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This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

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Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#11

Post by scarecrowbob »

rdouble wrote: post #7
oneandoneis2 wrote: post #6

I was in America, in LA, a few years back (I'm British), when the whole Obamacare thing was being debated everywhere. The one thing I noticed, and it was a rule that didn't have a single exception, was that everyone I talked to could give at least one example of a time when either they or somebody they personally knew had been faced with a ruinous bill for healthcare. People who'd been bankrupted, people who'd fled t…

The system does bankrupt people, but it doesn't refuse to treat people. That is why people go bankrupt - the hospital has to treat everyone, then hands them an immense bill.

I don't believe that this is true, although admittedly I only have anecdotal evidence. I have known several people who otherwise would possibly be alive if they had access to primary care in the earlier stages of their cancers.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#12

Post by hospadam »

kami8845 wrote: post #3
a_c_s wrote: post #2

I'm not clicking on any link with nsfw in the url.

Thanks for your feedback. The next time we will simply post the link with the domain removed.

I'm not sure if you're being snarky or not... but nsfw in the domain is a good reason to give caution while at work, right? There are a lot of terms that, if in a domain name, I would choose not to read at work.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#13

Post by potatolicious »

rdouble wrote: post #7
oneandoneis2 wrote: post #6

I was in America, in LA, a few years back (I'm British), when the whole Obamacare thing was being debated everywhere. The one thing I noticed, and it was a rule that didn't have a single exception, was that everyone I talked to could give at least one example of a time when either they or somebody they personally knew had been faced with a ruinous bill for healthcare. People who'd been bankrupted, people who'd fled t…

The system does bankrupt people, but it doesn't refuse to treat people. That is why people go bankrupt - the hospital has to treat everyone, then hands them an immense bill.

Sort of, kind of. Health care institutions do routinely refuse to treat people - just not when there is an immediate threat to life and limb.

I have a friend (Canadian) who had an internship in the US. He got a major (and quite serious) bout of the flu, and although he was insured (by a Canadian company) absolutely refused to see him until he coughed up a hefty (multi-hundred) deposit - evidently they didn't find the Canadian firm trustworthy enough.

This is a pretty core issue in US healthcare - early-stage care is routinely denied to people, either economically before they walk through the door, or at the door itself. This pushes a lot of health issues to ERs where costs are high and effectiveness reduced.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#14

Post by rdouble »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #11
rdouble wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The system does bankrupt people, but it doesn't refuse to treat people. That is why people go bankrupt - the hospital has to treat everyone, then hands them an immense bill.

I don't believe that this is true, although admittedly I only have anecdotal evidence. I have known several people who otherwise would possibly be alive if they had access to primary care in the earlier stages of their cancers.

It's illegal to turn someone away from the hospital. Access to primary care is another story altogether.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#16

Post by bunderbunder »

rdouble wrote: post #7
oneandoneis2 wrote: post #6

I was in America, in LA, a few years back (I'm British), when the whole Obamacare thing was being debated everywhere. The one thing I noticed, and it was a rule that didn't have a single exception, was that everyone I talked to could give at least one example of a time when either they or somebody they personally knew had been faced with a ruinous bill for healthcare. People who'd been bankrupted, people who'd fled t…

The system does bankrupt people, but it doesn't refuse to treat people. That is why people go bankrupt - the hospital has to treat everyone, then hands them an immense bill.

Actually, it does refuse to treat people quite regularly. Aside from emergency department, health care providers are generally free to refuse care for patients they believe cannot pay except in the case of a life-threatening emergency.

What this means is that in the USA it's common for people to have to allow earlier-stage, less expensive to treat problems develop into serious problems before finally going into the ED to seek treatment. Which increases all of our health care costs overall. Not only does the problem that eventually gets treated end up being more expensive than it needed to be, but the place where the care is provided is also the most expensive option. And since they don't pay, health care providers are forced to raise everyone else's rates to cover the cost of this unnecessarily expensive care that they had to provide.

Long story short, the range of things that health care providers have to treat is much wider in countries with more socialized systems than it is in the USA. And that is yet another reason why the USA has such enormously high health care costs despite providing poorer quality of care.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#17

Post by newbie12 »

The author's father, Bill, around age 76, never paid taxes while living for decades in the UK, but was still treated, and died there. The author assumes he wouldn't have had care in the U.S. That's wrong. Even though he never held a recognized job (and probably was a tax cheat), as a senior citizen he would probably receive Medicare and as a poor person he would also potentially be supported by Medicaid for any shortfall. Further, his situation is hardly a model for national policy-- why should someone who never worked, yet apparently has well-off, internationally traveling family, be completely subsidized by taxpayers? Why shouldn't Bill or his family face some of the costs for his care?

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#19

Post by abstractbill »

oneandoneis2 wrote: post #6

I was in America, in LA, a few years back (I'm British), when the whole Obamacare thing was being debated everywhere. The one thing I noticed, and it was a rule that didn't have a single exception, was that everyone I talked to could give at least one example of a time when either they or somebody they personally knew had been faced with a ruinous bill for healthcare. People who'd been bankrupted, people who'd fled t…

Having lived in the uk for the first 27 years of my life, and then in California for the past 10, I have only one word to describe the way American healthcare feels to me: barbaric.

Long live the NHS, and yay for Obamacare - it seems like a step in the right direction at least.

Re: This is how you healthcare: American Death in London

#20

Post by bunderbunder »

rdouble wrote: post #14
scarecrowbob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe that this is true, although admittedly I only have anecdotal evidence. I have known several people who otherwise would possibly be alive if they had access to primary care in the earlier stages of their cancers.

It's illegal to turn someone away from the hospital. Access to primary care is another story altogether.

It's illegal to turn someone away from the emergency department. For the other 90% of the hospital it's a different story entirely.
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