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Do you people get all your diabetes stuff for nothing?

thats an age old defense for malpractice in the nhs. sue us and we will cut services. yet if people dont sue for exceptionally bad practice they wont change. they are self insured so no money is being diverted from care. its been budgeted in, they wont be using any spare cash for more patient care more likely extra managers.
 
Overall I think your NHS is probably better than what we have here. The best healthcare system we have is Medicare, and you can't get that until you're 65. But you and your employer pay into it your whole working life, about 3% each. I've always favored "Medicare for all" here, they could start dropping the age gradually and maybe increase the 3% gradually and increase the insured at ages when they most need it.. The think national healthcare does best is lower costs, which are outrageous here. Most bankruptcies in the US are due to medical bills. Obamacare did nothing to control costs and the insurance prices if you don't qualify for a gov't subsidy went through the roof. In some states you have only one insurance company to "choose from". The rest headed for the doors because they lost money.
 

I am just happy that if I need emergency care I can have it without worrying if I can pay or if my insurance will pay. It is bad enough worrying about our pets when they become ill and whether our pet insurance will cough up, or bump up the premiums if we so much as dare to make a claim. They even bump up the premiums every time our pets have a birthday. We all know how expensive medical care is in the US when we take out holiday insurance.
 
"Pet insurance"? What the hell is that lol? You're right though vet bills can get right up there with people bills. My friend's dog got hit by a car, spent a few days here, had to transfer to a higher level animal hospital and had pelvic surgery. I haven't heard yet what the bill was but he was already out $4,000 even before the transfer.
 

All sensible pet owners take out pet insurance. Those that don't, or can't afford it, risk huge bills. Vets do not come cheap here.
 
They aren't cheap here either. But I doubt very many accept insurance either. I never heard of anyone having it. The thing about insurance is they wouldn't sell it if they didn't make money off it/you. It's way different than your NHS.
 
TheBigNewt said:
They aren't cheap here either. But I doubt very many accept insurance either. I never heard of anyone having it. The thing about insurance is they wouldn't sell it if they didn't make money off it/you. It's way different than your NHS.
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I think it would work if the government actually watched and worked with the health care service they provide! If they actually haggled a bit about costs then it would work a lot better. Unfortunately the Torrie's don't like or want the nhs and are doing exactly what Trump is doing... which is leave it to implode. However I think trump could make it work and get the costs down and if he did that he would be very good and probably the most loved president! It would however take time and energy he probably doesn't want to invest purely because of Obama.
The Torrie's just gave a huge tax cut to the rich and made the rich/poor divide much bigger especially by allowing the zero hours (slave labour) to carry on. Seeing as most mps are landlords you can see why they don't want to introduce measure to control the rents... housing and rent is way more expensive here... I know because my brother just bought a massive house in new York State... that house would have been worth £1million here and no way he could have afforded that. That are good and bad things in every country... I would also like to bring to the mix that Algeria (north Africa) also has its own nhs but you also have the option of private which is extremely cheap, France get the doctors from there as they are extremely good. I take my kids to the doctor there and even buy our medicine from them (get friends to bring it over for us)... surprising how a 3rd world country can not only provide free health care but also sustain it with no complaints and yet America (world super power) can't and won't for its people!
 
good thing that i can get my insulin for free since im unemployed and not eligible for welfare benefits because i've been chronicly unemployed for 3+ years but purposefully run my sugars higher than normal to avoid hypo's because i cant afford to buy something to counteract them, borderline homeless and in debt doesn't help the situation
 
I've said this in many healthcare discussions: in the US healthcare comprises 1/6 of our economy. 16% double the next lowest nation's. Who wants to deflate/downsize a huge industry like that? What would it do to the economy to put all the health insurance companies out of business, have the gubment take over operation of all the private hospitals. I work at a government hospital myself and I don't think they could handle it to be honest. They have enough handling the healthcare for about 10 million veterans at 150 hospitals and 800 clinics. I don't think they can handle the rest of us.
 
kittypoker said:
Just to point out that Trump has made massive tax cuts for the rich, including himself. https://www.theguardian.com/comment...eaks-rich-wont-trickle-down-working-americans
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Actually I read an article that predicts how the tax bill would affect people in 50 different jobs, ranging from cashier (making $10k/yr) to anesthesiologist (making $270k/year). The lower paying jobs saved about 23% on their federal taxes, the highest paying job saved about 4%, most of the middle paying people saved about 15%. Of course the low earners only pay about $1000/year now and the top one pays about $50k. Most of this tax bill is about corporation's taxes not personal. But the folks don't understand that aspect so the press just says it's for "the rich" no matter what. The rich and the corporations are the liberal media's enemies no matter what. And Trump of course. He could give everyone in the country a million dollars and they'd say it wasn't enough.
 
