I can't imagine not having a national health service funded by taxes.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

very inhumane !

no compassiom for fellow humans!

its all about the benjamins im afraid!

a reply to: sapien82
Agreed.
...and also the expenditure on social care should be increased, I'd pay more taxes without any issue if it was directed solely to fund the increase.
In a previous career life I've worked for what was the DHSS, then local authority social services, and also the CAB. Budget cuts caused my redundancy from the latter so I changed career...again lol.
I've been thinking of volunteering at the CAB office local to my home, helping people with forms and advocacy work and stuff.

EDIT
I also think friends and family should help each other more.
I'm lucky, I have a fantastic support network of loved friends in my life, but there are many people who think 'the state should do it' when they could in fact do it themselves and help that elderly relative.
Anyone stuck with government forms or other advice gets help from me. Anyone's old Nan who needs a handrail fitted or wheelchair ramp will get it done by me free as well. My social group are all like that, and we have to be because of the savage 'austerity' cuts.

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: 4003fireglo
You can do what you like in the US, but this thread tells me not everyone in the US likes the current system. Interesting reading, I thank my lucky stars I wasn't born in a US style system.

Obamacare provided about 7% of the population with healthcare that didn't have it before. To do this it affected the other 93% and created some undesirable situations as in you loss your doctor and your medical bills went sky high. The vast majority of America has healthcare, I get it fee from my work, I pay 30 bucks a visit, as example.

America needs to come up with a different plan for percentage that can not get healthcare...Something outside of the insurance umbrella would work great and be cheap.

a reply to: Xtrozero
Whatever works for your nation would make me happy for you all.
I would wish the UK NHS model for everyone in the world, free at the point of need. It's not perfect but I've never bought private healthcare because I've always had such a fantastic service.
It genuinely chills me at the thought of someone losing their home because they were unlucky enough to get cancer.

a reply to: sapien82

I have a 401k, the hell are you prattling on about pensions for? Only government employees have pensions here.

a reply to: AtomicKangaroo

You're all over the place. FYI, I have vehicles which do not require roads and the police are a joke here. I'm more likely to deal with them after I've resolved my own issue than before, as unresponsive as they seem to be here in Anchorage.

a reply to: burdman30ott6
My money is on Kangaroo's opinion, not yours.
Yours seems callous and cold, I'm alright jack, # you if you couldn't cover your healthcare.
You seem barbaric to me, and most of the developed world because more people than the US population provide tax funded healthcare to all their citizens.
You can't even use the lame economy of scale argument, or the argument that your economy is too big.
You treat your people like #, and you support that, #ing shameful.

I've got a 20yr old future daughter inlaw that seems to be able to find free heaith care here in cal. Although they call them clinics not offices. She gets in quicker there , than I can with my $1500.00 a month insurance plan provided doctor.

I noticed that you said two contradictory things:

1. It cost you nothing, not even the phone call, and;

2. You're happy to pay the taxes, and you would gladly pay more.

This is one (of the many) problems we have with universal healthcare here - people think it's free, then wonder why their taxes went up several hundred percent. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you're paying for it. Nothing is free.

originally posted by: dothedew
I noticed that you said two contradictory things:

1. It cost you nothing, not even the phone call, and;

2. You're happy to pay the taxes, and you would gladly pay more.

This is one (of the many) problems we have with universal healthcare here - people think it's free, then wonder why their taxes went up several hundred percent. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you're paying for it. Nothing is free.

Not only are they paying for it, they're paying for the bloated govt bureaucracy, and allowing the govt complete control over what, when and how they get any healthcare.

a reply to: CornishCeltGuy

Pause for a moment... if I have already called the system you're supporting a pipedream, ridiculous, and illogical, what do you suppose my thoughts on your judgement of me and my position will be? Do you honestly think I care?

Call me whatever you want, I am whatever you say I am... but in addition to that I am self responsible for my own, not a parasite upon the nation as some now seem to herald as a virtuous state as if a tick or a leech was nature's most magnificent creature.

a reply to: burdman30ott6
I haven't called you anything, I've celebrated the system we have here.
You need to grow a skin lol

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: burdman30ott6
I haven't called you anything, I've celebrated the system we have here.
You need to grow a skin lol

Whut? Do you read what you type prior to hitting reply, or are you on autopilot?

