blamebrampton | A side note

A side note

Dear Americans,
Outside of your strange, strange country, most of the developed world has this marvellous thing which we like to call health care for all. I'm reading an interesting mpreg (that will teach me not to read the warnings!*) story from hd_hols and the poverty-stricken pregnant one is in despair as his health insurance will not cover it. On the off-chance it was written by someone on my flist, the good for society news is that in the UK, this is not the problem you might think it is! And I have my fingers crossed that in the US, it won't be for much longer, either.

(And if anyone is planning to respond telling me that socialised healthcare is evil, I will LAUGH AT YOU, and then I will QUOTE REAMS OF STATISTICS until you FLEE.)

XXX
BB

* And yes, my dislike of mpreg is not supported by the excellent writing that occurs within that genre and the imaginative plots that many superior writers bring to bear on the concept. But I still don't like it!

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Good grief, mpreg and American healthcare politics?! You firestarter, you. ;)
*removes self to a safe distance*

Oh my god. *starts reading warnings very carefully*

I have no idea if the quality or writing is generally good or bad in mpreg stories, because I NEVER READ IT. *shudders for a bit longer than is strictly decent*

And, you know, living in the UK and having the NHS as a given is so awesome. I can't even tell you.

And coming across an error like that in a fic would make me stop reading instantly.

But I don't like Michael Moore either.

Very much so! Before that they're a bit sticky.

And ha! Because I accidentally read an mpreg too. I was all "Fuck, they should really have warned for that!" and of course when I looked at the warnings it was there in CAPSLOCK!!! I think my brain just filtered it out as too traumatic to process. lol
Been there, done that, got the tummy-stretched t-shirt :D :D :D

What's really weird is, I've now read a number of mpregs, intentionally and not, and they were almost without fail really, really good - and yet if asked, I will still claim to not like mpreg. And believe it wholeheartedly. B'zuh?!

LOL! I always think of Brampton, Ontario when I see 'blamebrampton', too.

There's nothing wrong with Brampton, ON.
;D

1) Was that the Charlie/Draco Mpreg? I quite adored it.

2) Speaking of Health Care issues. I quite like the aussie version. Being friends with an Australian Doctor, I was treated to many a discussion on how Canada's HC issues could be solved by the Aussie model.

Without intending any offence to any US citizens who may glance past this comment - I think the only thing sadder and more scary than the state of health care in the US of A is the fact that US citizens actually do defend it and get angry if you dare suggest that allowing people to die for want of medicine or treatment might not be the best possible system.

*headdesk*

*hugs you* - btw - mpreg? No, it's not my thing either, although as you say, there's been some damned good writing in the genre, and I have been known to peruse the odd piece if sufficiently well rec'd.

I NEVER READ IT.
Oh! That makes me sad.

There are some truly excellent fic out there that get skipped because of the Mpreg warning.

Welcome to the world of reading the warnings AFTER reading the fic. *g*

It's kinda fun that way... except when you get burned, which in my case would be Character Death and Non-con not Mpreg.

Both my husband and I have had cancer in the past five years: had either of us lived in Canada or the U.K., given their treatment modalities/wait times, we'd both be dead by now.
Eeeeep... as a Canadian who has seen ::counting up:: four people deal with cancer, is married to a doctor, and has been following this in the news for lo these many years, this kind of statement doesn't sit terribly well with me. We do have wait times, it's true; one of my kids had to wait six months to get tubes put in his ears, and my mom had to wait for months to see a back specialist for her back pain. But for life and death situations? The stats don't bear out the claims, but few people bother to check them out.

Eg, Paul Tsongas, who ran for President in the eighties, apparently had a standard comeback to queries as to whether he supported universal healthcare or not: he said that he didn't, because he was a cancer survivor, and was only alive because the US had no socialized health care. In a system like Canada's, he claimed, he not only would've had to wait way too long to get the treatment he needed; the treatment itself would've come courtesy of the States, since Canadian doctors, being mere civil servants, didn't do the kind of groundbreaking research in Canada that they did in the States.

Americans heard and believed, and repeated his words all over the place. The irony of it was, not only would Tsongas have been just fine if he'd been sick in Canada; he would've been given the same treatment whether he was a Senator or a garbageman, and - and this was the part that made me see red - he would've been treated with the same treatment he received in the States, which was developed at a hospital in Toronto.

I know our health care system isn't perfect; I hear all about it from my partner. But a lot of the time what I read about its supposed ills from Americans bears little or no resemblance to the system I know. Wait times for non-essentials and scarcity of doctors and nurses up north? Yeah, guilty, absolutely. But... the government dictating which family doctor you get? Um... what? Doctors forced to describe your medical secrets to the government in order to get paid? Uh, no. No medical research of any note? Sorry, wrong there too.

