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BBC on problems with British health services

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by CarltonBanks, Apr 6, 2011.

  1. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Here are the issues to solve:

    1. The U.S. population is aging. Therefore, more demand for health services.
    2. The U.S. middle class is shrinking. Therefore, more demand for charity care and services for the poor.
    3. Private insurance companies have openly stated they will charge as much as they can as long as they can, and if insurance rolls drop, so be it. (Which exacerbates problem No. 2, and No. 1, in that retirees get offloaded to Medicare.)

    Paul Ryan can "save" all the money he wants by dumping people off the public rolls (and doesn't his idea for private insurance exchanges for Medicare sound like what he otherwise derides as Obamacare?), but people are still going to get sick, and they're going to get old. And insurance only becomes efficient when you have large numbers of people buying compared with the number using it. So we're going to lurch toward single-payer. We just have to decide if we want that to be Medicare, or WellPoint.
     
  2. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    So, the government makes people wait. Big deal. If you don't have insurance* and can't afford the procedure here, you likely won't get it.

    *-In the case you do have insurance, they can still deny coverage or only pay a wee bit and send you into bankruptcy.

    USA! USA! USA!
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Isn't that part of the plan already?
     
  4. deskslave

    deskslave Active Member

    Tried to post this earlier, but I couldn't seem to get it to work: How would you feel if your wife or mother was waiting in pain for that operation and didn't have insurance? There'd be no light at the end of that tunnel.

    And Ben's right too. Get that hip replacement here, and it might take longer, but there aren't going to be seven different bills from seven different doctors and umpteen letters from the insurance company asking for four copies of Form B, but only on goldenrod, and four copies of Form A, but only on canary, etc., etc., etc.
     
  5. Pastor

    Pastor Active Member

    I have insurance. In fact, when a car accident occurred, I had two insurances, the car and the person. Yet, over a year and half after the accident, I am still receiving bills! I had to fight endlessly on the phone for hours with the car insurance company on what should be paid. I argued with the ambulance company that the bill will be paid by insurance. I argued with the hospital about what my coverage is.

    I have a friend that lives in New Jersey and the company is New Jersey based. However, he was working in New York when he got injured. Workman’s Comp in New Jersey says that because the injury occurred in NY, they are supposed to cover it. Workman’s Comp in New York says that because the company is New Jersey based, they should cover it. His health insurance, which he has, is saying they won’t cover it because it was an injury on the job and workman’s comp should handle it. We’re now 6 years on and the guy drained his accounts just to pay for surgeries. Not a single agency has stepped up to pay for anything and he still can’t work because he can’t afford to get the remaining surgeries needed.

    Seriously, the health insurance industry is a joke. Claiming that it works here is simply sticking your head in the sand.
     
  6. CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks New Member

    Pastor, I don't think anyone is claiming that it works here. In fact, I think it is pretty clear everyone here thinks something should be done to fix the system. My point is that what was signed into law, after all the battles and partisan bickering, is not going to fix anything. We can blame whomever we want...Bush, the Republicans in Congress now or then, the Democrats in Congress, Obama, whatever...all I know is that we have a mess now, and billions are going to be spent on a "solution" that will make matters worse.
    Obama talked a lot about single-payer. If that is what he truly wanted, he should have had the balls to stand up and demand it. Instead we got a convoluted mess that had all kinds of accounting tricks that, as has become increasingly clear, is a budget-buster. So who is going to be the adult, not worry about who is "right" or "wrong," and do something productive about it? We are running out of time because Obamacare (not meant as a pejorative...take it as you will) is steaming at us like a train and it will be past the point of no return very soon. And that, my friends, is what I am worried about.
     
  7. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member



    Are you shitting us? Obama should have just said he wants single-payer? What we would have ended up with was the same old thing, because there was no way in hell politically we were going to go from a private system to single-payer in one fell swoop.

    Also, can you cite where Obama talked about single-payer? At least in terms of supporting it? Because it escapes my memory that he EVER supported it.
     
  8. CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks New Member

  9. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    The problem here is that liberals are fantasizing that Obama's plan is somehow a step toward what they want. It is actually a fairly regressive step away from it.
     
  10. CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks New Member

    That, Rick, is a point I have been making for over a year. Instead of a fix we got a bigger problem, but since Obama was at the helm they do not want to see things for what they are.
     
  11. secretariat

    secretariat Active Member

    So Carlton starts a thread about the British health-care system. I am absolutely fucking floored it has turned into a discussion on Obama's health-care plan.

    I'm sure that wasn't at all your intention, though, was it, Carlton?

    [​IMG]

    Good, good.
     
  12. CarltonBanks

    CarltonBanks New Member

    Do you have a point? Am I not allowed to talk about Obama's "health care plan?" I'm curious...are you surprised because you see these two things as unrelated? Clue me in, sport.
     
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