Bink

I don't believe the insurance company will be fulfilling the insurance, I believe he'll be listed as an uninsured driver.

Even if the insurance does pay out, the coverage is state minimum and won't cover the bills.

Bink

The driver has nothing and is currently in jail as a direct result of the accident.

Jerseygirl

Oh dear...I'm sorry to hear that.

Bob

Yes. The issue in MA, it's a case of taking whats on offer from your employer if you can, but if the state offering is significantly better, you can get that, but unless you're really broke to get on the sliding scale, it's realistically $400 a month.

Where it wins, people who would other wise be denied care for pre-existing.

It also pushed a lot of the poorer folks, labourers out of state to neighbouring RI etc and they just commute in for those minimum wage jobs, while living in motels.

Giantaxe

An example of why a federal solution is to be preferred.

Bob

Yes...the extremes are always pointed out...the folks who have okay, but not outstanding insurance, who aren't poor enough for charity tend to be forgotten about.

The folks know people who fell into this trap, when the husband got cancer, but the insurance said they had to move to the nearest hospital, so they had to go to the one 8 miles away for his cancer treatment, despite there being a specialist cancer hospital 10 miles in the other direction.

They couldn't move because you had to be in that residence for 12 months before they would let you change hospital.

He a little over a year later died, but even the doctors said he would have had a much better chance of certainly extending his life at the other hospital because they had cutting edge treatments and experience with that type of cancer.

These were both teachers, one a head of department too.

scrubbedexpat099

Access to NHS care - including knee and hip operations - is being restricted, data from trusts in England suggests.

The evidence, gathered under the Freedom of Information Act by GP magazine, showed 90% of trusts were imposing restrictions.

The trend was blamed on cost-cutting by some, but the government says there was no justification for that assertion.

NHS managers have defended the practice, saying there were instances when care had to be prioritised.

<<<Snip>>>

Giantaxe

What does the NHS have to do with healthcare in the US

Also, instead of quoting an entire unattributed article - which I think is against forum rules - how about giving your opinion on how the US can achieve universal coverage?

scrubbedexpat099

Sorry BBC

There are many many others, it was more in response to comments made about how wonderful it is elsewhere.

scrubbedexpat099

A better system, well firstly the current one has to go bust, I find it difficult to believe that a better one can arise other than out of the ashes.

The tricky bit is working out what can be funded and what can not. You have a budget, which in this case is enormous so then you have to decide:

- How you control costs and what those costs will be.

- How you then allocate that budget to obtain the most benefit for the general populace.

There was mention above of what not to do, spending millions of dollars in keeping people in vegative states in there last few years.

It is not easy so no politician will take it on unless they have to.

scrubbedexpat099

Insurance can be part of the solution, but its involvement would be small, very small.

MostlyYank

You're certain? It's too bad it's politicized - I would like to hear Romneys honest explaination. But a politician being frank? Ain't gonna happen

I understand. If you notice I do not talk about other countries, but simply try to explain my own - just for greater edification. It does not neccessarily mean that I think another countries is better or worse. And even if I do, hey, it's their country, it works for them... or not. Doesn't matter.

I enjoy talking to you folks. Being raised with one foot in another country, sometimes I feel like a foreigner in my own home. It is difficult to explain. Why don't I care if my hairs a little messy? Why does my humor sometimes seem inappropriate? There are many other little things. Sometimes I feel a bit like I'm on the outside looking in. I think I can understand how me mum felt, at least a little. Anyway, enough on that.

Feel free to ignore me

But now that you mention it () me gran had a cataract. Took one year for the doctors appointment, then another year for the surgery. She said herself and the Doc had a good laugh talking about how there wasn't a wait

Pete

Giantaxe

And yet you snipe at the NHS for doing exactly some of this stuff. The bottom line is that all healthcare systems ration. The trick, as you say, is working out how to ration.

Because when they do we hear the "death panel" response rather than rational discussion.

scrubbedexpat099

The NHS does not do it logically, there is no political consensus as to what the country can afford, what the priorities should be etc..

That article the way I read it is the Politicians ducking, as usual.

I have no objection to people spending as much of their own money as they want, but the central system whatever you call it is limited and the allocation of scarce resources has to be rational.

Zen10

Having visited but never lived in the US, I haven't spent enough time there, or with Americans to know what the justification is for their rampant firearms obsession, apart from the laughable reference to the 221 year old second amendment.

But I know I like your idea about NRA and gun lobby paying up the medical bills. This could be funded by a gun tax. Sure, you get the right to bear arms, and a pistol is $500, but the tax is $5000 a year per firearm. The money could go into a fund to help the victims.