The Best Healthcare in the World.

God bless the NHS is all I can say.

There's no way I could afford all the medication I need without it.

scarletpeaches said:

God bless the NHS is all I can say.

There's no way I could afford all the medication I need without it.

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Amen to that. Living with a chronic condition is hard enough; I can't imagine how hard it'd be if I had to worry constantly about whether or not I could afford to be treated.

The NHS ain't perfect, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It's saved the lives of people I love countless times.

Monkey said:

I often hear right-wing politicians say that universal healthcare is undesirable because our competitive market produces better results than anywhere else on Earth.

I often hear right-wingers say that universal healthcare is unnecessary because if you really need help, you can just go to the emergency room.

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This is something that is a total mystery to me. As recently as last month, Speaker Boehner characterized our current system as "the best health care delivery system in the world."

Universal HCC is an excellent way to solve this problem. But the the health insurance mandate, though imo far inferior, has been used elsewhere in some form (notably in Switzerland the Netherlands) with good results.

Of course in the Netherlands, elderly patients are forced to wear special wristbands and are fleeing the country to avoid involuntary euthanasia.

(That was from Rick Santorum, if you'll remember. Romney's not looking so bad now, is he?)

But the mandate was originally the conservative alternative to a "Medicare for all" system. Now known as Obamacare, and now considered by the GOP to be unAmerican and socialist. Repealing it is the GOP's number one priority. (After banning all abortions.)

We are all used to these sorts of turnarounds in politics, but this is truly incomprehensible. Flat out nuts, in fact.

The GOP answer to the health care issue seems to be to keep the entire system, unchanged, but to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. The market will then magically work to reduce health insurance to affordable rates.

Again, there is zero evidence that this will actually happen. This is not a solution; it's wishful thinking, and is completely nuts.

Meanwhile, the insurance premiums we paid to provide our employees with coverage last year were slated to increase by 17%. The expense was already unsustainable, so we opted instead to change our coverage plan to one that provided significantly less benefits, almost no prescription coverage, and far higher copays. We had no choice.

This year, the current, cheaper plan is slated to increase by, you guessed it -- 17%.

And let us not forget that our representatives in congress, and their families, have the best health insurance available. When rates skyrocket, they feel no pain at all.

They seemed to have confused "best" with "most overpriced."

Devil Ledbetter said:

They seemed to have confused "best" with "most overpriced."

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Or that which makes the doctor-executives rich.

scarletpeaches said:

God bless the NHS is all I can say.

There's no way I could afford all the medication I need without it.

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crunchyblanket said:

The NHS ain't perfect, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. It's saved the lives of people I love countless times.

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Same here. Both of my parents got their lives saved by really complicated surgeries that we could've never afford otherwise. Actually, my pa was unemployed when he went through his.

To say that the U.S. health system does not deliver the best, or even adequate health care, and that it's prohibitively expensive for most Americans is to criticize the very idea of capitalism.

I've found through personal experience that is not something you can do around those at the conservative end of the political spectrum. It's the equivalent of questioning the divinity of Jesus Christ around an fundamentalist Christian. You are automatically consigned to category of the enemy of all that is good and pure.

That people have to die in order to support this fantasy is a price they are willing to pay.

All I know is; we've enjoyed "socialized" medicine since the fifties and all was well. Then, in the nineties, the free market myth took hold of the Netherlands. The market would make everything cheaper and more efficient, including healthcare. None of that happened, insurance got way more expensive, waiting lists have increased in size and duration. Nuff said.

The whole situation in American healthcare amazes me. It really does. I just don't get why one of the world's richest countries can't afford to provide free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare.

Getting sick in America is not for sissies. Recently watched my mother die of cancer, after she'd been diagnosed with Stage IV less than three months earlier. Not bad enough I guess, to be ambushed this way, after she had been misdiagnosed for months to years, we had an oncologist pushing for chemo treatment even though he admitted that the best we could hope for was for her to live a few months longer. Luckily I have two doctors in my family to advise me. For one week that she was in the hospital, the bill was over $100,000. She had good insurance that paid most of it, but her body was not even cold when the vultures came out, hounding me day and night for the balance. I could have paid, but flat refused. Unbridled capitalism will kill this country yet.

Romney praised Israel's universal health care when he was there. It's cognitive dissonance.

I remember an online argument with somebody who kept dismissing every example of successful public health care by repeating her ideological conviction that government agencies can never do anything right. Finally somebody said, "So you're saying it's all very well in practice, but it'll never work in theory?"

