User
Lecturer In Regular Oration(Lvl 4)
His Wholeyness The Caterpillaric Popo
Posts: 146
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Post by User on Jun 22, 2012 13:34:25 GMT -5
Wrong. Anything I disagree with is socialism. Today the admin team is giving out stickers. This is yours.   I appreciate the gesture but I don't think there's anywhere left to stick it on my car  |
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 22, 2012 17:52:37 GMT -5
Uranus is going to be jealous when she sees that. I won't be surprised of she doesn't take it as a challenge. And I was thinking that you know - as a public safety warning, the best place for that sticker might actually be right smack dab in the middle of your forehead!  |
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Post by The Mad Hatter on Jun 25, 2012 9:59:31 GMT -5
Great, yet another person wanting to turn health coverage over to crooks.
You just bet us broken down old people with our sundry lists of pre-existing conditions would be able to get such wonderful coverage so cheaply.
Go talk to all the people in NO who were denied insurance payments for destroyed homes because the insurance companies in their great wisdom decided to call it water damage (not a covered item) instead of an act of god (a covered item) after Katrina.
Talk to the many thousands who are denied medical procedures that could save their lives in the early stages just because the insurance company didn't want to pay for a simple test.
Libertarian bullshit like this pisses me off.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 10:40:50 GMT -5
I'm sorry, I think universal healthcare in the US should be a top priority. Everyone should have the ability to see a Doctor or Dentist for a reasonable payment.
I don't think it will ever happen, but it should.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 10:50:18 GMT -5
I'm sorry, I think universal healthcare in the US should be a top priority. Everyone should have the ability to see a Doctor or Dentist for a reasonable payment. I don't think it will ever happen, but it should. I agree with Hare, health care should be a right, not a privilege. |
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Post by marisol on Jun 25, 2012 16:09:02 GMT -5
It's never been a right before, but we do have the right to lay there and die!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2012 19:23:25 GMT -5
It may never have been a "right" but medical care was at least obtainable whereas now, for more than not, it isn't.
We had our insurance renewal at work today. Mine for me and the kids costs more than my rent. Sooo health insurance or a roof?
Decisions decisions......
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Post by Tofu DeBeast on Jun 25, 2012 20:22:33 GMT -5
Our work insurance renewal is coming up too. Been negotiating with our insurance agent. Rates likely will go up another 20%, which means we will be increasing the deductible (again) to keep it affordable.
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 25, 2012 21:33:00 GMT -5
It leaves those of us from places like the UK and Australia gobsmacked. The idea that medicine for profit has come to accept the motion that a person who has lived all their life doing the "right" thing. Working. Contributing. Paying taxes and then paying exorbitant insurance costs on top of those taxes, can be told by their health care insurer that they or their wife or their child is just too expensive to make it worthwhile to save their lives.
Australia's health care system id far from perfect. You get a far higher cosmetic standard of care. Better meal choices. Fancier rooms. Private rooms. You may get seen more quickly, have more choice of doctor and hospital if you take out private insurance, yes. But when it matters. When the life of a a citizen is under threat. When you get cancer, have a problem with a premmie baby, get MS, brain tumours, need an organ transplant. No one here dies because they havent a home to sell to pay the bills.
71 cents in every dollar of American taxes goes to fund the military. The military whose incursions into half the world have bankrupted your nation and made you pariahs on the international stage. Imagine the health care that would be available to every American if half those taxes were spent on health care.
Why don't you have a revolution about that?
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Post by Tofu DeBeast on Jun 25, 2012 22:05:28 GMT -5
I'd love to, Eartha, but more people need to get on board. We're still fighting the cold war over here, and too many people fear that universal healthcare will lead to socialism, communism and long breadlines with people standing around in the snow wearing those fuzzy hats. It's an American myth that has proven unshakable thus far.
As far as emergency care, people still get it. It is illegal to deny emergency healthcare to someone in need. So they give it to you, and then bill you later. As insurance coverage gets crappier and harder to afford, severe medical problems drive more people into bankruptcy (it's the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the US). The hospitals can't refuse care, so they just jack up the prices on everything to cover for the people that can't pay. Higher prices drive up insurance costs, and the whole system sinks into a downward spiral.
