Jezebel 
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New York, 8:10 PM
Mon Nov 9
52 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/01/09
10/01/09
Except health care. He grew up under a single-payer system for 30 years, and then moved to the U.S. and has lived under the American system for 45. And he believes in universal health care, as a businessman and a human being. He may believe in the free market, but thinks health care should not be a for-profit industry. Because that's just an incentive for health care companies to try to screw every last penny out of your coverage while at the same time cutting costs by denying you the care you paid for.
10/01/09
In Israel, I have the basic public option, UPGRADED to fancy public option, AND I have extra-fancy private insurance. It's really not a big deal.
What is the problem???
10/01/09
Not realizing, of course, that people get strep throat, urinary tract infections, hit by cars, etc.
They also don't seem to understand that they could get basic health care for a tax increase of LESS THAN THEY PAY for health care now.
10/01/09
I mean, if I would've stayed in the US after I graduated from college with an English major (instead of moving to Israel), I would've been fucked. If I wouldn't have found a good job, how would I have dealt with all my health issues?
This is actually one of the main reasons I moved out of the US. I don't want to be forced into some yuppie job so that I can get antibiotics when I have a cold. Geez!
When Israel seems rational in comparison to you, you know you're in trouble, AMERICA.
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10/01/09
My very own personal COTD. Brilliant.
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10/01/09
BUT, nationalized healthcare has its pitfalls, too. I'v recently had to pay 58pounds per visit to the GP because my NHS number/files have not been moved to my new GP (I registered with the new GP now 7 weeks ago) and as such have to pay to see the doctor as an 'unregistered patient'.
I'v also had to pay 485 pounds for a second ECG and 827pounds for a second echo cardiogram because the results of the first one were lost somewhere between hospital and GP, and the NHS won't cover costs for multiple ECG's unless there is a 'pertinent medical reason'.
Furthermore, my GP referred me to a cardiologist, with whom I was able to make an appointment for 11 weeks after the referral, who has then referred me to another cardiologist for a second opinion for 9 weeks after I saw him (NHS won't allow for costly procedures without second opinions). I have since had the second opinion (just last week) and the prodecure has been scheduled for FEBRUARY 2010, unless I want to have it done at a private hospital where it can be done as soon as next week.
Let me also add that this is for a genetic heart condition that basically calls for a defibrillator to be put in and im at the low end of the totem pole for procedures because i am 25 and otherwise 'healthy'.
All in all, its taken over 1500pounds and and 5 months to get to THIS point - and now its going to be another 5 months before anything is done about it UNLESS I choose to pay out of pocket OR use my supplementary insurance from work which fucks with my premiums.
Not saying im not grateful that i have the option to have this sorted by spending 2000 instead 15000 pounds - my point is, nationalized healthcare has its fuckups, too.
(also im an american living in the uk, and if i chose to do this in the states, my parents health insurance would pretty much cover all of it with minimum additions to premiums - they have uni jobs and their healthcare extends to family)
10/01/09
Also, if you are 25, I doubt you could still be on your parents insurance. If you can, this is probably the last year. 25 is the highest year I know of in which employer provided insurance covers children who are not on disability.
10/01/09
I have to say though, having lived in the US as well with good insurance, I still think the NHS is better as a concept. It needs reform, and a lot more money spent in more intelligent ways (if we stopped wasting billions on Eurofighter jets that no one will EVER USE because we don't have pilots who can fly them and they have no purpose in contemporary warfare... sigh...). Some of the hospitals dating from the first years of the NHS are crumbling horribly, too, and they can be maddeningly slow to approve new drugs. I still wouldn't switch back, though, and I have quite a lot of health problems. My boyfriend does everything through his work-provided BUPA (private insurance), and I use the NHS because I'm a poor grad student, and I honestly haven't seen any measurable difference in the standard of care. He sees specialists a bit faster, but that's it; he recently had an MRI which was paid for privately and hence he got the appointment within a week, but all the equipment and docs were NHS.
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/s
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10/01/09
Duh.
10/01/09
On the one hand, it's great to be skeptical of doctors, especially as women (twilight sleep, the pill experiments, forced sterilization, committing and isolating Typhoid Mary for seemingly no reason, etc..), but on the other hand, our country definitely takes that skepticism way too far.
I don't think it's just Reagan, though he embodies the spirit. It is a unique view of the world that partially makes us who we are as a country, for better or for worse.
