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Europe Medical Care is Better than the US. Time to End the Myth.

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posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 04:22 AM
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reply to post by poet1b
 


I think the U.S has the best and the worst health care in the world.

If money is no object then the U.S is the place to be in terms of receiving state of the art treatments.

If you don't have money then the U.S falls way behind Europe.

The U.K used to have an amazing National Health Service, but since the advent of privatization first ruthlessly deployed under the watch of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan it has been systematically sabotaged by all subsequent governments. The drive in the U.K is toward private health care and the hospitals in the U.K are a source of constant scandals as they are skeletal in terms of budget these days and service provision suffers to the point of patient abuse on a VERY frequent basis.

Having received health care in both a U.K and French hospital I would say that France is providing better health care than the U.K these days. The French are still more people focussed.

I think that at its peak the U.K National Health Service was a great model. I do not think that business has any place in health care provision (that is making profits out of illness). Business means getting the most profit out of the least investment. That translates as giving the very meanest and leanest care you can get away with while maximising your return, cutting costs and stream lining at every opportunity.

Yes, if you are very rich and want that extra little quality that money can buy then of course that's fine. I am not disputing that. Yet because we have such a HUGE economic imbalance in our societies and have these levels of poverty and hardship for a huge percentage of our populations we must provide health care that meets our modern needs. It is a HUMAN RIGHT and every government should not shirk the responsibilities it has towards its electorate.

This matters to me on two fronts. Firstly, I genuinely CARE about my fellow man, woman and child and demand the very best treatment for people whether they have money or not. Secondly, I know that where health care is deficient poverty will be rampant and some pretty hideous diseases may return.

Modern and adequate state health care provision must exist alongside private health care for those who wish to have a choice. Yet I would go as far to say that even the very wealthiest still have the right to state health care if they prefer.

The governments have us all penny pinching and deceived into thinking that we are all so hard up. Yet the top 1% are still paying less tax than you and I; they don't pay tax because their accountants fix that for them.

I see a world before me that is still barbaric, full of a lot of greedy little children who don't know any better.

My favourite words are "egalitarian", "altruistic" and "caring".I care about my own experience of this world and don't want to be haunted with poverty and misery in my life or in anyone else's.


edit on 24-2-2014 by Revolution9 because: grammar correction.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 04:48 AM
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reply to post by Revolution9
 


I think the UK still has an amazing Healthcare system - in comparison with all but the most advanced countries we are up there. I'd also argue against funding being described as "skeletal".

With a budget in 13/14 of almost £110 Billion, that is spending per head (man, woman and child - sick or not) of almost £2000 annually, which is only a fraction less per head than France.

It is ironic you mention France as some sort of ideal, yet in the same post rail against "privatisation" - the model the current Government is trying to deploy in the UK, where the NHS funds but patients/doctors have a choice of treatment from a variety of providers - is the exact same model used in France. In fact, a citizen in France is expected to meet some of their healthcare costs themselves on top of taxation unless they have a chronic illness.

However, despite trying to copy the French model (which is apparently one of the best in the world), reforms are being held back by those who want to hang on to a 1950's model of healthcare provision in some sort of misguided attempt to "preserve" the NHS, when in actual fact they are making it worse.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 05:15 AM
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reply to post by stumason
 


Thanks for your reply.

When it comes to actual patient care my experience was much better in a Paris state hospital than in a U.K state hospital. If it was different I would say so.

I think we can both agree that the NHS is in a state of decline and that it has known better days. That is why I am saying that it used to be one of the best models around for health care provision by the state.

Shall we just continue down this road then? Perhaps we can take a fresh look and devise some new system that meets the needs of all.

All I am stating is that the poorest people need to be looked after. Whatever system can be devised to give quality care to those who are on the lowest income is desirable is it not? Or do you think that we should just give up on the poorest?

So what is your opinion on this? Is there any lessons we can learn from our collected International previous models to bring a better system for the U.S and all of us?

Yes it is skeletal health care in the U.K now. I KNOW because I used to be a nurse and a care worker. It has deteriorated so badly that I could no longer do that kind of work any longer.

Or are you still so nationalistically "proud to be British" to accept criticism of its failing Health Care system that leaves elderly people dehydrated in corridors to the point of death?

That does happen and lots of other nasty little abuses of care that really are a result of dwindling budgets and poor management.

