Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Feb 9th 2011, 9:43 pm
#316
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
I was talking to a lady here who's 70 and she's apopleptic about the healthcare bill - Obama is trying to kill her or something 
so I think he had a mountain to climb getting anything through.
so I think he had a mountain to climb getting anything through.
Feb 9th 2011, 10:04 pm
#317
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2010
Location: North East Ohio, USA
Posts: 1,933
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
She's probably been listening to that idiot, Sarah Palin, talking about the death panels, etc, all gloom and doom. What a load of rubbish!!!! At least Obama tried to get something passed - no-one else did anything at all. I haven't seen the Republicans come up with any viable solution to the US healthcare problem.
Feb 9th 2011, 11:06 pm
#318
Septic Sprout
Joined: Aug 2004
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 7,993
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
She's probably been listening to that idiot, Sarah Palin, talking about the death panels, etc, all gloom and doom. What a load of rubbish!!!! At least Obama tried to get something passed - no-one else did anything at all. I haven't seen the Republicans come up with any viable solution to the US healthcare problem.
Feb 9th 2011, 11:07 pm
#319
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
I think if Sarah Palin had a brain transplant, and then went to university and studied really, really hard for - say - 10 years then she might - just might - elevate her status to utter fucking imbecile. Personally I could never see her catapult her level of intelligence to the lofty heights of idiot.
Feb 9th 2011, 11:20 pm
#320
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
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Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
In fact, that's the only way that it works in general. The NHS, for example, has a type of mandate in that if you earn income, you must pay taxes on it that help fund it.
Last edited by Giantaxe; Feb 9th 2011 at 11:27 pm.
Feb 10th 2011, 8:29 pm
#322
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 88
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Yes, but while you can't refuse to insure people with a PE you can certainly price them out of the market. So it's a worthless clause.
I don't think the bill releases the stranglehold of the insurance companies at all. In fact, it just puts a lot more business their way by forcing everybody to buy their crappy products.
I can't believe that Obama wasted the first half of his term to push this junk through.
I don't think the bill releases the stranglehold of the insurance companies at all. In fact, it just puts a lot more business their way by forcing everybody to buy their crappy products.
I can't believe that Obama wasted the first half of his term to push this junk through.
I think a system like that could work in the US -- part private, part shared by taxes, so that all are covered. And at a reasonable cost.
BTW, in California, where I live, they are already implementing parts of the bill. My insurance company sent out a letter saying what they'll now be providing -- and it was actually more stuff for a change, rather than less. The whole "have to buy health insurance" thing has not been mentioned anywhere yet though, as fas as I can tell.
Feb 11th 2011, 11:52 pm
#323
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2006
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 12,865
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Yes, I don't think people should "have" to buy health insurance: I really don't agree with that part of the bill. At least not unless it was like in say Holland -- where (I read) that everyone pays for very low cost insurance (about $100 a month), and then some is also taken out of taxes depending on your pay scale.
Although a single-payer or more regulated insurance system (as in Switzerland) would have been my strong preference, the law - in 2014 - is conceptually at least doing what you are suggesting by providing subsidies to lower-income households to buy "affordable" insurance.
Feb 12th 2011, 4:49 pm
#324
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 88
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
It's hard to put in words and I'm probably going to sound daft - but it's a lot of little things. For example, when I first came to USA, I fought hard to hang on to my "Englishness" refusing to say chips, stove, restroom, and all the rest - and for me, "awesome" was the ultimate no-no word. You go back home and find these words creeping into the English language.
I always said I should write an English-American dictionary because there are actually so many different words, I used to say "I need to talk to you" - and noticed here they say "talk WITH you" and a load like that.. but now they do in UK, too.
I don't know if it's the television/film influence, but the young people are the biggest.. would offenders be the word??
So, speech is one.
Another is the shooting up of malls and multi-plex cinema's, etc. I grew up in a village and ultimately ended up on the Isle of Wight. It was very behind the times there and now to see the moving in of KFC and Pizza Huts, American style coffee shops and shopping centres.. it's just things like that for me.
I think we don't realise we have changed, we expect everything and everyone to stay the same, but of course they move on and so do we.
Although I say I'd be over to UK like a shot, I can say that because I know it isn't going to happen. Would I really be so keen if it happened?
I love this part of the country, with its spectacular scenery, love my life here and all the materialistic extra's I have, love the wide open roads and the service you receive - and expect.
I always remember in 1980, I visited New Jersey with an Irish friend of mine and we stayed with her aunt. I don't know when the aunt emigrated, but she had never been back to Ireland since and went on and on about how UK didn't have showers in the bathroom and did I like hers.. and it made me laugh. Maybe they didn't have showers when she left, but they did by 1980!!
I don't want to get like that. The country changes, evolves, moves on.. well, not the country, but living there.
Does that help at all Englishman??
I always said I should write an English-American dictionary because there are actually so many different words, I used to say "I need to talk to you" - and noticed here they say "talk WITH you" and a load like that.. but now they do in UK, too.
I don't know if it's the television/film influence, but the young people are the biggest.. would offenders be the word??
So, speech is one.
Another is the shooting up of malls and multi-plex cinema's, etc. I grew up in a village and ultimately ended up on the Isle of Wight. It was very behind the times there and now to see the moving in of KFC and Pizza Huts, American style coffee shops and shopping centres.. it's just things like that for me.
I think we don't realise we have changed, we expect everything and everyone to stay the same, but of course they move on and so do we.
Although I say I'd be over to UK like a shot, I can say that because I know it isn't going to happen. Would I really be so keen if it happened?
I love this part of the country, with its spectacular scenery, love my life here and all the materialistic extra's I have, love the wide open roads and the service you receive - and expect.
I always remember in 1980, I visited New Jersey with an Irish friend of mine and we stayed with her aunt. I don't know when the aunt emigrated, but she had never been back to Ireland since and went on and on about how UK didn't have showers in the bathroom and did I like hers.. and it made me laugh. Maybe they didn't have showers when she left, but they did by 1980!!
I don't want to get like that. The country changes, evolves, moves on.. well, not the country, but living there.
Does that help at all Englishman??
Other American adoptions: charging massive amounts for education, privatising the NHS (I hope it works out better than the US, I really do), saying ass instead if arse
, super-expensive public transport (what happened to the Eurorail costs???! since the 80s), style of the TV programs... I could go on ...
Feb 12th 2011, 5:05 pm
#325
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 88
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Wonder what would happen to the US health system if people turned out like they did in Cairo? Seems like we're all waiting for some politician to change it all...
Feb 12th 2011, 5:09 pm
#326
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 41,518
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Feb 12th 2011, 5:14 pm
#327
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: Tunbridge Wells KENT
Posts: 2,914
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
So
Bankruptcy here we come!
Feb 12th 2011, 5:37 pm
#328
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
Surely those changes came about because those programs are in financial trouble, not to emulate the United States.
Feb 13th 2011, 8:29 pm
#329
Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 88
Re: Is it really better in England, or just rose tinted glasses?
An example: the US spends the most per pupil on education, but the results overall (in state schools) are poor. Too much red tape and crappy teachers being kept on and no unified curriculum. It's just one big experiment that they keep wanting more money for! INMNSHO...