Good Luck Dougie

[Kimtown]

Wow you both got ****** up, how did you find the US health system?

I can answer that for him as I was there in May

Short answer: ******* ****

Long answer: missus had what I believed was bronchitis or hooping cough, after a couple days of me not really knowing what the **** to do, and her condition becoming worse and worse, I finally decided to take her to the emergency room in San Fran. Fortunately, as she was so sick and possibly contagious she was admitted very quickly. The GP diagnosed her in 5 mins with just a basic viral infection and prescribed her pretty much just paracetamol :/ thankfully I declined needing x-rays (no idea why she would need them, maybe broken ribs from coughing?) because the medical bill came to a whopping $800 USD!!! Absolutely outrageous... hard to imagine how the lower class in America would suffer. Thank god we had travel insurance.

We can say plenty of bad things about our countries government but imo we are one of the luckiest countries in the world to have our public health system and i wouldn't change it for anything else.

We are lucky but some people abuse it
The Medicare debt last year was $110 billion
Which is a about quarter of the countries debt.

So 8f y you break down $800 down as.a.private consult in a.hospital from wages and insurance, hospital running expenses etc it's about right.

That's probably why San Fran has about 10 to 15 free medical clinics lol

The free clinics from my understanding are privately funded and under resourced for the amount of people who should be supported through a universal healthcare system.

Have no problem with our country spending on healthcare and the wages of hospital staff who do a great job.

100 ******* percent.

If that's our countries biggest debt, then in my eyes that's very good debt to have. Cannot put a price on health.

A few years back I was on a surfing holiday overseas and a rich Yank was telling me how Obama care was socialism, so I explained to him how great Australia’s Medicare system that anyone could get access to a doctor and afford doesn’t matter if your rich or poor.

Think he thought I was Fidel Castro. We are forever getting pulled towards the American model universal healthcare is great if only we had universal employment.

I still disagree.

In 2010 I had spinal surgery, the most expensive part of it was my dad parking his car so we could watch the 2010 grand final replay together.

In the US a similar operation is about half a mil.

There is no situation in which universal healthcare is a bad idea. It's actually cheaper in the long run as well.

And just like that you ruin the thread and put me in a horrible mood.


**** the 2010 replay!!!

[DougieK]

Universal health care actually saves money. I'll find the links for the statistics when i'm home tomorrow.

[smile0784]

Wouldn't that be covered by your travel insurance tho?

Ever tried getting money out of an insurance company?

Normal insurance yes 6 times.

[purple5ive]

The healthcare sector here is the best I've seen.

Wait till you go to 3rd world countries and see what happens there. You have to pay for everything!
No money, no treatment!!! Simple as that.
Plenty of things taken for granted in this country!!

[Kimtown]

The healthcare sector here is the best I've seen.

Wait till you go to 3rd world countries and see what happens there. You have to pay for everything!
No money, no treatment!!! Simple as that.
Plenty of things taken for granted in this country!!

honestly, i'd rather be sick in a 3rd world country like thailand or bali than america. hands down.

at least i can go buy over the counter endones and valiums before i die of dengue fever or super malaria :a_goodjob:

[purple5ive]

The healthcare sector here is the best I've seen.

Wait till you go to 3rd world countries and see what happens there. You have to pay for everything!
No money, no treatment!!! Simple as that.
Plenty of things taken for granted in this country!!

honestly, i'd rather be sick in a 3rd world country like thailand or bali than america. hands down.

at least i can go buy over the counter endones and valiums before i die of dengue fever or super malaria :a_goodjob:

As a tourist yes I'd like to be in the same situation if anything happened.
But if your a local. Then it's a whole different ball game.
My previous post was about someone living in a 3rd world country and dealing with the medical situations as a commoner.. no money no treatment. That's how it was when I was growing up in India, and still is like that..

Tourists are a different story...
Once they know insurance is involved you get the best of the best.. the facilities are there. Just the commoners cannot afford it.. it's a sad situation as people are just left bleeding to death at the hospital door because they havent received payment for treatment, and similar situations that occur daily..

[smokin_reels]

I have an aunt who went from
India to the USA and ended up getting salmonella after eating a a salad.
She’d spent about 20$ bucks on travel insurance and got out of paying a giant bill that included hospitalisation.

[rb85]

The healthcare sector here is the best I've seen.

Wait till you go to 3rd world countries and see what happens there. You have to pay for everything!
No money, no treatment!!! Simple as that.
Plenty of things taken for granted in this country!!

I don't think most people take the healthcare system for granted any suggestion of a political party abolishing medicare and theres uproar about it.
We in Australia enjoy what we have because progressive people have battled for a high standard of living which was once afforded to the aristocracy.
It wasn't just handed to the commoners.

Australian's aren't perfect and we have a chequered history but the social divide and the treatment of the lower class in some third world countries is astonishing.