10/01/09
But what I am saying is very different from a patient asking for the purple pill because the commercial suggests it works better than the generic.
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Me: Mom, how come Paul's cousins have to move in with his family? There's not enough room.
Mom: Reagan.
To this day, I get a deeply incredulous look on my face when someone refers to Reagan as "the farmer's friend."
10/01/09
The wait times up here are really long for things like CAT scans and many of my friends have trouble even finding a family doctor who will take them on because their practices are full but overall we're very lucky. My grandparents are in their late 80's and spend quite a bit of time at the doctor and in the hospital and I'm very grateful that I don't have to go into dept to pay for their care.
10/01/09
And yes, universal coverage is not free. But it will be less expensive than the current American system.
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Universal health care won't be free. But it should, over time, become cheaper overall than the current system if everybody has access to good preventive care and chronic disease management.
10/01/09
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10/01/09
(Not to mention the number of holidays and vacation days that Europeans get, and yet if we actually used all 10 of our PTO in a year they said we weren't hard-working enough. Yeah, those 50 50-hour weeks weren't really there. Mmm-hmm...)
10/01/09
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10/01/09
1. Not paying too much in taxes (every last white conservative I know howls like crazy over 'wasting' money on these things but would crap a brick if I suggested repealing the mortgage exemption)
2. Being able to shoot an AK-47 if they want, because otherwise the British will be able to come over and slap us around (more the rural and/or male white bourgeois)
3. Getting any government benefit mentioned or it is unfair (my sister, who makes over 75K a year, pouted because she didn't get a $300 stimulus check. Really.)
I'll leave aside my really mean personal feelings about the religious right stooges, but among the types of conservatives I can bear to talk to, it's all about the unlimited right to stuff and killing the crap out of anyone who'd touch their stuff. It's not a really sophisticated ideology.
10/01/09
Doctor's visits? Free. Blood work and CAT scans? Free. Cast for broken limb? Free. Basically, the only things that aren't covered are elective plastic surgery. Is it true that we may spend time waiting for care in Emergency or at the doctor's office? Sure. it's not a perfect system in Ontario. And some of our wait times for things like cancer diagnostics are shameful (leading people to wonder if a "user pay" model could fast track this treatment).
But the fact that the Ontario government "manages" the overall healthcare is much less threatening than an HMO managing my care. If I break my arm, I head to Emergency, wait, get X-rays, get it set and go home with my prescription for pain meds, that I will use my work-related insurance to purchase at the dispensing fee rate. Using this example, as long as I have my OHIP Health Card with me, I'm won't be asked for payment at any point in the "broken arm setting" process. The doctor won't have to confirm if I am "allowed" under my HMO to get this arm set, they will just set it. Is our system out-dated too? It's not perfect. It's slow. But as I've had a parent with serious health issues, it is reassuring that I and my parents have not been bankrupted to pay for a triple bypass operation and its recovery, as all costs associated were covered by OHIP. On the flip side, a cousin in the States was in Emergency room, and had to pay $500 upfront for medical tests/blood work before she was tested. That just makes me sad.
People shouldn't have to bankrupt themselves for health care in the US, and if government involvement regulates and improves the cost inflicted on the patient, I'm open to some proposals. Fingers crossed on this one.
10/01/09
2009 federal budget
10/01/09
I was raised on tales of the air traffic controllers' strike the way my husband was raised on tales of pogroms.
10/01/09
that's pretty much the heart of my political philosophy at this point.
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At the same time I was so excited about free medicine, my UK BF's mother was coping with a life-long, debilatating illness. She used nation health for most things, but she also bought private insurance (even though she had a pre-existing condition.) This gave her reimbursement for private clinic visits, experimental and non-western treatments.
So it seems like private insurance can co-exist, even with single payer, everyone gets better health care, everyone is happy.
10/01/09
Two years ago when I was uninsured, I went to get my birth control and it was well over one hundred dollars. Granted, it was one of those multi-month packs, but that's what my doctor prescribed for my condition. I was whining and the pharmacist pointed out, half-jokingly, that it was still cheaper than a baby.
10/01/09
07/29/09
07/30/09
07/30/09
Maybe I'm an unusually good judge of age though.
07/29/09
i saw a classmate on there, as the family member of an addict. i wanted to approach them and offer sympathy but had no idea how.
07/29/09