I've made my point any way. All I care about is the adequate provision of health care for poor people here at home, in the U.S and any where else. It is a genuine human right for all or do you disagree with that? Do you think it is a human right just for some. What do you think? You told me what you think is wrong with what I think, but you offer no suggestions? It is easy to criticise another. Much harder to be brave and express your own motives and concerns. What are your motives regarding health care?



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 05:39 AM
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reply to post by Revolution9
 


First off, no I am not so "proud to be British" I can't accept criticism, but rather I am actually quite keen to not let sensationalised news reports over isolated incidents be represented as the whole - we can do that with any system the world over if we wanted to. Case in point, you bring up "elderly patients left dehydrated" as if it happens all the time, everywhere.

Secondly, you ask what my opinion is - surely this was clear? I support the reforms being brought in as it will actually make the NHS very similar to the French system which, I agree, works very well (but still isn't perfect, so let's not pretend, okay?). Those opposed to reforms want to hang on to an old style of healthcare provision which was originally conceived 60+ years ago in what might as well be another Age when it comes to medicine and attitudes.

Thirdly, no the NHS is not in "decline". If anything, the NHS has vastly improved since the 1990's as Labour poured vast sums of money in with the Tories also increasing the budget and attempting to reform the system to be more efficient - the difference from a 1990's NHS visit and one today is HUGE but of course I bow to your superior knowledge of it because, well, your a nurse apparently and you used a hospital once.

I don't know anything, however, it's not like I've got a brother who has had chronic kidney failure for the past 20+ years, or a father with heart problems or having used it myself on numerous occasions for "injuries sustained". No, you're right, the NHS is in "decline"....

Let's just ignore the wealth of data from a variety of agencies, such as WHO, who show healthcare as actually improving in the UK and well ahead of a good many other industrialised nations, including the USA.

It is obvious you've formed an opinion based largely on media misrepresentation, evident by mentioning incidents which anyone who has used the NHS knows are few and far between (and happen worldwide) and also if you really did know you're stuff, you'd know the NHS budget hasn't "dwindled" in well over a decade, in fact between 1999 and 2009, the budget was increased by 92%!!

EDIT: Incidentally, 63% of the UK, when asked, felt that the Press (like the Daily Fail which loves to paint Doom everywhere) was unfairly critical of the NHS and singled out isolated incidents and attempted to paint it as the norm.
edit on 24/2/14 by stumason because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 05:58 AM
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It is not just medical care. What people don't get that when it comes down to who controls your life here in the US you have two choices. The unelected wealthy or usually corrupt but elected politicians. Politicians can be removed by election. We cannot remove undue influence of wealthy people on our system.

We the people have ZERO say in the board rooms of corporations. It is why most companies no longer have retirement plans for employee's. Its not they could not afford it. It is they could not afford it AND afford to pump huge sums of money into swelling billionaire accounts.

I chose elected officials all day. AT least then I can attempt to remove them by motivating other humans to help.

No reason at all to pay a third party for insurance. Just another money grab for the wealthy. Single payer government controlled insurance is the cheapest option and wont hurt healthcare one bit. It will hurt wealthy insurance billionaires though.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 06:15 AM
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reply to post by stumason
 


Well I make a solemn promise to you my friend. In fact, here is my work history;

1988 - 90 Social Services Assistant Officer (hostel for people with profound and multiple mental and physical disabilities).

1990 Registered Mental Nurse student (left after three months because I was told I would have to be active in administering Electro Convulsive Therapy on patients or face discipline).

1995 - 1998 - Assistant Office with Social Services again.

200 - 2003 - Private Carer and Nursing Assistant. Lived with an elderly man with advanced dementia at his home and nursed him to his death. Did voluntary live in work with a gentleman with profound M.S and a gentleman with a severe brain injury. Also worked as Nursing Assistant in Social Services home for elderly. Worked with another gentleman with M.S and nursed him to his death. Various shifts on psychiatric wards as Nursing Assistant.

2003 - 2005 - Officer with a city council working at various homeless hostels and night shelter in an inner city area. Also moonlighted as Officer in two probation hostels (one for sex offenders) and also some shifts at a Children's Home.

Since 2005 too burnt out with it all to return.

