is only in a mousetrap."
Do you still think that free medicine exists?
Formally health care is free in Belarus. however, an ordinary Belarusian very frequently cannot achieve even simple services freed from fee. There are a few segments of the health care machine wherein human beings do not need to pay.
but, even for these services it's also advocated to give health care workers something to lead them to 'look after you better'.
The health infrastructure is a remnant of Soviet times, and was neither built nor developed by Lukashenka's regime. On the contrary, his governments have gradually been reducing the social achievements of the Soviet times. At the same time, there are a number of private clinics in Minsk where services are offered at a good standard, using modern equipment. Costs for such services are paid out of pocket, because the system of medical insurance is underdeveloped in Belarus.
Very interesting article you've got here. I'm really impressed. However, i would like to say few things. Some in support of your stand and some against.
Firstly,
I totally disagree with you here. Every man out there working for the common good of the Nation should be rewarded immensely. It doesn't matter the nature of what they do. You feel they add no value because they produce nothing but they guaranty security of lives and property. I think the issue here should be why others like the engineers and all who contribute lot more than the shitty government receive less than they do.
You got it right here. I will give an example. In my country, a state government built one of the best hospitals for its citizens to access good medical treatment. But 85% of same people the hospital was built for couldn't afford to pay for the medication. They earn low and have access to good medication but can't afford the good medication, so they resort to cheap medications. The government claims to have provided better life, cheap medical care and so on but they are all false. Free medicine does not exist at all. Thanks so much for this post.
This is corruption. And it is why one must not trust simple figures such as "this country has spend X amount in medicine!" A similar thing happens to my country as well (Cyprus). There are public hospitals, but if you want to get treated well and right away, you are better off paying a lot of money in a private clinic. Taxes do not cover this. Otherwise you might wait for an urgent heart operation for months and die waiting. Hospital staff is not enough to cover hospital needs and they work overtime, and are always stressed and tired. They cannot focus their attention to the patients and many conditions are overlooked. I have personally spoken to an emergency room nurse and when she told me how many hours she worked I was surprised she could function at all. All the money given to public hospitals are used to finance higher positions and corrupt schemes instead of employing more people or buying new equipment. Salaries are low for the working hours and this means that most doctors go there just to gain experience and basically practice on patients. As soon as they gain experience and get better, most of them leave and open their own private office/clinic, charging a lot of money per visit. Many good doctors also seek careers abroad. Therefore, the ones who stay working in public hospitals are actually the worse.
I know there are countries in central and northern Europe where all clinics and medical establishments are financed by tax money, or a type of medical insurance that everybody pays and is practically tax money as well. This only happens in small, homogeneous countries where corruption is minimal and where people view taxes as contributing to a box of money that is then re-distributed and shared with everyone according to their needs. In my country you are stupid if you don't avoid paying as many taxes as possible, since it's one of the countries where taxation is viewed as theft. This is correctly viewed so, because you give money and you barely get anything in return. The money from taxes or EU grands is used mainly to hire governmental employees' friends and family and pay for their salaries when they are not even needed. Everybody wants to be a governmental employee in Cyprus, which, apart from the doctors and nurses who work overtimes with minimal equipment, being a governmental employee in any other sector is way better than a private job because you literally get paid to do nothing and you almost never get fired. Also, people here are actually proud of participating in at least some degree of corruption, such as claiming more money than they actually need for a project, or hiring their poorly qualified connections in positions not really needed, because it is a sign of status and power. Everybody's dream is a high rank government job because you can basically do whatever you want. In other countries any abuse of power is so frowned upon that apart from facing the law the worse thing that can happen to you is being labelled as corrupt by your community and that you take advantage of all your fellow citizens' hard work.
It is all connected you see. It's about mentality and culture. It is also about numbers, since smaller communities are usually more organized and more self-sustaining, but only if the culture is already there.
I don't understand why medicine should be free in the first place. To mitigate the burden that cancers, heart diseases, diabetes to the economy, one must look how to prevent them, and not to find ways to make the treatments free or cheaper.
It is amazing how many think that Big Pharma does all these medicaments, researches and discoveries by applying magic and alchemy, with no money involved as investments whatsoever. Yes, maybe the medicine itself has a profit margin that can be curbed, but why would it be free?
Does the 5% of the citizen's salary ( the standard contribution to the health system in Romania ) is enough to warrant him access to a state of the art hospital? No. Then run-down hospitals will exist, with filthy beds and old equipment. And they are for free, even for the minorities who don't work, for the elders, for the parasites living off on the state's money ( our money ) because they don't want to work, etc.
