350 days of sunshine a year vs. cheaper meds.

Sorry, I'm staying.

ClusterChuck wrote on Aug 7^th, 2008 at 9:24pm:


You could say the same about our oil tycoon!  

I just came back from three weeks in the UK and I loved the weather. If I had the chance, I'd move to Scotland. 70's and cool beats the 90's and 100's we've been having.

Quote:


We do pay for it with our extremly high taxes and script charges however its not all in 1 lump some and we dont need insurance or we suffer like they do in the us so ya the UK has it better i would hate to be poor and live in the us just food for thought!!!

Well like i say i would rather pay this way than suffer, our poor get as well treated as our rich do and i suppose thats the differance  we dont brush them under the carpet we take care of our own

BrianJ wrote on Aug 12^th, 2008 at 6:48pm:


So do we.  It's not the poor who do without coverage , it's generally the working class who gets the bad deal-  you have insurance, so the government doesn't help you with meds or anything else (or you make too much money to get on any government programs).

I had a friend that developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma, she had no medical insurance, nor did she have any money.  She got the same care as anyone who had money, including her monthly prescriptions (which fell in the range of $3000.00 a month).  Her medical bills were in excess of $750,000.00 and neither she nor her family had to pay a penny.

BrianJ wrote on Aug 13^th, 2008 at 11:40am:

Whatever, dude. Maybe it's just me - but I like my "freedom/security" scale to be balanced.

I've been wrong about far bigger things than this, so don't get your knickers in a twist.

I think both systems have their merits.

Here in Finland we have a combined system of sorts. There are:

1) Government supported clinics and hospitals. In my experience, the specialists in these hospitals tend to be quite good, but to get in you have to first go to a clinic to get an appointment to a specialist. The government clinic doctors tend to be somewhat bad. One problem is that a lot of the doctors are immigrants, which can make communication with them a bit difficult. The clinic doctors' solution to many problems is to just prescribe NSAIDs and three days off from work.

A visit to a gov. doctor costs 22e and a visit to a nurse around 10e or so (can't remember). Then if you have to stay at the hospital, it costs around 26e per day. The 22e covers everything a doctor or a specialist can do to you per visit, including e.g. major brain surgery. Lab tests and procedures like MRI and such don't cost anything. If there is no hurry, you might have to wait six months to several years to get to surgery, but emergency cases are handled immediately. Also if there is no emergency, you have to wait for weeks or even months to get a simple clinic appointment. You can go to clinics without appointments, though, to be seen by a nurse or a doctor during the same day e.g. to get sick leave from work.

2) Private clinics and hospitals. According to my experience, the doctors here tend to be somewhat good, but not always. A normal consultation at a private clinic costs around 70-100e. The national insurance, which covers every citizen of Finland, cuts around 10-20e off from that. There are also private insurances, which can cover everything done to you in any kind of medical institution, including a private clinic or a hospital. Often you're automatically insured by the place you work at.

If you want anything like lab tests, surgery, MRI, so on, it costs much more - even many thousands of euros. The results of surgeries in private hospitals and government hospitals don't really differ. You don't have to wait for long to have any kind of surgery or such at private hospitals.

I'm personally happy that we have this combined system, but quite unhappy at how underfunded it is at the moment. I'd gladly pay more taxes myself to have a well-funded government supplied medical system. What I'd mostly wish for is better trained doctors at the government clinics and a cut in the queues for advanced treatment at specialists. In my opinion, it's natural to pay more so that everyone is happier and healthier, and that's more important than anything else I could spend my tax money to.

- Best regards and PFDAN to everyone,
Rosa

David, as always, you're the perfect gentleman

well said karl

i have 1 or 2 U.S Navy veteran friends a good bunch of lads.

I commend anyone for being patriotic i just dont like it when people try to be negative of my country when they clearly aint got a clue my statments regarding the USA are from talking to friends from the US who struggle mainly to cover medical expences for there familys and i have over 200 friends from the USA and all of them are great

anyhow no badness was meant on my part each has there good points and bad points and besides we all deal with enough crap with out arguing with eachother over nonsence

Fund your system how you will. The fact that only 1 country in the western world uses the entirely private (rubbish) method has very little to do with socialism! But, Cuba for instance, has a lower infant mortality rate and the same life expectancy as the US, AND spends 1 tenth of the per capita amount on health care as the US. The States have A LOT of good stuff, but the reds are winning this one!!!    

Yes I'm captive! Captured by an evil woman who lets me drink in public places when I'm 18 on a Sunday and makes me do this thing called "a trial" when I get arrested, and when I get arrested I'm not even allowed to sit in an electric chair! But you're allowed to buy a tech 9 machine gun, so you win.

You be a good liberal and buy things and buy things, but as soon as you can't buy anymore you may aswell be dead and your health system will lend a helping hand to that!!

I'm not making any friends here am I!