Missing person: Piskie

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PleaseNotPoll said:
Don't worry Piskie, you won't have to go to America to see that sort of stuff soon. Save you a trip. <ok>
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That's the scary thing. This Govt seem hell bent on selling everything to their corporate friends. It won't be long before UK citizens will need to buy basic healthcare insurance to pay for anything non emergency if the Tories get their way. I have friends in Ojai, CA. She works as a Baker, he is a producer on a local Radio station, both on modest incomes. They have to pay something like $600 pcm for basic health insurance and even that doesn't cover many 'basic' elements.
 
PISKIE said:
. They have to pay something like $600 pcm for basic health insurance and even that doesn't cover many 'basic' elements.
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I pay over a $1000 a month on health insurance for the family and if I go to the doctor (even a well visit) it will cost me a few hundred $.

The thing is, there is no transparency. I never know how much a visit will cost me until weeks later when I get Bill from insurance company.
 
Milk laughs at 30 days said:
I'm sure you've heard the expression "wrong side of the tracks"... I know places where this expression is literally true. On one side of the "tracks" is oppulance and on the other poverty. Both sides within eyesight of each other.



You mentioned living in NYC. I was there recently on conference and wanted to find Tom's restaurant that was shown as the diner on Seinfeld before going back to airport. I accidentally got on an express train instead of a local and overshot my exit by a few blocks.

Upper Manhattan doesn't look far from Harlem on the map but the atmosphere quickly changed. I felt very self conscious wearing dressy clothes getting off the train in Harlem. Instead of walking to the restaurant or taking a local back a station I just got on the bus back to the airport.
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I lived in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It's quite an affluent part of the borough. My subway stop was 15th st on the F train. But one stop down was like the Ghetto. Walking back you could literally see the change within one or two blocks. Boarded up windows and liquor stores and then chic boutiques and fancy coffee shops two blocks up.
 
Milk laughs at 30 days said:
I pay over a $1000 a month on health insurance for the family and if I go to the doctor (even a well visit) it will cost me a few hundred $.

The thing is, there is no transparency. I never know how much a visit will cost me until weeks later when I get Bill from insurance company.
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It's nuts. Whatever happened to ObamaCare ?
 
Nothing much has changed in the U.S. In that respect. You can have all the healthcare, or even all the justice you want, so long as you can afford it!
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
It keeps getting opposed, challenged and watered down. It's a half-arsed measure, anyway.
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It's a step in the right direction though, given the landscape at the moment; anything that gives people a basic level of health insurance has got to be welcome. The idealist in me says it's a half arsed attempt, the pragmatist says it's got to be a good thing. Although it seems Obama will be long gone before it ever gets off the ground.

TrumpCare anybody ?
 
PISKIE said:
It's nuts. Whatever happened to ObamaCare ?
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ObamaCare is in place and a lot of people who didn't have insurance have it now as a result. Doesn't lower costs for the rest of us though.


The problem with healthcare and why it is so expensive is probably indirectly insurance companies fault though.

Once most Americans had insurance is the point healthcare costs started to rise.

Doctor sends bill to insurance company knowing insurance company will negotiate them down (so they ask for 10 times what they want)... If you don't have insurance you automatically pay that 10 times inflated rate.

Insurance pays the bill and then sends you a bill for your share. Because patients never get a quote upfront there is no reason for doctors to keep costs down and they constantly up the prices (because insurance will pay).

Insurance companies obfuscate the price you will end up paying. If patients were given a quote for how much a doctor charges before a visit (like in any other industry) market pressures would drive prices down.

But because a patient doesn't know their costs until 3 or 4 weeks after a visit there is no pressure to keep costs reasonable and prices keep escalating.

I pay 20 times as much for less insurance than I got 15 years ago.
 
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PISKIE said:
It's a step in the right direction though,
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It's better than what came before it.

However until insurance companies are removed from the equation it will never be a good solution. Insurance companies are what enable the runaway costs.

Unfortunately, the only solution without insurance I can see is a national healthcare service and Americans will never go for that because it's been labeled "socialism" by detractors.
 
Milk laughs at 30 days said:
It's better than what came before it.

However until insurance companies are removed from the equation it will never be a good solution. Insurance companies are what enable the runaway costs.