I really think that the system in the USA is far more fucked up than in Eastern European block. I would happily be here, in the eastern block, where I will be treated for free in case of urgency, instead of the USA where you will for sure die in the street if you don't have a social security number or such.
Good Articles, But In my vision of the near future , Bad News all of the so called "Public Service" will disappear. Money Rule the world, and how long we will be in this economic models where a very small number of people control 99% of the money ; We (the real people) , the plebs as they were saying in Rome, will had to made things to detach from them and from their money. Or we will suffer more and more and when the limit of people suffering will be reach, maybe the economic system will change.
But the people who rule the world now are very smart they give just what we need to survive, they try to make us dumb and don't think by ourselves to keep control of us. And the very bad news for us, people are more and more dumb than before,. It's proved by a scientific articles. The IQ of children is dropping and the curve continue to drop. For example, a psychology professor at the University of Amsterdam has calculated that we have lost a total of 14 IQ points on average since the Victorian Era.
https://steemit.com/society/@hanjo42/dumb-and-dumber-scientific-proof-that-people-are-getting-stupider
The following post
https://steemit.com/promo-steem/@hanjo42/dumb-and-dumber-part-2-explanation-why-do-people-become-more-stupid-than-before
This is outrageous!! I'm shocked that such a situation can even exist in a "European country" and that the continent of Europe is allowing it!
This post defintly makes me want to read more about the situation in Belarus.
I regard that issue as a medical student and I'm enraged even more - a salary of a few hundred dollars is what a child working in a restaurant would get in Israel, and doctors - after the years and hardships they went though in order to get their degree and heal people - should be handsomely rewarded - in Israel, in the public hospitals, a fresh doctor in his internship will get the equivalent of about 4,000 $, and that's considered really low compared to the USA! This is just wrong and can crash the motivation of any young and brilliant person thinking about devoting his life to help others.
Israel has free medicine, but still manage to have MRI machines and endoscopic surgeries available for everyone, so it's completely possible for Belarus to have just the same quality of medicine and motivating salaries if it wasn't for the corruption described in this post!
My heart is with you and I hope that those bad years will pass and you get a ruler that actually was chosen by the people, and cares for the people and their interests.
Interesting
The same situation in another country may also be interesting for you.
Hi, I'm Venezuelan and it seemed interesting or I could identify with this post, you wonder why? good in my country is implemented socialism that simply seems the best intension in the world, but what happens, in the execution is not the same, here also implemented a public health policy where it is said to be free in all its Extencion but the vast majority of medicines and even surgical equipment is not available in health centers or pharmacies, is this where we think it will be that socialism is good? I would say that it is not executed as planned, creating total corruption at all levels of society.
An early death is the most affordable health care and retirement plan in the US. Long life is over-rated! Nothing is free, but you can build it into the system.
wtf? @bitcointip
Wait, it just yesterday I saw the article from @donkeypong that you can get killed of laughter and now I'm getting confused. Lol
Ha, ha...this deserves an upvote @elizahfhaye.
if its free it will have low worth.
Indeed... there's nothing free in this world. Either you have to pay with money or something we called efforts to get what we want and what we need.
And yes, there's no such a free medicine in this world unless you create it by yourself (still, you have to pay with your effort and knowledge). And that 'free' medicines from the government expenses are paid by taxation that we're always complaining about.
Of course to fulfill the people's 'needs' for medicines and the other things, but with most of the people are refusing to pay the high taxes (and ignoring if there are any corruption that perhaps will increase the country's expenses), it just ended up with the country's high debt. just like my country.
Same is case with most of state run medical sector. Being a Medico and worked in govt run hospital, I can relate most of the points you put forward.
But who is responsible,if you like to find find the answer, you will land into a Maze where we try to come out without knowing the result.
You have showed some courage to get people enlightened by your experiences. Hope you succeed in your mission.
Highly courageous and appreciable act. Thanks for. Sharing the reality.
I am from Belarus! :)
Hmm...
The US has rampant violent crime, organized crime, gang wars and mass shootings.
I'm not sure you're proving what you're trying to prove here...
As to the rest of Belarus' issues pretending this is all about their medical system seems disingenuous. They have a lot of economic problems, after a quick google it sounds like aging industrial and agricultural infrastructure combined with a lack of foreign investment are the biggest problems.
It also sounds, from this article, like there's some pretty corrupt leadership which never helps.
