schmunk
Second time lucky?
Chey-na!
Or Jina!
CHE is Switzerland. I know, I know...
Chey-na!
Or Jina!
A fairly good place to start if you want to learn about the failings of the US healthcare and social security system:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxs...hUKEwi21sSQ-oPqAhWSYsAKHbbTB8YQ4dUDCAw&uact=5
(various segments from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, on Youtube)
No, ObamaCare did get off the ground and so far Trump has completely failed to replace it. You may remember John McCain's deciding thumbs down in the senate - which was more of a middle finger to Trump.
Yes. That isn't the point.
It's about the ridiculous cost of healthcare in the USA in comparison to the standard of care they receive. It's off the scale compared to anywhere else.
Plus the fact that he only hasn't got to pay anything because of the nature of his hospitalisation.
Madness.
In the UK - The NIC that people pay is what gets designated towards the NHS Healthcare that we all enjoy here. When you don't work, and claim benefits, you get your Annual NIC Credits paid on your behalf hence why we all qualify whether we work or not.
I see Chelsea has the highest life expectancy according to that graph
Wow .... and I don't know why I say that given I know how ridiculous the American health system is. It highlights really how stupid Americans are to keep voting for governments that don't give a toss about healthcare of those that can't afford it - or indeed healthcare at all really. Throw in the gun issue and the police issue and you have the dumbest, stupidest, most backward society on the face of the planet. Super Power my arse - super stupid more like !!!!
EDIT - I'd be interested on any views from Americans on here. Or maybe any ex-pats currently living in Stupidland.
This was originally the idea, but these days taxation is just a big slush fund from which the various spends are made - in the same way that "road tax"(VED) doesn't pay for the upkeep of roads.
Obamacare - lets start with that - all but cancelled by Trump.
In what way? The Republican health care plan died a horrible death before it's doomed vote.
Yes after pressing send I then remember all the noise around how difficult it was to register and sign up.
As an American, I can tell you that the healthcare system in this country is an atrocity against its peoples.
Any attempts at MEANINGFUL evolution have been blocked in the name of "freedom" and "choice".
The insurance companies are heavily invested in lobbying and nothing will change anytime soon.
The same people crying about "socialist death panels for grandma" when Obama and co. got the Affordable Care Act through are the same people who nowadays say "sorry your grandma has to die from COVID but it's just the cost we have to accept to start the economy"
The concept of secret negotiations between insurers and hospitals, such that they all agree a separate price on each individual service, is completely absurd.
The concept of out-of-network and surprise billing is completely absurd.
So many aspects are completely absurd.
A recent example I faced:
My primary care physician wrote me for an Xray. I called my insurance to ensure that the facility I was getting the Xray done at was "in-network" for my insurance, which they insisted it was.
I got a bill for over $200.
When looking into it, I was charged a fee for the xray and a separate fee from the radiologist who read the xray.
The radiologist who read the xray is a "contractor" for the hospital who is not "in-network" under my insurance, so my insurance billed as out-of-network and paid nothing.
He works part time. There is no way to have known I would have received two bills, nor even that I had to check not only the facility but the doctors at the facility. It wouldn't have mattered, because he works part time he doesn't show up in the doctors' list.
When I called and asked how I could have possibly known who would be reading my xray, they agreed, then said you still have to pay.
Another example:
I was hospitalized last year.
The hospital bill came to ~$30,000.
The amount insurance paid the hospital was ~$4,000 because of the number of things "disallowed" meaning that my insurance company and the hospital have previously had negotiations and determined a maximum amount payable for each service, so they simply said "NO" to paying $26,000.
I ended up paying 10% of the $4,000 = $400. But if I did not have insurance I would have been stuck with the full $30,000 bill.
Mental.
When working overseas I was told never talk about religion, politics or sex (or guns if in USA). Therefore ignoring all this when I last chatted about healthcare when i was in the states (it was Texas) it was at the time Obama was standing for election so c2008, it was shocking what educated Americans thought. So they told me that the NHS had ‘death panels’ which decided if you got treated or not. That you had to wait weeks just to see a GP and so on. Turns out this is what the media told them. So I asked how much was medical insurance- I’m sure they said $800-1000 per month for a family with a $2500 excess. We the chatted about other benefits And they said no one should get anything from the state when not working. I then had an argument with another senior manager about guns and why he had a concealed one on him all the time, he then made a big thing about stabbings in the UK, I said I could run away from someone with a knife. We then had lively discussions on donating large money to the church, didn’t go down well. I gave up when discussing over Obama s MCCain, when a regional director (from a southern state)said to me that Obama couldn’t get elected and if he did he’d be dead in a month!! Been back to states 20 times since now never discuss religion, politics, guns - not worth it