There are some provisions of the so-called Obamacare that I actually like. But over all it is too little, too late. It suffers as being the only kind of reform passable in the messed up political environment we have. Like with so many political problems, there is too much money and vested interests skewing the process. Advertising wins elections, and advertising takes money. Lots of money. The politicians know it and don't dare fight it for fear of losing their own seats at the table. The Supreme Court should be doing something about it, but as a bunch of political stooges themselves, their decisions in the last 5-10 years have only made it worse.
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Post by StormInateacup on Jun 25, 2012 22:32:50 GMT -5
My ex husband had a minor knee operation 4 years ago. Three days after it he suffered a bilateral pulmonary embolism.
He was taken by intensive care ambulance to the large local hospital The John Hunter. He was under the care of a senior specialist there. He was in hospital for two weeks. He had angiograms. X-Rays. Blood tests daily. On his return home he had nurses visit. Twice a day for 1 month. Once a day for another two weeks and three times a week for the next month. Blood tests every week. More angiograms at intervals. More X-rays.
Do you know the sum total that this care cost us?
The 2% of annual income which is taken from the purse of every working Australian each week. It's taken out along with income tax long before you see your pay. You don't even know it's gone. It causes no hardship to anyone, as being a flat 2% those who earn less pay less. If you're on over 85k a year and choose not to have top up private cover they take another 1.5%. Of you do have top up cover you get a $500 tax rebate.
There was no excess to pay for all that care he got. Not a penny more. It's hardly crippled the economy. In fact ours is in a far better state than most of the world's.
And there's few - ie NO - doctors not living high on the hog and driving European cars.
As I said - your system leaves us gobsmacked.
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Post by Sita on Jun 25, 2012 23:02:20 GMT -5
When I needed to have my gallbladder out we had no insurance. I had to borrow money from my parents just to get the blood test done that told the doctor that it needed to be taken out immediately.
I then had to go through the emergency room and tell them the doctor sent me, otherwise I would not have been seen at the hospital (going through emergency you don't need to pre-pay for a procedure or operation done).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 26, 2012 8:53:30 GMT -5
If I take the insurance option that drops my deductable to $500 then the weekly rate adds up to over half of my monthly pay for a total of $1,083.59 monthly. If I take the basic, with a $5,000.00 deductable then I will only be paying $333.58 monthly, but, I would have to pay the $5,000.00 deductable before I could have the surgery I'm supposed to have.
In the US it's cheaper to get good life insurance and just die. Hell the kids would be better off financially. I'm worth more dead.
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Post by Sita on Jun 26, 2012 9:06:51 GMT -5
In the US it's cheaper to get good life insurance and just die. Hell the kids would be better off financially. I'm worth more dead. This is so sad but true. |
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Post by The Mad Hatter on Jun 26, 2012 9:22:45 GMT -5
I'd love to, Eartha, but more people need to get on board. We're still fighting the cold war over here, and too many people fear that universal healthcare will lead to socialism, communism and long breadlines with people standing around in the snow wearing those fuzzy hats. It's an American myth that has proven unshakable thus far. As far as emergency care, people still get it. It is illegal to deny emergency healthcare to someone in need. So they give it to you, and then bill you later. As insurance coverage gets crappier and harder to afford, severe medical problems drive more people into bankruptcy (it's the #1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the US). The hospitals can't refuse care, so they just jack up the prices on everything to cover for the people that can't pay. Higher prices drive up insurance costs, and the whole system sinks into a downward spiral. There are some provisions of the so-called Obamacare that I actually like. But over all it is too little, too late. It suffers as being the only kind of reform passable in the messed up political environment we have. Like with so many political problems, there is too much money and vested interests skewing the process. Advertising wins elections, and advertising takes money. Lots of money. The politicians know it and don't dare fight it for fear of losing their own seats at the table. The Supreme Court should be doing something about it, but as a bunch of political stooges themselves, their decisions in the last 5-10 years have only made it worse. Americans do excel at living in fear of things these days. It is our downfall. |
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