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get how anyone could begrudge their tax money going to save other people's lives, or ease other people's pain. Particularly when other people's taxes may well save theirs someday.

I know. IMO, it's the best thing tax money can do.

mirandashell said:

The whole situation in American healthcare amazes me. It really does. I just don't get why one of the world's richest countries can't afford to provide free-at-the-point-of-use healthcare.

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That's the very REASON it's one of the richest. These ultra wealthy companies screw everyone out of every penny they have because they can. Result? They get richer, commoners get poorer. Unethical? No, it's CAPITALISM and it's GOOD AND PURE.

Or something.

crunchyblanket said:

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get how anyone could begrudge their tax money going to save other people's lives, or ease other people's pain. Particularly when other people's taxes may well save theirs someday.

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There's a meanness in this country that's a recent phenomenon. Might have a lot to do with the 1% successfully turning the 99% into bottom feeders. All fear-based, imo. Oh, but you're right, that's only when it's someone else's loved one in need. If it's my loved one, well that is quite different.

Bebop said:

There's a meanness in this country that's a recent phenomenon. Might have a lot to do with the 1% successfully turning the 99% into bottom feeders. All fear-based, imo. Oh, but you're right, that's only when it's someone else's loved one in need. If it's my loved one, well that is quite different.

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John Steinbeck has a lovely quote for this, I think it's a paraphrasing of a quote but still, 'Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.'

Romantic Heretic said:

To say that the U.S. health system does not deliver the best, or even adequate health care, and that it's prohibitively expensive for most Americans is to criticize the very idea of capitalism.

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Now, I could be wrong, but...isn't the United States health system neither capitalistic nor socialistic, but rather just flat out rigged.

Crony capitalism and all that.

Course, I don't think that health care should be a by profit thing, as...um...it's fucking heartless to leave someone dying in a gutter because they're poor. Freedom and capitalism is great and all, but you shouldn't be a dick about it.

Our junior senator, republican, was on the radio a while back bashing the Affordable Care Act by saying more people are now going to the doctor!

The horror! People actually showing concern about their health because they can afford it! Bastards!

fireluxlou said:

John Steinbeck has a lovely quote for this, I think it's a paraphrasing of a quote but still, 'Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat, but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.'

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Joe E. Lewis said, "I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better."

No doubt, but I think Joe might agree that it ain't all that. The problem is, that the way things are more and more in this country is, You either is or you ain't. The middle class used to be our strength. At one point, maybe 80% of Americans were neither rich nor poor, but comfortable.

We been robbed!

I don't know Economics. I wish I did, because it all comes down to that eventually. But I have one, maybe naive philosophy when it comes to all this- There's enough to go around- not just in America but in the world. I know it's the philosophy of an idealist. Can't conceive of people willingly sharing so that no kid goes hungry, or no sick person dies untreated, or just that even the poorest kid can get a good education, one that will take him as far as his drive and imagination will allow.

It's just plain ugly.

I love the NHS.

My experience with the US system was a complete shock to me. It seems that you could be bleeding out all over A & E, but the clerk would still want to see your credit card before someone came to stitch you up.

I had a very minor (day op) procedure when I was in AZ. My insurance company paid all but the co-pay. I received a copy of the bill from the hospital and I have never seen anything so detailed. I mean, really, charging for every single kleenex? Every Q-tip? Unfuckingbelievable.

firedrake said:

I love the NHS.

My experience with the US system was a complete shock to me. It seems that you could be bleeding out all over A & E, but the clerk would still want to see your credit card before someone came to stitch you up.

I had a very minor (day op) procedure when I was in AZ. My insurance company paid all but the co-pay. I received a copy of the bill from the hospital and I have never seen anything so detailed. I mean, really, charging for every single kleenex? Every Q-tip? Unfuckingbelievable.

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By contrast I once sliced my hand open (not for fun; accident you understand) and was able to walk into my local surgery and get sewn up immediately. All I had to do was give my name and National Insurance number (which I've memorised) to prove I was an NHS patient, something they could easily check on their computer system.

Didn't cost me a penny, at least at the point of delivery.

(I borrowed this from here, which is why there's an arrow pointing to Japan.)

I've known quite a few people who came to the US to live from other countries that have universal health care. I've yet to hear anyone who has experienced both that they prefer the American system to the one they had in their home country.

IMO, we have better healthcare than most, but a worse system.

We still lead the world in drug invention, and all that R&D money's gotta come from somewhere, but still. The system is pretty flawed to me. There's got to be a better way.