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: burdman30ott6
My money is on Kangaroo's opinion, not yours.
Yours seems callous and cold, I'm alright jack, # you if you couldn't cover your healthcare.
You seem barbaric to me, and most of the developed world because more people than the US population provide tax funded healthcare to all their citizens.
You can't even use the lame economy of scale argument, or the argument that your economy is too big.
You treat your people like #, and you support that, #ing shameful.

You have called me callous, cold, barbaric, shameful. Look, as I've said, I start my days with a basket containing a dozen effs and I usually have 15 or 16 by the end of the day, but don't piss on the children and try to tell them it's raining. Own up to what your own words have been here.

a reply to: burdman30ott6
Yeah okay, US healthcare is shameful as far as the rest of the developed world sees it.
How could anyone deny that lol?

originally posted by: CornishCeltGuy
a reply to: burdman30ott6
I haven't called you anything, I've celebrated the system we have here.
You need to grow a skin lol

You only started this thread to crap on the U.S, at least be man enough to admit it.

originally posted by: dothedew
I noticed that you said two contradictory things:

1. It cost you nothing, not even the phone call, and;

2. You're happy to pay the taxes, and you would gladly pay more.

This is one (of the many) problems we have with universal healthcare here - people think it's free, then wonder why their taxes went up several hundred percent. Whether you acknowledge it or not, you're paying for it. Nothing is free.

Its all free at the point of delivery .... MRI scans, X rays, Operations,

radio/chemotherapy Drugs/medication, fertility, everything.

ALL that ^^^^ plus your pension when you reach 65 years (for as long as

you live (30 plus yrs? ) If you lose your job you can claim some benefit to

tide you over.


ALL the above for 6% of your salary after the first £6000 earned per annum, your

employer pays the other 6% so all that for 12% ......


Small change for ALL that I would say!!!

a reply to: eletheia

What are the average wait times?

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: eletheia

What are the average wait times?

For what?

A couple of weeks ago I phoned for a Dr's appointment, she gave me one

for the following week, I took it but asked if she got a cancelled appointment

would she phone me, she offered me another Dr for three hours time. Three

years ago when I needed to see a consultant it was 6 weeks.

a reply to: Muninn
My OP was purely a celebration of the system in the UK but your man Burdman criticised it so I obviously criticised the crappest healthcare system in the world back.
If your man had left me celebrating my own system then I would have said nothing about the US system but he couldn't help himself, he'd rather people go bankrupt and die than pay taxes to help those stupid #s so yes I do think his views are barbaric and inhuman.
What caring person wouldn't?
500 million people in the EU agree with me ffs.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Yep and everyone has off-road vehicles. Good luck with transitioning 300+ million people to Mad Max world without issue.

Me I'm about community, if everyone helped each other the world would be a better place.
I'd rather pay tax and help others when I myself am not using the benefits of contributing, than pay insurance I may never use and never see again only helping those who run the company.

Reasonable medical treatment for all should be a basic human right in a civilized country I feel.

Sure we should not have to fund elective surgery like people who want gender swap operations or bigger breasts.
But we should not stand by and watch others die a slow horrible death by a treatable cancer because they were poor.

To stand by and selfishly do nothing for our fellow human beings just makes a person a savage.
It's our sense of community and compassion for others that separates us from the animals.

In the basic form does it not come down to "there is no I in team". Society and civilization is about working together, and helping each other for the greater good. This every man for himself selfishness is exactly why society is falling apart these days.
Because everyone is in it for themselves. Or a sadly large amount are. We're honestly stagnating as a species.

We all pay one way or another, may as well pay the best way that helps everyone.
A little bit of give a little bit of take and everyone wins.
That's my take on it any way.

Of course it needs to be managed smartly and equally for all and the biggest problem with taxes and social services is of course you need to have measures in place to stop it being abused.
From the unemployed druggie right through to those running the country.

Hell I even support a UBI. If it is done properly a society could flourish under it. Governments should run their country like a business the goal to make the tax paying shareholders wealthy and comfortable.
It's needed, even if you filled every job in the world there's still be millions unemployed simply for no work existing.
If there is literally no jobs where you live and you have no income, what are you going to do to support your family?
Would you sit there and watch them starve? Or steal a loaf of bread?

Taxes to that end lower the chances you have to rely on police and defend yourself.

To get rid of all taxes and social welfare would honestly make us regress as a species. Some of us actually want to march forward.

Maybe it's time for something different, the systems we've been using for hundreds of years are no longer suitable to the way the world has changed.

And as my favorite quote says "Insanity is doing the same # over and over and expecting different results."

If something is clearly broken you fix it.