Unfortunately, the only solution without insurance I can see is a national healthcare service and Americans will never go for that because it's been labeled "socialism" by detractors.
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That's the problem, healthcare in the private sector is all about profit. Like you say, not being able to see the quote up front means that medical practitioners can charge what they want knowing that insurance will pay it and pass the costs of premiums onto their customers. The whole system needs shaking up and at the very least, more transparency about actual costs so that people can 'shop around', but even that seems a million miles away currently.
 
PISKIE said:
It's a step in the right direction though, given the landscape at the moment; anything that gives people a basic level of health insurance has got to be welcome. The idealist in me says it's a half arsed attempt, the pragmatist says it's got to be a good thing. Although it seems Obama will be long gone before it ever gets off the ground.

TrumpCare anybody ?
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Yeah, I get the feeling that Obama would've liked to have gone much further, but it never would've passed.
They already think that he's a communist, so I dread to think what would have happened if he'd tried to create a universal healthcare system like the NHS.
I'm really glad that we're heading in that direction...
 
PleaseNotPoll said:
Yeah, I get the feeling that Obama would've liked to have gone much further, but it never would've passed.
They already think that he's a communist, so I dread to think what would have happened if he'd tried to create a universal healthcare system like the NHS.
I'm really glad that we're heading in that direction...
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As I've said before, I worked for 16 years in the NHS. Classic middle management role trying to balance the edicts of senior managers (make cuts, meet targets) against the reality of delivering healthcare (costly and doesn't fit into 'targets'). I am a staunch Bevanite and tried to practice the mantra of my union and Nye himself 'The NHS will survive for as long as there are people who care enough to fight for it', but it is hard work and it wears you down. The burnout rate amongst healthcare professionals is alarming, and GPs have some of the highest rates of depression and suicide. It's desperate times working for the NHS.
 
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Milk laughs at 30 days said:
It's better than what came before it.

However until insurance companies are removed from the equation it will never be a good solution. Insurance companies are what enable the runaway costs.

Unfortunately, the only solution without insurance I can see is a national healthcare service and Americans will never go for that because it's been labeled "socialism" by detractors.
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And, of course, where there's socialism, communism is the next step.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no socialist, but some things should be fundamental. Universal Healthcare being one of the major ones.
 
NowsufferinginSpain said:
And, of course, where there's socialism, communism is the next step.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no socialist, but some things should be fundamental. Universal Healthcare being one of the major ones.
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I completely agree. I think there are a lot of issues government should just "back out" from.

Health care is not one of them.
 
Not read the page but glanced. What's happening, is the NHS going private? Are we all due to die a slow and painful death?

Weird isn't it, how people moan thatbyhe government can't run ****, then moan when the government gets others to run stuff for it.

Part of the "can't win" society we live in.

The UK government is utterly ****ing useless at running anything. Be it trains, buses, enquiries, phone lines or the NHS. Useless. Private companies can be equally useless, Arriva should be forced put of business and network rail, a disaster but better, far far better than what the government provided.

So whole complaining about privatisation, just remember who's running it now <ok>

I'm a fan of the Tories too, ballsey lot. Labour would have ruined us, absolutely ruined us as a nation. They've now got a left wing nutter in charge which should see the Tories sail home next time. Nobody likes the left, it's full of fluff and guff bit nobody actually does anything, ever, except give hand outs....
 
UnitedinRed said:
Not read the page but glanced. What's happening, is the NHS going private? Are we all due to die a slow and painful death?

Weird isn't it, how people moan thatbyhe government can't run ****, then moan when the government gets others to run stuff for it.

Part of the "can't win" society we live in.

The UK government is utterly ****ing useless at running anything. Be it trains, buses, enquiries, phone lines or the NHS. Useless. Private companies can be equally useless, Arriva should be forced put of business and network rail, a disaster but better, far far better than what the government provided.

So whole complaining about privatisation, just remember who's running it now <ok>

I'm a fan of the Tories too, ballsey lot. Labour would have ruined us, absolutely ruined us as a nation. They've now got a left wing nutter in charge which should see the Tories sail home next time. Nobody likes the left, it's full of fluff and guff bit nobody actually does anything, ever, except give hand outs....
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Your post is a bit of a jumbled rant. But in the main, privatised industries have performed far worse than when they were nationalised. You can check the stats yourself if you want. The basic premise of putting profit before performance tends to lead to a worse service.
 
Until only a couple years back or so I couldn't understand the hate in America for having an "NHS" system. Since working a 50 hour a week job and buying my own home however I have been able to see the NHS for the waste of space black hole that it is. It exists to support idiots and their drunken behavior and the obese who can't control their addiction.
 
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