I expect a lot of USA corporations will bring lots of money back into the USA as they can now do so without being hit by "double tax". (E.g. very high corporations tax in USA, and high other taxes in the counties they made the profits in.) Just think of the boost to the USA tax take if Apple brought all their profits back into the USA.....

There are too many tax rebates for rich people in the USA, I expect the system would work a lot better if most tax rebates were removed, and the "headline tax rate" reduced.
 
I'm sure the goal is to bring money stashed overseas here. Our 35% corporate tax rate is highest in the world by far. So nobody in their right mind ever pays it. Like I said the personal tax thing just makes it simpler but I doubt anyone saves a TON of money. But if you believe the media the storm troopers are gonna throw your family in prison because you can't afford to pay your taxes.
 
Both governments are doing the same thing with the same spin... Theresa May was saying about how she has given a pay rise to schools AND nurses, given 2 billion to boost the "affordable" housing etc etc etc.
There was a nurse (MP) who stood up and told her that was **** (excuse my French) and told them about her pay freeze and having to use a food bank, how her hospital were having to use buckets to catch the water as they can't afford to fix the roof. A school in Theresa May's own district has had to ask parents to pay £1 a day to cover the cost of pencils (worked out as £42000 deficit) and Theresa said well we are about to give them £10000 well that doesn't cancel that out! Last time I looked 42 is bigger than 10.
No social houses have been built since the conservative government took over and worst still what they call "affordable" housing is open to interpretation... her friend who she put in charge of this sector has a conflict of interest seeing as he also works for a company who develop luxury homes... it was just reported that he is selling off public land to his own firm to build on, they decided that NO affordable or social houses were to be built (even though the agreement was at least 30% then negotiated down to 17% then 0%) because they wanted it to be quote " exclusive"... basically meaning the rich don't want poor people living near by.
The affordable housing he built in London was an apartment that cost £145000 for only a quarter share and they would still have to pay rent and that was only a studio apartment!!!
The £2 billion she is promising will NOT build any new houses, it pays the department and gives a pay rise to all her friends working there.
The pay cut to the rich (50p per £1 down to 45p per £1) was defended by saying most companies didn't pay the higher rate! Well they have to enforce the lower rate anyway so why not enforce the higher rate!
A lot of companies were getting round paying tax, however they did this by paying Mps to Lobby on their behalf to get laws put into place as well as paying mps to tell them the loop holes in the tax system... yes they do have seminars for companies to pay to find out how to avoid paying tax run by the mps who created the tax system... this apparently is legal because they say it is... George Orwell "animal farm" comes to mind.
 
From what I've read over the years, the UK system isn't too bad but the US system is diabolical and has been for decades. Australia is actually great (could always do with improvement) and our PBS (Pharma Benefits Scheme) is superb. Had reason for two ambulances recently and one major surgery (not for me)
Cost? $0

I was deep into the immigration process to America ... and got tired of their endless BS and paperwork. Best decision was to ditch the move.
 
Well contrary to liberal media's spiel Trump really isn't a Tea Party Conservative at all. He's no Ted Cruz. And the reason he won was because he ran against an unelectable Democratic candidate in Hillary Clinton. My dog could have beat her. And my dog could have beat Trump too I think. . Why they didn't come up with a good nominee like Obama I'll never know.
 
Yeah one major difference is that US healthcare is largely a for profit industry, which I think drives up costs. If you don't have health insurance and get sick you're screwed here. They should charge you less but they charge you way more. It's become a bad game healthcare. That's why I'm glad I work for the gubment, we don't send out bills that **** people off.
 

Don't I know it .. could write a book on it. When one of the reasons you choose employment in the US is to have medical insurance, something is broken. I'm married to an American who emigrated here 12 years ago.

She still marvels at what we have at zero cost. When you lose your house, you're bankrupted and all due to sicknesses over which you have little or no control, it tells you the system needs to be rebuilt ... ground up
 
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