I can assure you, she is 95, she'll be 96 in September. She doesn't have a care in the world and I hope I live to be that carefree some day....

Prior to Medicare, insurance wasn't needed. People paid for their medical bills usually in cash, or made other arrangements. They weren't bankrupted by medical bills as they are now. You really have no clue as to how life was in the US before all this medical insurance malarky got out of hand, do you?


And yet somehow we all seem to continue living, putting one foot in front of the other..... You better look under the bed before you go to sleep tonite, the boogeyman might be under there...

Apologies, haven't read through the rest of the thread yet, but exactly this!

I just came back from London and I really, really wish we'd never come here, moving back would be so hard and each passing year makes it harder

Does either of you still have UK citizenship? Why not move back?

Just like my grandmother who died at the ripe old age of 84 two years ago. She travelled every year with my grandad and with her friends after he died and had a very nice life.

No, they have no idea

Sorry folks my bad, I meant to write NI contributions not NHS, and FYI I pay them because I have to not because I'm planning on going back!

The reason Medicare was enacted (and enacted with a good deal of bipartisan support I might add) was for the exact reasons I stated:- that only 50% of seniors had insurance of any sort and that they were frequently bankrupted by their first serious illness. It seems you are the one that has no clue.

Are you saying that surveys that conclude that inability to pay medical bills is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy are simply fiction? I guess the folks at Harvard Medical School should be checking under their beds too

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-05/h...e?_s=PM:HEALTH

In the present day and age, yes! Amerlisa is a supporter of healthcare reform as I am. We have talked about these issues in other threads. It's going to take a little more time but we will have universal healthcare in some form or the other at some point. Even the people who have opposed it to this point are coming round .... you'll see.

Probably more of a clue than you. You never heard about anyone being bankrupted because of lack of health insurance in the 60's. Granted I was a little kid, but I still remember when we got medical insurance for the first time, and that was in the 70's. Seriously, you really think its the same then, as it is now? You're pretty deluded. The whole story isn't always contained in your stats.


Are you saying that people are hiding under their beds in fear because of this?

Do you think that people don't want a change? Of course they do, I'm all for it. I don't like my health insurance and I ended up with some ridiculous medical bills last year because we had such a high deductible. But guess what, we still got up and went on with our lives.

Never claimed it was the same then as now. However, the idea that health insurance didn't exist back then and that people weren't bankrupted by an inability to pay medical bills is simply a fiction:

http://www.ssa.gov/history/corningchap4.html

And contemporaneously from Lyndon Johnson, whose judgment on this issue I'd place just a tad higher than Amerlisa speaking 45 years in arrears:

http://healthcarereform.procon.org/v...ourceID=003808

Bottom line: you're wrong.

Never made any claim they were or weren't. My comment was on the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Well, good for you. As we've seen even on this thread, some aren't so fortunate. And many like the person in this thread end up bankrupt.

As a family of 2 BUPA costs us £390 per month. You have a bit if a shock coming if you think it's all great here on the NHS. The waiting lists are years long........

I'm going to partially agree with you. In 1950 the average health care cost (in todays dollars) was about 1/12th of what it is today. Of course not much was provided except fixing broken limbs, providing vaccinations, getting a penicillin shot for any infection, a dieretic for high blood pressure, insulin for diabetes, TB treatment, and a doctor or nurse to comfort you. The cost of health care for a person was probably not much different than what the average person pays in copays today. Therefore bankruptcies due to medical bills was not a major problem in the 1950s.

However by the 1960s, medical technology (kidney transplants, open heart surgery, heart bypass surgery, pacemakers, hip implants, new drugs, etc.) was starting to be used regularly and health care costs started running away causing bankruptcies due to medical bills to drastically increase especially for the aged. In the 1950s, most people didn't even make it to the hospital during a heart attack or stroke (if they did, they likely died within a couple of days) and it wasn't until the 1960s that I saw someone disabled due to a stroke. The number of bankruptcies for the aged was one of the main reasons that medicare was enacted during the 1960s.

Actually employer provided health insurance was also very common at that time. At that time, the US was the supplier to the world and mining, aircraft, heavy equipment, auto. computer, and many other large companies had very good health plans for their employers and families.

Like I said in my next post we were only paying 19 pounds as it was a company benefit.

And I've no idea why you think I'll be shocked at the waits with the NHS, as I never even mentioned the NHS or moving back to the UK. But as it is I have family in the UK and know from my previous experience and theirs now that they've never had a long wait for any medical emergency or treatment with the NHS. But it's all subjective, the same as medical experiences here in the US.

I feel the same way! I'm 60 and have been thinking about my future here. However, my husband would never move back to England.

Have to add this : my poor Grandmother paid all her life in to BUPA .

Without going in to boring detail the chosen BUPA hospital loused something up ,only to be repaired by the good old Norwich and Norfolk !!!!!

Unfortunately my beloved Granny passed from complications ,however she never had to wait to be seen .

Sometimes you get a waiting list in the UK ,MANY times people go bankrupt in the US .
My husband works with ladies who have no chance of visiting the Doctor and have to resort to home potions ...this is 2011 .

I have had wonderful treatment in the US ,I have insurance though -I am one of the lucky ones .