A side note

[blamebrampton]

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!

Comments

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it's not just me ducking the current cross-gen fad!

[empress-jae.livejournal.com]

yaye ikea shelves!

jolene is my mpreg exception...should i add this one?

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I'll let you know when I finish it ;-)

And YAY shelves indeed! Although BOO having to clear everything off the old ones and re-arrange room to fit them in ...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Hee! You will like it! I am not sure about it yet because I am only halfway through, but it's mpreg and I am still reading, so the author has done something right!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, agree with you on that last paragraph!

It probably is the same fic, and that is an interesting interpretation of the idea. What pulled me up was the word 'insurance', if they had said that the character would not be able to afford to pay, I don't think I would have had an issue with it because I'd have probably made the same reading leaps that you did. I'll go with yours!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

THERE'S CHARLIE/DRACO MPREG????!! It's true, you really can find everything on the internet, and now my brain is scarred.

Yes, I have to say that the Aussie version is pretty good. I like its balance of public and private options, and the fact that the mix keeps costs down in both sectors. Fingers crossed your pollies give it a look!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know that you are not dealing with the turn-away system that Moore suggests that you are, because at the end of the day, doctors and nurses are, well, doctors and nurses, and even if there weren't legal protections in place, there is a certain humanity that means they would continue to make sure the really needy were cared for.

But you do have less in the way of caring for the most vulnerable members of the community than you had 100 or 200 years ago. Then you were the great nation of charity hospitals and had endless individuals who would practice private acts of bringing health care to the neediest. In the intervening decades, the churches have maintained a little of this tradition, but, like most of the West, it's moved dominantly to the government. And yours has NOT done the job it could have.

Instead, for ideological reasons rather than best-care plans, it has funneled the money to companies that provide more expensive services for fewer people, and that outrages me.

Remember that I, like most people outside the US, don't rail against things because we hate America, we do it because we love the ideals that America stands for, and remember the few brief moments when your country's government has lived up to them.

You are right that a broad-based health care system will need to be a conglomeration of systems if it's to work in the US (the Australian system seems practicable to my eyes), but the power in the system needs to move away from private corporations. Because the market really is not best at what it does!

And I do not think that the waiting times in the UK at least would have seen you or your husband disadvantaged in your treatment. Waiting lists are for illnesses that can wait. It might lead to people being pissed off or miserable, but if it is going to lead to your death, you are seen straight away.

I have had two friends with leukaemia treated in the public systems in the last five years, one in Australia and one in the UK. My English friend is now three years clear, she went from 'I think I have the flu' and the doctor doing a blood test just to be sure, to hospitalisation and the start of treatment within a week. All of her medications and her bone marrow transplant were covered publicly.

My Australian friend died, but not from lack of care, just through bastardry of disease.

In my own case, I have spent about $8000 on health care in the last 14 years, that's everything including physio, doctors, dentistry, crutches, medicines, etc. I had insurance for the first two years then let it lapse, because it cost more than it would have cost to just do everything privately when you took out the emergencies, and emergencies were all dealt with more than adequately by the public system.

In that time I have been run over and nearly killed, shattered my foot, broken a few sundry toes and fingers through stupidity, and had the flu too many times, as well as a few minor odds and ends and was on the pill for more than half that time. So that's three surgeries, about 50 scans and X-rays, three weeks in hospital, about 50 visits to physios and a few dozen prescriptions, as well as having my three old English fillings replaced with new ceramic ones.

Most of my money was spent on dentistry (which I have to admit is woeful here on the public purse) and medicines (which are retail up to a certain level, then subsidised thereafter, I usually only need the lower-priced things).

I usually go to my private doctor, which is $40 or $70 depending on when I go, and neither of the big cycling accidents cost me a penny (well, $100 deposit for crutches, which I was repaid when I gave them back).

My friend, who has children, did her maths and she has spent $15,000 over the same period, including her insurance costs. Most of that was on dentistry and insurance. Both of us spend more than our annual health budget on books, papers and magazines.

I have American friends who have had to remortgage their homes to pay for medical bills, and that just stuns me.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

YAY CHRISTMAS FIC! I am looking forward to reading your present to her, she adores it so!

And I am of the firm opinion that people who I like are allowed to hold radically different opinions to mine*. Otherwise life would be very very boring indeed.

*People I don't like are also allowed to, but I care not for them ;-)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I can almost do character death, provided it's there for a reason and people react to it rather than just 'Oh. Oh well, fancy a shag?'

Non-con is much harder for me to cope with. If I'm going to read about rape, I want it to be from a very good writer who can use it to propel a story without exploitation or absurdity. Some fandom writers seem to have a bad does of the Restorations when they use it to titillate the reader, and I want to thump them just as much as I do several long-dead classical authors!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

OH! You poor thing! That's not something you want to strike without warning when you were expecting traditional H/D ;-)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

My darling friend from Niagra is moving back to Canada next year (probably to Toronto) and so I may actually make it there some time in the next year and a half!

People will say 'Why is that stumpy white girl taking photos of all the signage?'

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

And prone to oozing!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I come across far worse errors in stories that hit my desk for publication, so I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt ;-)

And while I really don't like mpreg (as in, spend all my time saying 'But why would you? Surely you'd just hire a surrogate if it was that important?!' until J comes out and tells me to stop ranting at the laptop ;-) I have to say that I have read some really good ones, especially Jolene, so I never say never!

