This story makes me glad to live in France and have such a good healthcare system.
Also, you get to live in France... :]
Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
101–110 of 144 posts
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
So long as you're not poor, health care in the US is good. If you live in a major city and are diligent about who takes care of you, it is great. I've had three MRIs. All were scheduled the same day they were prescribed. I've routinely scheduled appointments with renown specialists and waited less than 2 days to get in. My double hernia surgery was performed by the same guy who treats the Chicago Bears. My old chirop…
"So long as you're not poor..." I had a kidney stone a few weeks ago. All told, the bills for dealing with that hit $34,000. For a kidney stone. That's not about being poor or not, that's highway robbery.
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Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
He meant the benevolent kind of empire. Since the US doesn't annex territories for itself and keep them as colonies as part of some Commonwealth Realm. Although the US could have if it tried, with the slightest flex of a myoblast, in the last great war. It still can. Pretty sure that's what he/she meant.
If you just thought it were Ireland, Wales And Scotland that have an often uneasy relationship with England, you'd be surprised to learn who else bows to the English Crown. (And yes Scotland has an upcoming referendum in 2014 on the issue of independence from the UK.[1] This is widely believed to be a losing proposition.) Commonwealth Realm Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, J…
"This is widely believed to be a losing proposition." - evidence? I don't know if you're a UK citizen or living in Scotland, but I'd love to explain some of the nuances of Scottish politics. They said, once upon a time, that the SNP would never have a majority leadership (due to the way that the electoral system was designed for the devolved parliament) in the Scottish parliament, but look what happened at the last Scottish general election.
Perhaps what the Scottish people don't like the idea of is the SNP becoming the governing party of Scotland. However, and this is frequently ignored by the unionist press in Scotland, the SNP would not necessarily be the ruling party. There would be a new general election to vote for a new Scottish government in an independent Scotland and that could be Labour, SNP, Tory, Democrat, Greens or whatever.
There is a huge amount of disinformation banded about by Cameron, Osborne and other unionist politicians about Scotland's capabilities.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
So long as you're not poor, health care in the US is good. If you live in a major city and are diligent about who takes care of you, it is great. I've had three MRIs. All were scheduled the same day they were prescribed. I've routinely scheduled appointments with renown specialists and waited less than 2 days to get in. My double hernia surgery was performed by the same guy who treats the Chicago Bears. My old chirop…
Really? Medicaid outcomes are actually pretty dam good considering the population that is being treated!
Wait time for an MRI can be months (at least that was the case back in 2008 when they compared Medicare/Medicaid to Canada's system).
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
So long as you're not poor, health care in the US is good. If you live in a major city and are diligent about who takes care of you, it is great. I've had three MRIs. All were scheduled the same day they were prescribed. I've routinely scheduled appointments with renown specialists and waited less than 2 days to get in. My double hernia surgery was performed by the same guy who treats the Chicago Bears. My old chirop…
"So long as you're not poor..." I had a kidney stone a few weeks ago. All told, the bills for dealing with that hit $34,000. For a kidney stone. That's not about being poor or not, that's highway robbery.
Have you considered traveling abroad to get your surgery? For that kind of money, it seems it would have been cheaper to get the surgery in another country even after factoring in the cost of the trip.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
So long as you're not poor, health care in the US is good. If you live in a major city and are diligent about who takes care of you, it is great. I've had three MRIs. All were scheduled the same day they were prescribed. I've routinely scheduled appointments with renown specialists and waited less than 2 days to get in. My double hernia surgery was performed by the same guy who treats the Chicago Bears. My old chirop…
"So long as you're not poor..." I had a kidney stone a few weeks ago. All told, the bills for dealing with that hit $34,000. For a kidney stone. That's not about being poor or not, that's highway robbery.
I had a near miss with MS 8 years ago. Several MRIs, spinal taps, blood work, etc. Before insurance: about $25k. After insurance: $3k.
Double hernia surgery was a couple grand out of pocket.
Not all insurance is the same.$34k is robbery.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
On cancer outcomes, the US outranks many (most?) of the countries that beat it on life expectancy. And, as pointed out downthread, life expectancy is a dodgy stat; it's heavily weighted by infant mortality, which isn't uniformly measured, and by accidental and violent deaths which, while tragic and perhaps symptomatic of other US problems, don't implicate our health care system.
You have to be careful about cancer statistics, because in many cases the US diagnoses early-stage cancers that would never get recorded in other countries. Some of those cancers never progress to the point of being life-threatening, making the survival stats misleading. Others do but because they're recorded earlier US patients are recorded as surviving for longe when in fact they're just being diagnosed ealier and…
>" in fact they're just being diagnosed ealier and dying at the same time as similar patients in other countries."
That's hard to tell, you can also say that because those patient were treated earlier they have a longer life expectancy. But I am agreed, those stats have to be looked very carefully.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
"So long as you're not poor..." I had a kidney stone a few weeks ago. All told, the bills for dealing with that hit $34,000. For a kidney stone. That's not about being poor or not, that's highway robbery.
I had a near miss with MS 8 years ago. Several MRIs, spinal taps, blood work, etc. Before insurance: about $25k. After insurance: $3k. Double hernia surgery was a couple grand out of pocket. Not all insurance is the same.$34k is robbery.
Let's put it this way:
34 k would pay for the original poster's trip to my country (Uruguay), the best treatment available, and he'd have money left over - heck, 34 k would probably pay the doctor's wages on that hospital for a year.
There are very dodgy and shady costs with US healthcare.
I have the very best healthcare available in my country (Hospital Británico). It costs U$ 150 per month. A kidney stone would probably run me in the hundreds of dollars. 3k would probably bankrupt me.
http://www.hospitalbritanico.org.uy
Some differences are that doctors in the U.S. are paid an order of magnitude more, and I've heard hospitals have legions of well-paid administrators doing paperwork for insurance companies, which will have legions of people doing paperwork on their side, and government doing its bit, and lawyers doing their thing. All that money is obviously not going directly into healthcare, it's basically bureaucracy friction. I suspect "real" healthcare costs, even factoring expensive U.S. doctors, would be shockingly cheap.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
He meant the benevolent kind of empire. Since the US doesn't annex territories for itself and keep them as colonies as part of some Commonwealth Realm. Although the US could have if it tried, with the slightest flex of a myoblast, in the last great war. It still can. Pretty sure that's what he/she meant.
If you just thought it were Ireland, Wales And Scotland that have an often uneasy relationship with England, you'd be surprised to learn who else bows to the English Crown. (And yes Scotland has an upcoming referendum in 2014 on the issue of independence from the UK.[1] This is widely believed to be a losing proposition.) Commonwealth Realm Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, J…
As an aside, "bowing to the English Crown" - the BAT, South Georgia, BIOT don't actually have any native population, and Pitcairn only has a population of 60.
Re: Hacker News Folks Get Long Overdue Thanks
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a near miss with MS 8 years ago. Several MRIs, spinal taps, blood work, etc. Before insurance: about $25k. After insurance: $3k. Double hernia surgery was a couple grand out of pocket. Not all insurance is the same.$34k is robbery.
Let's put it this way: 34 k would pay for the original poster's trip to my country (Uruguay), the best treatment available, and he'd have money left over - heck, 34 k would probably pay the doctor's wages on that hospital for a year. There are very dodgy and shady costs with US healthcare. I have the very best healthcare available in my country (Hospital Británico). It costs U$ 150 per month. A kidney stone would pro…
I don't disagree.
Tell me something: Suppose you go in to get your left kidney removed, but the doc removes the right one by accident. What are your options? Law suit? What would you expect to get in settlement?