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A link to this thread is posted on the MSNBC Politics board.
http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?threadid=1165584
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I once was beaten up on the way home, had a bloody, bruised face the next morning. Went down to A&E at 9am on Saturday morning and whilst the building was a bit rank, I was seen by an A&E doctor and a more specialised bone surgeon (what are they called again?) within 3 hours. Luckily there was no damage but I was impressed with The Royal London hospital, which I always assumed to be really shit (judging from the outside).
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I'm from the US and I have been living here for the last 5 years. As most Americans who cant afford insurance I have had many financial nightmares with the US health system. I once went in to the ER because of what turned out to be vertigo (inner ear) I waited for hours, finally saw a doctor who did nothing but ask me some questions and move my head around, no meds, nothing, he told me to go home and it would clear up on it's own (it did) I received a bill in the mail for $800! for what?
My mother had a spinal procedure recently that went very wrong (long story) up and she now has partial and permanent paralysis in both her legs, and the parts of her legs that aren't paralyzed are in constant pain. She's 69 years old and on Medicaid. Even on Medicaid she was given a limited amount of free visits to a physio for continued care and rehabilitation. After those were up, she had to find a way to pay for private insurance in order to continue being cared for, meds, etc. That would never happen in the UK with the NHS. If that happened here she would continue to be cared for as long as she needed it.
Also, The NHS is not free. We all pay loads of taxes in order to benefit from the NHS. The big glaring difference is that, the NHS is not a for profit business as is a gigantic chunk of the US system, Insurance, drug companies, doctors and on and on. So if you have money in the US, you get the best care in the world, but if you are poor or struggling you have one hell of a time trying to afford to care for you family and have insurance at the same time.
*"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life , Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness....."If they can afford it"
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*"Give me your tired, your poor,- *Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
- *The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
- *Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
- *I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" If they can afford it!
*The NHS is definitely an imperfect system and needs to be fixed desperately. But the haves and have nots have an equal opportunity to health care here. No one will ever have to sell there home or lose everything because of medical debt here! There are people all over the US who have to choose whether they eat or send their kids to the doctor, peoples lives are routienly ruined because they became ill and couldn't afford to pay the bills. That is not right. I dont care how much money the United States spends on health care, they are spending the US taxpayers money wrongly!
- *Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
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JSA's get that for free too.
JSA is good for prescriptions, but if you have an ongoing medical condition, eg: asthma, dietabes, eyesight, there is a form you can fill in where you dont have to pay anything at all, if youre on a low income wage whilst working/not working.
The charges for prescription is getting stupid though.
Also, my another american friend, said she gets seen quicker when she's on goverment assistance.
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Hey Mr. Handsom, often the argument is that we here in the US is that the "haves" shouldn't have to pay for the "have nots"
What they fail to understand is that they already pay for these unfortunates through their taxes. And that they pay it at a premium through the visits to county ERs. -
Hey Mr. Handsom, often the argument is that we here in the US is that the "haves" shouldn't have to pay for the "have nots"
What they fail to understand is that they already pay for these unfortunates through their taxes. And that they pay it at a premium through the visits to county ERs.Who the hell is Mr. Handsome?
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Who the hell is Mr. Handsome?
El Guapo = Mr. Handsom in Spanish
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Hey Mr. Handsom, often the argument is that we here in the US is that the "haves" shouldn't have to pay for the "have nots"
What they fail to understand is that they already pay for these unfortunates through their taxes. And that they pay it at a premium through the visits to county ERs.Americans are not stupid by any means, but are amazingly ignorant as to how their own system works and how their hard earned money is being spent. A true democracy can only work and effect change if the people are informed enough to want it.
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Not sure how relevant this is as it is comparing my experience of privatevs public service in England. I broke my leg pretty badly a few years ago and metal got screwed to my leg in thanks to the NHS then taken out a year later courtesy of Bupa. The level of care was almost the same in both (apart from a monumental fuck up on pain control on one instance by the NHS), the people treating me were the same (some working for both the NHS and Bupa), the only big difference between the two services was the waiting around. When being treated by the NHS there was a lot of waiting around and uncertainty when I would be seen by doctors, surgeons etc. Compared to private when if they said they'd be there at 1pm then they would be there bang on 1pm.
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Not sure how relevant this is as it is comparing my experience of privatevs public service in England. I broke my leg pretty badly a few years ago and metal got screwed to my leg in thanks to the NHS then taken out a year later courtesy of Bupa. The level of care was almost the same in both (apart from a monumental fuck up on pain control on one instance by the NHS), the people treating me were the same (some working for both the NHS and Bupa), the only big difference between the two services was the waiting around. When being treated by the NHS there was a lot of waiting around and uncertainty when I would be seen by doctors, surgeons etc. Compared to private when if they said they'd be there at 1pm then they would be there bang on 1pm.
If the same doctors were treating you on both plans why would the adherence to scheduling change?
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Ok, here's another disgusting bit:
Not all hospitals are required to care for you. If you have no health insurance and are, as ehren was, beaten on the way home (or for god's sake, ANYTHING!), and you take an ambulance, which takes you to a certain kind of hospital, perhaps private? they are within their rights to turn you away. Yet you will still be sent a bill for the ambulance, which may be in excess of $800.
Or another:
I had cancer. I made too much for Planned Parenthood to deal with my shit for free, so my kindly doctor called Bellevue Hospital for me to make sure that I could have surgery for less. I only could because I was a massage therapist who happened to have had a slow month (i.e., making less than $1000). I had surgery, which would have cost me upwards of $3000 for $600. I had one post-op exam, a month later? After that, it was up to me to call the hospital every single day to have the requested 6 month exams for a year and a half later because they could not schedule women for "well" visits. Did I go to any after that one post-op visit? No. Because I could not get one, nor could I afford to go anywhere else. Technically, I could, but it would have gone on my credit card and I had no idea how much it would have cost.
Oh, right, and now b/c I've had cancer I could potentially be turned down for private insurance.
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If the same doctors were treating you on both plans why would the adherence to scheduling change?
And if these doctors and nurses were British then all their training has been payed for by British taxpayers. Yet they are then allowed to deplete the NHS by going to work in private medicine and increase the amount of time the people who payed for their training have to wait for treatment.
There was tremendous opposition to the establishment of the the NHS from consultants who feared losing their lucrative work treating the well off and who didn't give a damn about the poor. As a result we have the current system where they are also allowed to practice privately even though that clearly takes them away from the NHS.
The opposition to 'socialised' medicine in the US does not come from the general population; every poll shows huge support for a more equitable system. The opposition comes partly from idealogues but mostly from big business. Hence the scare stories about the NHS pedalled by their amoral PR slags.
Evidence again that there is a class war and it is a war being fought by the rich against the poor. -
Amoral slags! That has a nice ring to it.
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I think it should be put to a vote!
ehren_fried_chicken
Elguapo
Ramon
LdnGrrl
jayloo
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What can you tell us Yanks about Healthcare in the UK
Posted by
@VeloSniper
forgot to mention - I quit my job when All this shit went down, So I didn't pay anything for my prescriptive medicines, post-op. JSA's get that for free too.
I'm back at work, paying my NI again though.