Well that's my experience and how much I tried to help people. They burnt me out with bullying at work and too poor wages so had to pull out. Most of the time I was pretty appalled with the way things were run and the misery of work conditions, both publically and privately. This was all in the U.K.

Just so you know that I am being sincere and do speak from some experience.

I just do care a lot about people, particularly those most vulnerable and I think it is a vital civil matter to us all to see that the poorest people have their needs met. You and I must agree that there are some very vulnerable groups. Indeed we are all vulnerable when we are ill and when we get old.

I am not in contention with what you say. We both agree that the National Health Service Model has much to boast of. I am just very concerned about the budgeting. I was just trying really to nudge the British conscience and say "Hey, the French are giving better than you guys these days. Come on guys, lets not ruin a good thing".

Yes I do think that our health system has something to teach the U.S, too. That is if we would ensure its survival and seek to protect a system that can keep us civilized as human beings. It will deliver us to a great extent from a lot of unnecessary abuse and misery that we all have to have thrown in our faces every day.








edit on 24-2-2014 by Revolution9 because: spelling.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 06:23 AM
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Xeven
It is not just medical care. What people don't get that when it comes down to who controls your life here in the US you have two choices. The unelected wealthy or usually corrupt but elected politicians. Politicians can be removed by election. We cannot remove undue influence of wealthy people on our system.

We the people have ZERO say in the board rooms of corporations. It is why most companies no longer have retirement plans for employee's. Its not they could not afford it. It is they could not afford it AND afford to pump huge sums of money into swelling billionaire accounts.

I chose elected officials all day. AT least then I can attempt to remove them by motivating other humans to help.

No reason at all to pay a third party for insurance. Just another money grab for the wealthy. Single payer government controlled insurance is the cheapest option and wont hurt healthcare one bit. It will hurt wealthy insurance billionaires though.


In all honesty as a U.K observer I must agree.

Something state run could be done quite cheaply. It is a matter of some kind of Health Insurance and some tax provision. I have never minded paying either of those if they are spent properly on fundamental resources and proportionate to our incomes. Health, Education and Welfare are the magic ingredients of a civilized society meeting the needs of its citizens. We CAN afford it, too.
edit on 24-2-2014 by Revolution9 because: punctuation.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 06:33 AM
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aLLeKs
As a German, I just don't understand why the people in the USA hat so much on Obamacare.
You always have the feeling, that they instantly feel like they witness a communist take over or invasion.
I just don't understand it, is the cold war sentiment still that much present?
Why do you instantly call people communists, when they want to improve your healthcare system?
I will nevery understand how even poor people, that probably have problems affording the medical costs, are against it.


Obamacare isn't Europe's version of care or England's NHS. Not by a LOOONG shot and perhaps that is what the ACA actually started as in 2009 before round after round of congressional "compromise" tore out whatever good it still held, to leave the crap and the pain that SHOULD have come along side that good stuff.

What we're left with now is the worst of both worlds. Government over-stepping and meddling down to the personal life of the individual....but with deductible levels of insurance that will see $5,000 to as much as $15,000 required in out of pocket spending PER YEAR...before insurance benefits are even seen or enjoyed beyond specific things Uncle Sam says we WILL have regardless. Of course, that stuff (Like vaccine shots) will be affordable to free...but anything not favored will and IS breaking people's budgets just to maintain worthless insurance for.

That is why we hate Obamacare with a passion bordering on extreme. We've lost a Medical system world leaders came HERE to have things done with, just over a decade ago....and now see out own citizens going to places like Mexico and Costa Rica for Medical Tourism because a Mexican clinic has better service than an American one. (sigh)

Obama has just about set us on a path to become like the childhood ghetto slums he grew up in, overseas.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 06:52 AM
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Wrabbit2000

aLLeKs
As a German, I just don't understand why the people in the USA hat so much on Obamacare.
You always have the feeling, that they instantly feel like they witness a communist take over or invasion.
I just don't understand it, is the cold war sentiment still that much present?
Why do you instantly call people communists, when they want to improve your healthcare system?
I will nevery understand how even poor people, that probably have problems affording the medical costs, are against it.


Obamacare isn't Europe's version of care or England's NHS. Not by a LOOONG shot and perhaps that is what the ACA actually started as in 2009 before round after round of congressional "compromise" tore out whatever good it still held, to leave the crap and the pain that SHOULD have come along side that good stuff.