I SO agree with you about the comfort of having healthcare as a given. Sure, neither the NHS nor Aussie Medicare are perfect, but I would rather their imperfections than the US system.

[azurelunatic]

Ooozing unmentionable substances, she says in a tone of dark foreboding.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That's the perfect icon!

[azurelunatic]

Isn't he adorable? That's my Virtual Nephew, at about age 7 or so. He is now about his mother's height and needs to shave.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Oh the depressiveness of adult nephews, my little one is now six feet tall! I miss when he used to leave messages on my answer phone that consisted entirely of fart noises ...

[azurelunatic]

This one's only 12, so there's some time yet left for generalized immaturity.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I think it's an ideological thing, though. When I have been in the US I have had some come up to me and tell me that I must find it infuriating that my government spends so much of my tax dollar on health. They're always baffled when I say that's what I WANT the government to do.

I worry about the work Obama will have to do to shift them from that position. But then, if you had asked me when I moved here if I would ever see an Australia that voted for the architect of the Pacific Solution, I would have said no. And then everyone moved AWAY from believing it was a good idea, so things can change!

[snottygrrl.livejournal.com]

had to jump in here and agree that moore is an absolute prick that should be silenced. i can't tell you how horrible it is to be american after everyone of his movies comes out over here. if really smart people don't get how biased his stuff is. [*shudders*]

having lived in both systems, i got to say that while it's nice to have free ostomy bags here in nz, i can't say i'm that enamoured with the socialised system here. the kiwis are just as good at killing people by not getting them proper medical treatment at the proper time as anything i witnessed in the states. and from my experience the treatment i got in the states far surpassed anything i get here. yeah it cost a heap more, but it was also heaps better. [*shrugs*]

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

That's the thing that gets me. I HAVE money. I've always had money. In both the UK and Australia I just pay to use private medicine when I need it, and rely on public whenever I am run over. In fact, the public here was so good, I stopped my private insurance. With my money, I can make all sorts of decisions, taking advantage of the capitalist society I live in.

I think that decision making process is what Americans want to have, and I am fine with that, I like it, too!

But where we differ is that I think I have enough money to find the services I want, and therefore the government's theories on the health care that needs to be available should NOT be driven by people like me! It should be driven by people who CANNOT make those sorts of decisions because they lack the resources. That's why we have governments, to do the things that individuals can't.

Oh bugger it, now I sound French ...

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

In fairness, New Zealand is a tricky case, as you have a teeny tiny population and not a thriving economy. ONE DAY I will see Oz and NZ unified into the great nation of Hobbitonia and travel between out cities will be faster and easier than going to Adelaide!

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

lol, I'm sorry. It squicks me deep in my soul. Pregnancy, childbirth and children is the last thing I want from male characters.

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are some beautifully written mpreg fics, but it just disturbs me on a cellular level for some reason. In a "that's not for me" way, not in a "not one should write this" way. Just want to clarify that -- I'm all in favour of people reading and enjoying mpreg, it's just not something I can read, for various reasons.

And, yes. The stories I read about American healthcare from so many of my friends still living in the USA make me cry. People choosing between taking their kids to the doctor and paying rent, people letting broken bones go unset because they don't want to pay for a doctor visit. It's one of the main reasons I never want to move back there. Well, that and only getting two weeks of paid vacation a year.

[old-enough.livejournal.com]

I was born in the US, but haven't lived there for a long time--Denmark is home. I still don't understand the US's horror of national healthcare or anything else remotely socialized, or that they can claim that it doesn't work.

I've been seriously ill here and there--no significant difference in the quality of the care, although here I have to push a bit more and there I have to resist a bit the things I felt were unnecessary. The difference was that there I was faced with mountains of paper and invoices (fortunately paid mostly by insurance) that had truly amazing figures that were followed by stunning numbers of zeros. I have never seen an invoice or any paper other than explanations of what was wrong and how they treated it. Oh, except for I did have to pay a small amount for a private phone in my hospital room here, but that was a cash transaction carried out by my husband at the phone company kiosk down in the hospital lobby.

Incidentally, I was in the UK last summer when I had a bad accident right at the beginning of a month long holiday. The NHS did not live up to its reputation at all. The care I received from the moment I staggered through the Accident and Casualty room's door was all I could ask for. Yes Danish hospitals are more modern and more "electronic" but I hardly felt like the treatment was sub-standard and when I did eventually make it home, the doctors here were seriously impressed with the work that had been done. And again, not a single invoice and not even a question of whether I had insurance.

The Scandinavian economies (outside of Iceland which has pretty much gone its own way since the second world war) are relatively healthy even in these dark financial days, the welfare state isn't under serious threat and still the US insists that nothing socialized can ever even begin to possibly work. Denmark has no national debt (and yes we have troops fighting in the middle east too). As I said before, I just can't begin to understand the mindset that insists that what we do can't possibly work.

Now, if we could just do something about what I see as the institutionalized racism/ethnicism of the the national government here AND if we could get over our national schizophrenia about the EU (come on guys, we are either in or we are out! It really doesn't work when we try to swim both ways at the same time), I might actually think that we were doing a pretty good job of governing ourselves.