blamebrampton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blamebrampton) wrote2008-12-28 02:47 pm
blamebrampton) wrote2008-12-28 02:47 pm
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.)
* 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!
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!
no subject
As a physician, if I want to maintain my hospital privileges, I must take ER call, and I must take every patient that comes in, regardless of ability to pay, care for them through their entire hospitalization and see them in my office until the current, acute illness is resolved. I can bill them for it, I can dun them for it, I can send them to collections for it... I can drive them into bankruptcy over it (#1 cause of personal bankruptcy in the US: health care bills), but I can't refuse to care for them.
Your insurance insulates you from that - and it's that very insulation that drives the American demand for the newest, "best" treatment (NB: newest != best!!!!). If you don't know or care what it costs, because you're never out-of-pocket, of course you're going to demand the newest, most expensive treatments.
This system is BORKED, and has been for 30+ years. Yes, it's entrenched. Yes, it's working, in a limping-along fashion... but it isn't going to for much longer. It needs a fresh start and a new approach.