However there are plenty of single payer healthcare systems that work very well, in fact they work well in every first world country that has them. Canada's is the worst of the "socialized" systems, and it works far better than the US system.
Here in my city a doctor thought that if he didn't change the syringes he would make more money. He put the life of hundreds of people.... just to make more money. Now he is in prison , where is his place!
worth written,common people should be aware of these facts ,awareness makes common person strong and they can change the facts.Government in most of the countries prefer his own community for facilities and poor persons getting no relief
Well, for me; free medication is a good thing but there is no free medication... How can you tell me you are created to save lives yet you watch people die in your hospital all because they never had such amount of money you call up for them.
Your content has said it all, i just wish the doctors , politicians and the federal gov. Can read this right now. Thank you so much for this...
In one of your paragraph you said"According to statistics, many young medical specialists do not want to work in public clinics. They do not see the prospects for growth and development and the main disadvantage is the very low wages. "
But trust me @adsactly in my community wages aren't low but yet death are high. Well, i wish we just have any medical personal on steemit right now to jump into this.
Such a lovely and beautifull post .Its very itresting and informative .i like it very much.Keep it up
wow that's a interesting post
I like it
There is nothing good that comes free, so be conscious of free things. Only pay to get the best of your needs.
Free medicine exists to army men in army.
@adsactly is the best... upvote me @heri27...
i will done upvote I always see your post.
I hope someday there will be a free medicine for all! Specially to third world countries!
I always see your post.
Thank you very much for your informative post
Free medicine is still in existence...oh yeah.thanks for this insight @adsactly
Thanks lot for your informative post.i always follow you.already your post upvote and resteem.
Didn't know @adsactly did international politics.
Is like this....???
i think too
thank you for sharing your friend @adsactly success for you.
Really,there is no free medicine.Its better to be healthy than to take medicine.Nice write-up. I resteemed the post.
Thank you very much
Thanks for this eye opener... Free medicine does exist
Free medicine still exist, the problems are those in charge of the medicine
Thanks for information friend
thanks for the share
Thank you for sharing this topic..
"Free cheese is only in a mousetrap."
As your article clearly describes. The hypocrisy of it all, its disgusting and clearly with the police to civilian ratio no uprising of the people will be forthcoming!
Thanks for the informative post!
Free medicine do exist but it is more of a political strategy to make the mass more quiet in their war against poor welfare. The drugs are certain ones that are relatively cheap. The more effective/expensive ones are still being sold. And this poses more threat. Imagine a poor patient being prescribed with to buy 3 certain drugs. 2 are given out freely because its cheap and the 3rd one is an expensive imported drug. Being unable to buy it, he will not have full medication for his illness.
Funniest thing is they'll not tell him they dint give out because its expensive, they'll say they have exhausted it since alot of people are sick.
God save belarus💓💓
I think free medicine is good for the less fortunate and the homeless.
And that is a good idea
There's nothing free in life.
The only reason people call it free is because they didn't do anything to get it....
But truth is someone is definitely paying for it, either the government or a group of people/organizations....
For the receiver though... It's actually free....
Unlike in Belarus, in Indonesia health problems also have problems.
The results of research conducted by the research institute "Lembaga Indonesia" noted, there are three main things that are still a problem in the health sector in Indonesia.
The first is the problem of uneven and insufficient infrastructure. Because 9,599 health centers and 2,184 hospitals in Indonesia, most are still concentrated in big cities.
There are still many people in the regions who can not access health services because of the lack of existing health facilities. Another reason is also because of geographical location that is difficult to reach.
I really Don't understand Why Government is spending more on war,
They should be spending on health, on education, for the betterment of their nation.
This is the reality that hurts us especially those poor people. By being admitted in a public hospital they do believe that they got a favor from the government but the truth is all services and the "free" medicines was already paid by the people for paying taxes and others. Truth really hurts and reality bites. This is real talk @adsactly
Awesome post , thanks @adsactly for exposing this data. Mostly the so called free, help, donations e.t.c by government or organisations are scam. But majority of the masses are not aware , because are being tricked or can't expect such deceiving .
Even I even knew that free medicine was good so far.
this is a little long to read for me, but i think there are many people who are smart. ;)
Thanks for sharing that profound and sad post. Your country unfortunately is fucked. But what is going on there is only a symptom of a much bigger crisis on earth. Free medicine at least for me existed when I was a kid in Eastern Germany. More or less everything was free, you could see the best professors of the country if necessary. The state invested a lot in health care and studying medizine was for free too. Of course there were a lot of other really bad issues as well. But that is another story.