WhiteTiger225 said:
Im Phelpsing It 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."
That's false. Any self-respecting doctor would help the person, then deal with the insurance company as best they could. The problem with medicine here is that it's run as a business, by huge insurance firms looking to squeeze every penny out of the patient's pocket. If the doctor's had their way, we would have a health care system like Canada, the UK, or Australia.
Whats funny is, this came from a guy in a Nation that planned to Ban SecondLife and oher M games because instead of make a R18 rating they would rather enforce the mostly fundamentalist christian views of the majority of Australlian government officials and keep their highest rating at 15 or up.
You know what?
Between not being allowed to play 18 rated games ever again, and not having to pay the equivalent of 400-500 pounds for an X-Ray before the hospital even deigns to start fixing my broken leg, or knowing with full confidence that if I were to be in a horrific car crash I wouldn't come out of my coma three months down the line with all my bones broken
and a bill stretching into the thousands on top of it all, I'll take not playing the games ever again.
Of course, I'm in Britain so I get the luxury of doing both, but there's more to this I think.
You say that it's okay to not pay, because it just means your credit rating will go down, let's return to my car crash story.
I am in a car crash, it is entirely the other driver's fault, I was driving safely at the speed limit with my seatbelt on when someone else hit my car. I sustain a severe head injury, break both my legs, my chest gets crushed and my shoulder gets dislocated (there is a reason for the very specific injuries) I am in a coma for a little over two weeks, hanging between life and death while doctor's try to save me.
As I understand it, in America the doctor's would still save my life, and then when I emerged from my coma two weeks later, they would present me with a bill comprised of multiple X-Rays ($500 a go) splints, casts, neck brace, cost of surgery, cost of equipment to keep me alive. A car crash in other words without insurance could lead to several hundred thousand dollars to be paid, on top me now having emotional trauma from having been in a car accident, on top of me having been out of work for two weeks, on top of me not being able to return immediately to work, on top of me as I understand the American benefits system not being able to claim nearly enough money for the time I am out of work. Hundreds of thousands of dollars, no insurance, and no way to even start working towards paying off the costs. Likely end result, losing my house at least, losing all my credit rating leaving it near impossible for me to actually claw my way out of the financial black hole I am now in.
In Britain, I wake up from my coma, I go home, secure in the knowledge that I do not have to pay the hospital a large sum of money because they kept me alive. The end.
Suddenly I see why America is so sue happy, any accident that results in an injury but wasn't your fault still has to be paid for as if it was entirely your fault. No wonder American's sue anyone who had the slightest tengental role in their injury so they don't have to cover the cost of those medical bills, and no wonder the accident recovery thing isn't anywhere near as big in the UK.
Tell me the benefits of a system where I can be injured through absolutely no fault of my own, still be charged for a massive bill, and then either face financial ruination trying to pay it, or a months long legal battle to get someone else to pay my costs, on top of being emotional scarred. Name me any one benefit of that system and I'll revise my opinion.
Why the specific injuries? Three of my friends in high school were blindsided by a lorry while in their car, stationary at a junction. The van driver was ruled entirely to blame for it. One of them recovered in a week, one spent two weeks in a coma with the injuries I described, and the other ended up having to retake nearly four years of school because her head injuries were so severe. Tell me how their or their families' (none of whom were particularly wealthy) would have been greatly improved by then having to face rising debts because their daughters got lucky enough to not die? It almost makes death look like the preferable outcome when option 2 is bankruptcy.
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