What we're left with now is the worst of both worlds. Government over-stepping and meddling down to the personal life of the individual....but with deductible levels of insurance that will see $5,000 to as much as $15,000 required in out of pocket spending PER YEAR...before insurance benefits are even seen or enjoyed beyond specific things Uncle Sam says we WILL have regardless. Of course, that stuff (Like vaccine shots) will be affordable to free...but anything not favored will and IS breaking people's budgets just to maintain worthless insurance for.

That is why we hate Obamacare with a passion bordering on extreme. We've lost a Medical system world leaders came HERE to have things done with, just over a decade ago....and now see out own citizens going to places like Mexico and Costa Rica for Medical Tourism because a Mexican clinic has better service than an American one. (sigh)

Obama has just about set us on a path to become like the childhood ghetto slums he grew up in, overseas.


Very eloquent indictment from a U.S citizen. That is what I am seeing as an outsider, too.

In all honesty I think the U.S could benefit from may I dare even say it... even a Federal Health System (I know many U.S citizens will hate that concept), but it is a realistic possibility that would slot into the U.S style of government without a hitch.

Private health care and state provision health care can co exist. It need not be all of one and none of another.

I am gunning for a better health system for you guys in the U.S because I know it is a realistic possibility and could benefit the lives of some many poor Americans in a very profound way and ease the burden of this existence that people have some security that they will receive adequate health care even if they have no money. It's a horrible weight of insecurity to carry and this can be resolved. Or is that too idealistic?



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 08:18 AM
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The advantages we Europeans have had i think is that we nationalized the health care profession when it was quite cheap and there wasn't all the drugs/treatments all costing mega money along with the ambulance chasing lawyers so prevalent across the pond, one of the main reasons for the NHS wasn't some "hippy love fest commie crap" but a view that soon the cold war would rear its ugly head and thus large numbers of people would need to be mobilised and they found at the start of WW2 that due to people not affording to pay for healthcare that large numbers of potential recruits were having to be fixed up before being able to be used as cannon fodder so it was better to spend a bit before hand to have a populous ready and it also suited a lot of rich owners of factories as they wouldn't have to run their own schemes and spend money paying out and last but not least it was deemed that in times of peace that a fit workforce paid more taxes than an unfit one and the cost was less than the lost tax income (at the time)



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 08:26 AM
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reply to post by poet1b
 


Interesting....for the disease I have...Europe was way better at handling it. I will admit I had some special circumstances with some people I knew but I was highly impressed in Europe and miserable in America...Now im with the VA health system and its better than both...

When I was in Germany I got what I needed with no problem..in America they made me take about 11k worth of tests that had nothing to do with anything even though I was already diagnosed in Europe and in the America....every time I saw a new American doctor they made me redo the majority of the 11k worth of tests just to make sure its what I have.
edit on 24-2-2014 by cosmicexplorer because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 09:16 AM
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groingrinder

aLLeKs
As a German, I just don't understand why the people in the USA hat so much on Obamacare.
You always have the feeling, that they instantly feel like they witness a communist take over or invasion.
I just don't understand it, is the cold war sentiment still that much present?
Why do you instantly call people communists, when they want to improve your healthcare system?
I will nevery understand how even poor people, that probably have problems affording the medical costs, are against it.


Obamacare does not improve the health care system. Europeans seem to be deceived by what Obamacare is. What it is is a mandate that everyone buy insurance. It was written by the insurance industry themselves. It provides no care whatsoever. It does not make health care affordable or more available.


The mandate was not written by the insurance companies it was written by the Heritage Foundation a right wing "think tank". Many people of the GOP thinks companies should be able rob the people blind and the mandate was a way to do it. If you check the medical industry has the most lobbyist on capital hill so they are lining many pockets to get what they want.

And how can you say that a law that prohibits insurance companies to deny people due to preexisting conditions doesn't improve the system. Many people that cry about the ACA always screamed it has death panels which it doesn't never said a thing about insurance companies that does have death panels. Insurance companies deny treatment even though people pay for coverage saying that the cost of the treatment is too much. So why have a for profit medical system when it is nothing but a failure.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 09:30 AM
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aLLeKs
As a German, I just don't understand why the people in the USA hat so much on Obamacare.
You always have the feeling, that they instantly feel like they witness a communist take over or invasion.
I just don't understand it, is the cold war sentiment still that much present?
Why do you instantly call people communists, when they want to improve your healthcare system?
I will nevery understand how even poor people, that probably have problems affording the medical costs, are against it.