I'd love to read your post, above, but can't see it. Here's a random post re. the other side of Canadian health care (woefully out of date, but still relevant in some areas, and certainly less inflammatory and innacurate than Sicko ;))

http://www.newrules.org/journal/nrwin01health.html

LOL! I always think of Brampton, Ontario when I see 'blamebrampton', too.
LOL!! Me too!

And you know what, reading over my reply to your comment, I come off sounding terribly bitchy, which was not how I was feeling or how I meant to sound at all. If you're getting a bitchy vibe, pls for to try to retone it in your mind as less of a "stfu u nasty nasty American!" and more of a friendly "we differ considerably on this, o Nice Person Who Has Written Something Thoughtful That I Disagree With."

I agree with this exactly. Canada's system is not great, but it's a hell of a lot better than the US's! I've lived there without insurance, and it's ugly! As I will always be poor, yet always be paying taxes, I'm delighted that I don't have to pay for something I've taken for granted all my life as a human right. The fact that people have to pay to see doctors in other places was one of the most horrifying things I ever learned as a child!

Agreed on the mpreg front, too. Not the part about reading it on purpose, ever - just that I agree that there are good things written within the genre. I despise the genre itself, however. Ditto for creature!fic and any number of other things. Just picky. :D

I've friended you so you can read it, if you like. It was written not too long ago.

The point is that I'm not against universal health care, but like many others, our President-elect included, believe that we need to merge what's good about our current system with one that provides especially preventative/maintenance care for the uninsured, who currently have little hope of affording it, unless they're wealthy. And in the U.S., chances are the garbageman or autoworker has better healthcare coverage than the senator--all depends on the employer group.

There's no doubt in my mind that both systems have their weak and strong points, but so far as equality of care here? It's fairly even for essentials, but Americans in general have come to expect that waiting is unforgivable, and don't understand well the term 'elective.' They're hoping a universal plan will solve the latter, but looking at statistics worldwide, there'll be a rude awakening.

Haaaaa, no, I didn't think you were bitchy at all. :) I think it's a misunderstood subject; what gets my grinder going is when non-Americans call out our system without knowing the basics, particularly if their opinion is anecdotal--as you've pointed out, that's a dangerous jumping off point.

I think that, as in other areas, if we could only take the best of both systems and find a way to merge them, that would be optimal. In the U.S., though, anything that even has a whiff of the word 'socialized' attached to it is going to get quashed. I know many U.K./French folks shake their heads at this, but many Americans, particularly Republicans, believe that this issue, like many others, is none of the federal government's business. We're a republic, after all, not a democracy.

I didn't mean to coop your LJ. :) And you're absolutely right, dear, the important issues, like slash, will forever overcome paltry things like differences in philosophy...as it should!! Btw, I loved my Christmas fic from Jen; thanks for helping her!

you read mpreg? o_O i thought we talked about this...

:P

Edited 2008-12-28 07:19 (UTC)

Yeah ... happened with a polyamory fic I read. *runs screaming for the hills* I swear it wasn't in the warnings, just in the author's notes (which, yeah ... I should have read, but didn't) but now it's in both. I think there were little gremlins in there removing warnings until I clicked, then put them back, snickering behind my back. D:

Char Death, Non-con, polyamory or CROSS-GEN for me. *shudders and runs away*

Me as well!

LOL This post is great. XD

Go research!

Mmmm now I'm looking forward to reading that fic, cos: yay mpreg! :D

** SPOILER COMMENT **

Hmm. If that's the hd_hols fic I'm thinking of, I kinda read it as the wizarding community introducing a law to deny DEs treatment, not as a lack of universal health care (more a retraction of it for a certain segment of society). And given the person, he wouldn't know about the UK Muggle system, nor could he go there because he's a guy, and he required magical treatment. So it didn't throw me out at all.

** END SPOILER **

As a Canadian, I can't imagine having to pay for healthcare. It's just something that's always there. Is it mis-managed? Hell, the finances are run by the government. Of course it is! But are people dying from waiting too long? I don't believe it. I haven't seen evidence of that, despite some rumours. Do mistakes happen? Sure they do. Is it devastating for those involved? Of course. But I don't see a direct correlation between UHC and that.

I've known many people who've been treated for cancer, etc., and have received phenomenal treatment here. Without having to go south of the border. Occasionally, the wait requires treatment elsewhere (out of the city/province/country), but in my experience that's the exception, not the rule.

I won't presume to know how the US system works, but the idea of going broke, losing my house, or losing all I've worked for just to stay alive/healthy is scary to me.

It's not badly written, but I have had to run away from the story twice now, just back from Ikea! New shelves!!

I KNOW! Also, I think Obama is hot without his shirt on AND that the Pope is a raging hypocrite for condemning transvestism while wearing that frock!

Now THAT should keep the snowed-in types warm for a while ;-)

I'm mostly in the same camp as you, though I would say about 1/2 the ones I have read were really good. But they were really good because they were imaginative enough and cleverly written enough that I looked past the mpreg, so I still say I don't like it!

Let us not speak of the other half ...

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