Magenta
Platinum Member
I know, just string pulling
I know, just doing you the courtesy of reacting! And look - no claws.
I know, just string pulling
Actually your fully private health system is the most expensive in the world. You have long spent more on health care than other countries - with worse results.
It seems counter intuitive - not sure what factors are behind this or whether untrammelled private operators simply ripped you guys off.
Dumb conspiracy theories about GMOs and vaccinations simply didn't exist, keeping us well-fed and protected against disease.
Born 1965.
I'm not saying that the private health care industry hasn't ripped us off here in the U.S., it has. I just have a problem with "Big Brother" coming in and screwing things up worse. Just wait, it will happen. Socialism, anybody?
What are the 9 most terrifying words words in the English language?
"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
If Australia is even in the same galaxy as socialism then I'm a monkey's aunt. Don't believe the reactionary rhetoric ... we have had nationalised health for 40 years and we are a deeply conservative free market society with some of the lowest taxes in the western world and high levels of private ownership.
Bottom line of national health care is "a stitch in time saves nine".
Maybe one day that will change, given politicians' increasing tendency to stick their snouts in the public trough (ironically, especially conservatives) but for now they seem to have some vaguely useful purpose aside from their main function of acting as errand boys for moguls and multinational companies.
... I'll take natural immunity over a shot of chemicals any day....
Sorry, but I'll take natural immunity over a shot of chemicals any day.
Now back to healthcare. Will it be cheaper to have government healthcare? Yes. Will it be as reliable? I say no.
In the long run it won't be cheaper because there will be 10 people over seeing each other where previously you had a Doctor, nurse and insurance company. Anything Uncle Sam gets involved in costs more.
In the long run it won't be cheaper because there will be 10 people over seeing each other where previously you had a Doctor, nurse and insurance company. Anything Uncle Sam gets involved in costs more.
Granted waitlists are longer than USA, but that is due to an aging population.
.... Over the course of the last few years, due to government incompetence, the "powers that be" mismanaged the money they had and several hundred millions of dollars basically when up in smoke. Gone, due to bad investments and other things by unethical people who worked for or on behalf of the government. Because of this, I now have had to contribute more of my paycheck into the retirement system to make up the difference these government jackasses pissed away. By the way, nobody has ever been held accountable for the loss of all this money.
Somebody in all this mess made a lot of money while the little guy, me in this case, gets screwed by the government that is supposed to be designed to protect and serve its citizens.
....
Sorry, but I'll take natural immunity over a shot of chemicals any day.
... and several hundred millions of dollars basically when up in smoke.
Larry's posts on another thread got me thinking.
For anyone born in the 1960's here in America, we were betrayed by the doctors and big business.
The Space Age was in full swing. We were so advanced that we were convinced that we had bested nature.
Our mothers were told not to breast feed because "formula was better". The formula that was essentially sugar, starch and water.
Our baby food was just as bad. Sugary gunk with no nutritional value.
Trans fats replaced the essential oils in our diet because they lasted indefinitely on the shelves.
Fiber? We don't need no stinking fiber!
Our parents smoked, as a matter of fact, almost every adult smoked and we were just expected to breathe it in.
Our breakfasts were high glycemic carbs and fatty processed meats.
Our generation got the frozen TV dinners, the Twinkies, the soda and the fruit juice from concentrate. I remember mixing the semi-solid concentrate goo with water to "make orange juice".
Our fruits and vegetables (when we actually had any) were covered in pesticides.
I could go on.
Contrast that to today. My daughter was breast fed, eats organic food and takes essential fatty acid supplements.
Yeah, we got screwed.
Larryz, that's fine if you want to die of smallpox, measles, polio, tetanus...
Honestly, anybody that has issues with immunisations has no idea just how lucky they are to be born in the modern age.
I totally agree with you on this David. I have no problem with the surgeons, and everyone connected with this kind of thing. I single out the pill pushing health robbing doctors. Of course, how your wife got that tumor in the first place is really the issue.. Thank god they were able to save her. This is where medicine is awesome. Still, preventing that tumor is better than the alternative. If humans came with a care and feeding manual, very little of what we put in and on our bodies would be included in it.
My mom is 82, not in great health, and right now has bad bronchitis. They gave her antibiotics and steroids. Steroids? Isn't her liver having a tough enough time battling the bronchitis? I asked her what the steroids were for and she said she didn't know. I'm sure the doctor would say so any inflammation would subside, but geez at what cost? This is more what I'm talking about. She's not in good health as it is and he feels it's OK to tax her system with steroids? He even told her, don't take them too long because that's bad. Lol. But she's entrenched in the system. You can't change peoples minds.