The US lifestyle is like playing poker with your life, but only being allowed to go "all in" on every hand. You make it, you're living the American dream. You don't, it's all your fault.
Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
161–170 of 387 posts
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#162Blaming those without power for the way The System has tilted the game against them is Orwellian. Poverty is not a choice (any more than drug addiction is a choice). But we prefer to blame the victims because it's easier than looking in the mirror and accepting our role in the mess.
I am not a typical homeless person. I am educated, skilled and I have no addictions, etc. I'm also not living on the street, and am lucky to not have any health problems. But I think my story really can perhaps reveal how incredibly easy it can be for one to have the misfortune to end up in such situations. My own experiences have opened my eyes to how abusive people can be, and perhaps this is a significant aspect o…
Do you know of the book "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond? It was for me both enlightening (in what it revealed) and depressing (in what it revealed).
Yeah, some people make bad decisions. We. All. Do. The difference is, some are more unlucky than others. Life is hard. I'm not sure why we go out of our way to make it hard for others (who need our help).
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
"get out of you don't like it" Nobody saying this has actually researched it. Too many people in the states are under the impression you can just up and move to a European country, no problem. One friendly-but-clueless acquaintance got flown back from Heathrow for asking the immigration officer about where to find jobs when she landed. If you don't/can't: * work in tech or medicine * go to university in Europe in a h…
Dunno about UK. Settling in Poland is not that hard, although no piece of cake either. I believe you can get a job with the associated temporary residence permit, extend this as many times as necessary to meet the uninterrupted legal stay requirements, then apply for the permanent residence. Getting citizenship is probably a bit harder but not impossible - about a thousand people get it in Poland each year by the dec…
"Get a job with the associated temporary residence permit"
I'm not familiar with Poland specifically but this is generally the insurmountable barrier for most folks. Remember not everyone is a dev! "Sick person who works at Best Buy and drives for Lyft on the side" is going to have a really hard time with that step.
Generally speaking, employers need to make a reasonable enough case that they couldn't get an EU person to do the job, and there are often income minimums, specified in-need fields, etc. .
So it's definitely not impossible (I did it), but for the sort of person getting told "if you don't like it you can 'git out" it's an issue.
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
"get out of you don't like it" Nobody saying this has actually researched it. Too many people in the states are under the impression you can just up and move to a European country, no problem. One friendly-but-clueless acquaintance got flown back from Heathrow for asking the immigration officer about where to find jobs when she landed. If you don't/can't: * work in tech or medicine * go to university in Europe in a h…
I have heard it is pretty easy to become an Israeli citizen if you are jewish. They have socialized healthcare.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return
> The law since 1970 applies to the following groups:
> Those born Jews according to the orthodox interpretation; having a Jewish mother or maternal grandmother.
> Those with Jewish ancestry - having a Jewish father or grandfather.
> Converts to Judaism (Orthodox, Reform, or Conservative denominations—not secular—though Reform and Conservative conversions must take place outside the state, similar to civil marriages).
> But Jews who have converted to another religion are not eligible to immigrate under the Law of Return, even though are still Jews according to halakha.
> Section 2(b) of the Law of Return empowers the Minister of Interior to deny Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return on a number of grounds. For example, an applicant may be denied citizenship if he or she is considered a threat to the security of the State of Israel (e.g. treason against the Jewish State), or who has a past criminal record involving a serious crime, such as murder, and poses a danger to the well-being of the State of Israel; or, for example, may be a fugitive in another country for any felony (unless they are persecution victims); or such persons who, by virtue of their illness, may pose a serious public health risk to the people of Israel; as also any person who may be actively engaged in any campaign that vociferously speaks out against the Jewish people and undermines their cause (such as demagoguery).
> In 2014, Interior Minister Gidon Sa'ar officially decided that, according to the Law of Return, Jews in same-sex relationships married abroad wishing to immigrate to Israel can do so - even if their partners are not Jewish - and both they and their partners will receive Israeli citizenship.
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some preeminent foreign statesmen rulers who have gotten / who are getting their surgeries done in the United States. Daniel E. "Danny" Williams, QC a Canadian politician, businessman and lawyer who served as the ninth Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador between November 6, 2003, and December 3, 2010. [1] Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques from 2005 to his d…
Yes? Nobody's denying that it's easy to get very good medical care very quickly if you have enough money! That's of course, completely irrelevant to the topic of this discussion, or, if anything, emphasizes the inequality inherent in the American system.
Just adding context that when it comes critical medical care involving specialized care, the United States almost has no equal - not even close. Whether that is Level 1 trauma facilities, oncology facilities, cutting edge research laboratories or doctors with deep expertise in such fields, the United States is second to none.
This is not an oft brought point when discussing the merits of the U.S system despite its failings and short comings.
Also:
The Fraser Institute, a Canadian public policy think tank,
estimates that 52,513 Canadians received non-emergency medical
treatment in the U.S. and other countries in 2014, a 25
percent jump from the roughly 41,838 who sought medical care
abroad the previous year.
In citing those numbers in its 2015 report, "Leaving Canada for
Medical Care," the organization said difficulties in obtaining
timely medical care at home is, increasingly, leading Canadians
to seek it abroad. "It is possible [they] may have left the
country to avoid some of the adverse medical consequences of
waiting for care, such as worsening of their condition, poorer
outcomes following treatment, disability, or death," the report
says. "Some may leave simply to avoid delay and to make a quicker
return to normal life."
Canadians could expect to wait 9.8 weeks for medically necessary
treatment after seeing a specialist in 2014, the researchers found,
three weeks more than the time physicians considered to be
clinically "reasonable."[1]
Canadians Increasingly Come to U.S. For Health Care / Crossing the Border for Care
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-08-...
