Zhukov said:
So... I'm guessing that everyone here has heard about the medical dramas involving the artist of the Escapist's own Extra Credits show [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111418-Extra-Credits-Artist-Amazed-at-Fan-Support]. Long story short, she sustained injury to her shoulders. Quite a lot of injury. If untreated, she could lose the use of her arms. (Just take a brief moment to dwell on the various delightful implications of not being able to use your own arms.) Now, in order to receive the required treatments, she had to come up with a large amount of money. Somewhere around $20,000 USD. No, that's not a typo. Yes, we're talking one thousand dollars, twenty times over.
Yes...presumably because it's a very complicated and expensive procedure. Medical treatment isn't expensive because doctors like to gouge prices. That's a tremendous amount of money for most people, I won't deny that, but the point still stands.
Zhukov said:
And just to make it all better, her private medical insurance refused to pay out. (What's that? An insurance company weaseling out of having to pony up the cash? Well, I never... who would have thought, eh?)
I'm pretty sure use of the word "chronic" explains why the insurance company was "weaseling out of having to pony up the cash." For most insurance plans, that isn't "weaseling" in any way, shape, or form. If you buy life insurance, it doesn't pay out if your house burns down. There's separate insurance for that. Similarly, preexisting conditions (read: chronic) are very often excluded from insurance plans, and not without reason.
Thus, assuming I'm reading this correctly, they weren't "weaseling" their way out of anything. They simply weren't paying for something that they'd already established they wouldn't be paying for.
Zhukov said:
But hang on one second. Let me just back up a few sentences. A person was expected to produce $20,000 in order to receive medical treatment for an injury that would prevent her from earning a living and drastically reduce her quality of life.
Surgeries aren't priced according to how important they are to the patient. They're priced according to the labor, material, personnel, etc that are required for the surgery to go off without a hitch.
Zhukov said:
America, just... what the fuck?
[/quote]
Welcome to the inevitable dark side of capitalism.
Zhukov said:
See, here in Australia, what with our evil communist government health system, we occasionally like to tell silly campfire horror stories about the state of health care in the US. Y'know, tales about that terrible place where you can get hit by a car and hospital staff will refuse to put you back together unless you throw wads of money or medical insurance forms at them.
*facepalm* When you say that you're trying to approach an issue impartially, it's that sort of thing that makes the claim look rather...untrue.
Zhukov said:
I never really knew what to think about these stories. And, quite frankly, I didn't particularly care because hey, why would I? That mess is an entire Pacific Ocean away. But this whole business with Extra Credits and the injury of the Pink Bean seems to suggest that those stories were disquieting close to the truth.
Similarly, Christopher Reeve didn't do much of anything for paralysis victims until he was paralyzed himself. This isn't an uncommon phenomenon.
And your hypothetical "lying bleeding and dying on the doorstep of a hospital while the staff laughs at your plight" is somewhat of a far cry from what we've been looking at here.
Zhukov said:
Some months back there was talk of the system being changed under the Obama administration. Last I heard it was still in the early stages, it seemed to mostly consist of a lot of people running around yelling something about socialism. Did that end up going anywhere?
Yes, because unlike the rest of the world, in America, the small number of high-profile morons that get on the news are perfect representations of the general populace.
Zhukov said:
So, anyway... is there a point to all this text? Well... no, not really. I guess I'm just a bit surprised that such a system would exist in a nation that likes to hold itself up as the epitome of the developed world, and not entirely without reason. Also, I would really like to hear from some of the many American escapists. What do you people think of this system? Do you want to defend it? Is there something I am missing here?
Well, I already went over the whole 'preexisting condition' thing above, but aside from that, I genuinely wouldn't mind universal healthcare, even if I'm part of the group that wouldn't benefit from it. Most likely I've come across as rather cold, but I think that situations like this really ought not to happen in an ideal world. It'll take some doing, but I think we can pull off a few changes for the better.
Zhukov said:
PPS. Oh yeah, and another thing. I know it's a bit tricky given the nature of the topic, but can we please try to keep the USA-bashing within reasonable bounds? Yeah, I know they pull some immensely stupid shit on occasion, but, well... don't we all?
I don't think it's even that. Most of the world has a few types of people that news outlets consistently portray, largely because their readers expect it, and it's easy to play to stereotypes. America has Cold War fixated morons, the Middle East has Muslim extremists, France has rioting, etc.
