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

[silentauror.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that was possible! I don't think it is on my continent!

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

I have wonderful benefits from my employer. However, what this does is handcuff me (golden handcuffs) to this job. There's only a few companies in my area that have equal or better benefits. It's ridiculous.

If we could get these benefits off the employers books, companies wouldn't be failing and they could actually keep their promise of paying pensions to their retired employees.

It would also be a boon to those who want to be self-employed or start their own business.

My neighbor down the street suffers from dibilitating migraines. I mean she has maybe 1 good day out of the week. Anyway, there was an experimental operation (won't go into details) and the insurance wouldn't cover it. They offered to pay cash but no doctor in the US would do it because of a possible malpractice case. They flew to England and paid cash. It only helped a little, unfortunately. So it shows that even with money, the US cannot provide everything because of malpractise reasons. *sigh*

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

Quick question, and this is something that I have been meaning to learn more about for some time, are your companies allowed to not protect employee benefits, such as pension entitlements?

[romaine24.livejournal.com]

There are very few companies that provide pensions anymore. Mainly only those that have unions. *g* Gov't jobs (state and federal) still have pensions and healthcare after retirement.

When a company goes bankrupt, the pension entitlements, such as healthcare, can be taken away during the restructure of the company or if the company just goes down. I'm pretty ignorant on the subject matter, though. Medicare does cover everyone over a certain age. I know at the minimum its age 65, but it could be 62, so they at least have that.

It's a mess, that is all I know. I honestly could've retired last year if it wasn't for the benefits I receive from my company. Now I'm going to stick it out for another 3 1/2 years so I can receive a pension and healthcare later on.

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

I am in snowy Canadia at the moment. The day after I arrived my sniffly cold turned into a full blown chest infection and my brother packed me off to the doctor. $210CAN later I had antibiotics. Let's have that again. $210. NHS FTW.

Also, I am clearly not yet caught up to the mpreg. *eyes unread fics and unviewed pics* *wonders whether to bother with the mpreg*

Also also, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. My internet access has been sketchy for the last week or so. I'm a little behind on these things.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

It's all good! In my head it is still September, so Christmas wishes any time before the end of Jan count! A VERY happy New Year to you my quiet friend who should commit more fic!

$210?? I went fully private (the private doctor is closest) for the mild pneumonia I developed after I came home from Italy and it cost me $55 including antibiotics. I'd get $32 of that back if I could be arsed to fill in a form ... (wonders where self put form)

NHS FTW indeed!

They do warn for mpreg, so you can steer clear if you'd like! The one I was reading had some really good ideas but I think the writer rather ran out of go towards the end, however I had the sense that she was young and possibly not from an English-speaking background, and even not considering it was still a good effort with some very fine passages of writing in the first half.

[thisgirl-is.livejournal.com]

Erm, I may possibly have been left alone with my laptop, but sans internet, for a bit. So it's sort of possible that once I have had another read-through there might conceivably be some more. And then maybe another bit after that. This writing thing is kind of addictive, huh?

$100 to see the doctor, and $110 for antibiotics and hardcore cough syrup (antihistamines, pseudoephedrine and codeine - good times!). Thank goodness for travel insurance is all I can say. The really annoying part is that despite 10 days of antibiotics, I STILL have a cough and a sniffle. Which you didn't really need to know, but I like to share my sulks around.

I will probably read the mpreg, because I am reading everything, although at the moment I am so far behind that I am starting to feel like a sucker for punishment. :o)