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#166I was disabled by bad surgery and lost my career. No system that ostensibly should have helped, did. Denied. Denied. Denied. YEARS of adversarial, not default helpful, meetings and challenges and interviews. I saw people worse than me refused help. I saw real time as people who knew me for years or life, who respected me and my career choice helping others, decided I was a lazy mooch who wasn't trying hard enough, wa…
"get out of you don't like it" Nobody saying this has actually researched it. Too many people in the states are under the impression you can just up and move to a European country, no problem. One friendly-but-clueless acquaintance got flown back from Heathrow for asking the immigration officer about where to find jobs when she landed. If you don't/can't: * work in tech or medicine * go to university in Europe in a h…
Also, if you have long term medical problems which are going to burden the tax payer they're not going to let you in.
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#167Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh my god, I just read news about some "centrist" Democrats arguing against universal single-payer healthcare on the grounds that some segment of the working population already gets a nice healthcare package as a benefit, and somehow it would be unfair to those people if everyone was eligible to reasonable medical care. I mean, with Democrats like that, why do you even need Republicans?
I don't think Democrats (or Republicans when they take power) are clever/smart/kind/honest enough to offer universal single-payer healthcare without rationing. Is there an intent to take my health care choices away, and is that intent benevolent or malicious? You paint a very abstractly wonderful picture, so let's assume yes and benevolent if rationing is to be expected given the finite tax base. I still need more de…
check out Australia's healthcare system as a middle ground then. I've lived in the UK (free, single-payer, government-run) and Australia's, and I prefer Australia's because it has a mix of both government and market.
The basic principle is that the Australian Federal Government subsidises healthcare by a fixed amount for each procedure. So iirc, it was AUD$45 for a visit to the GP. That's enough for some GP practices to be able to offer a free service (referred to as "bulk billed" because they only billed the government). Obviously those services become popular, so to get a free appointment you have to wait a while. Or, you can pay a bit yourself to get an appointment with a doctor who charges more than the government rate and are therefore less in demand.
In Australia I could usually get an appointment next day if I paid $25-50 or so. In the UK it was usually a 1-2 week wait, but free.
This goes for everything (except dental care for some reason, I don't know what's up with that). So an X-Ray costs $200, or nothing if you can wait until next week. And so on.
Health insurance covers the additional costs, and I paid $25/month for a plan that meant if anything serious happened I'd be liable for the first $250. And it also gave me dental cover, so I could claim some (but not all) of my dental care from my health insurance - a net gain for me most years.
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, of course we should want single-payer, just like Canada! Never mind that the average wait time to see a doctor in Canada is almost 20 weeks, and that tens of thousands of Canadians cross the border to the US every year to avoid that wait... There are tradeoffs with everything. Personally I think people should proactively try to live healthier lives - the medical establishment is about making money, not making…
Oh puh-lease. Even a trivial googling tells me that Canada has longer waiting times than most other comparable countries with single-payer healthcare. And those waiting times? About half of GP visits are same- or next day appointments, with 20% of Canadians having to wait for a week. As for specialists, the median waiting time is roughly four weeks. [1] So those numbers are definitely not optimal compared to many oth…
I may not understand what's being got at with this 'Canadian wait time' issue.
I've needed to go see my doctor - usually I can't get a same day appointment. Sometimes I can get a 'next day' - usually it's "pick some time in the next week or two". Am I now "having to wait"? It's been this way for me my entire life in the US (more than 40 years I can remember), across different states, political leadership and insurance companies.
I needed a procedure by a specialist last year. Regular checkup produced "this is serious - I'm referring to you ABC for procedure X - we need to get this done ASAP". It was still more than 2 weeks before the specialist could see me. There was an option of seeing someone else sooner, but it would have meant a 2 hour drive. That was possible but very inconvenient, and we decided that the 2 week period was acceptable vs the alternative.
Does everyone else in the US get same day service for everything they need, and I've just been wholly unlucky my entire life in multiple regions of the country? Or, do we actually have 'wait times' just like everyone else?
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are compelling policy handwaves, but they really aren't going to the heart of the issue; which is someone in the broader conversation is basically misrepresenting reality to an astounding degree. The OECD reports that the US already spends more on healthcare per capita than any other nation by a substantial margin [0]. If it were believed that the ambitious left were going to implement free healthcare by bringi…
Giving it to everyone is the cost reduction. Leaving aside the question of old age and focusing on healthcare for people of working age, it is almost always cheaper to intervene earlier, and it helps people get back to work sooner. The case is even stronger in children where healthcare gets to determine if they get to live a decent life or not. Not to mention the benefits of time saved fighting back and forth over bi…
Medicare has for a long time been banned from negotiating drug prices in most instances, and that is a large part of the problem. They have a limited indirect ability by basically being able to contract with private healthcare plans to provide services, who in turn can negotiate, but it does in no way allow them to leverage their size to the full extent.
Compare to e.g. the UK where the NHS does not just negotiate on generics, but also use the considerable value of their contracts for generics or drugs that can easily be substituted to drive down prices on other drugs by bargaining on combined contract values.
Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes? Nobody's denying that it's easy to get very good medical care very quickly if you have enough money! That's of course, completely irrelevant to the topic of this discussion, or, if anything, emphasizes the inequality inherent in the American system.
Just adding context that when it comes critical medical care involving specialized care, the United States almost has no equal - not even close. Whether that is Level 1 trauma facilities, oncology facilities, cutting edge research laboratories or doctors with deep expertise in such fields, the United States is second to none. This is not an oft brought point when discussing the merits of the U.S system despite its fa…
But, again, we’re not talking about how amazing the system is if you have money. We’re talking about how the system utterly fails to disseminate basic healthcare to the vast majority of people in a way that doesn’t destroy them.