Obama care is not health care, its not what the rest of the free world has for universal health care. Its some kind of hellish invention to force most people off their medical plans, BUT in a twist insure the poor and ghetto, but then they do have some reduced choices, perhaps death panels and denial of service.

For example, on some over view sheet of averages, the average single parent would have to pay, over 800.00 dollar per month, ie this could be 40-80% of many people's incomes, and that was for a silver plan that gave them a certain limit to how much out of pocket. You see aside from these unbelievable fees that would be designed to make most people uninsured. Now the middle is mostly uninsured. But it would also hurt all local businesses. So this would destroy the economy as well. Aside from those FEEs. They don't get medical, they still only have a couple of free visits and then have to pay out something like 8000 dollars each year before the medical plan kicks in to cover anything else.

Now as a European who has similar to Canada's health plan, do you get it? I mean its like satan and hell's health plan.
edit on 24-2-2014 by Unity_99 because: (no reason given)



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 09:51 AM
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I post about this often, but I have found the quality of care in France to be impeccable. I have never had anything close to it in America.

I hear americans say often that they think we have long waits for treatments, or certain treatments unavailable, or low quality care... none of that is true here. It is possible that in GB and Canada, they have some problems of that sort, I do not know. But in France at least, I have come to feel they really have a great system. It is multi-payer. If you are employed, then you have social security, which pays for a large part of care (70% - 100% depending), and for all serious treatments it is covered 100%. You can get an added mutual if you want (insurance, but non-profit), that will fill in any part SS doesn't cover.

We can go to any hospital or doctor we choose, state or private.... so there remains competition between them to keep up quality of care and service.

But this system is nothing like the Obamination thing, so these results do not shine any light upon what the future might hold for that.....



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 09:55 AM
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Bluesma
We can go to any hospital or doctor we choose, state or private.... so there remains competition between them to keep up quality of care and service.


That is like the system they are trying to bring in for the NHS, but a vocal minority have become so blinkered by their love for the NHS and a fear of "private business" that they want to hang on to the archaic model brought in over half a century ago.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 10:35 AM
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reply to post by Revolution9
 




Something state run could be done quite cheaply.


(wiping tears of laughter from my eyes..)

Well, there's the problem right there. Let's look at the 3 largest medical payment systems the government runs - Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.

Medicare is for age 65+ and long-term disabled persons, and who pay a modest cost, while Medicaid is for low-income people who pay basically nothing at all. CHIP is the Childrens Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage for children whose families make too much to qualify for Medicaid, and is free if you make less than $47K, and available at modest cost at higher income levels.

These 3 programs spent about $800B last year - about 23% of all federal spending. Note that the Medicaid and CHIP spending isn't a complete picture, since each state pays a part as well, which varies, but it's an average of 36% - this spending is often overlooked when discussing how much we spend on these programs. So, in sum, we spent over $900B last year on these programs - we spend more per capita than anywhere else. Yet these programs don't cover everyone - in fact, they only cover about 1/3. And we spend over $4000 for each person covered.

So, the rest of us must actually buy our own insurance, as well as provide the nearly $1T each year to cover these other programs.

The ACA (aka "Obamacare") is greatly expanding the Medicaid participation, so that even more people will be getting "free" health insurance in the future.

The fundamental problem with all this is that these programs don't leak cash, they spew it, geyser-like - the waste/fraud estimates range from a wildly optimistic 20%, to a probably-closer-to-the-truth estimate of more than 50% (waste and fraud combined.) It's apparently really easy to defraud the program, heck, some Russian diplomats were caught stealing $1.5 from Medicare, and various Russian organized crime rings have stolen hundreds of millions each.

And these programs actually reimburse doctors at-less than competitive rates - there's a formula so that if Medicare spending exceeds targets, doctor reimbursement rates are cut. Of course, the more Medicare "loses" to fraud, the more that must be spent, and so actual doctors get their reimbursements are cut. So, every year, they have to "patch" this hole in reimbursements, so all doctors don't simply refuse to see Medicare/Medicaid patients. So, there's *another* $20B we have to spend each year on the "doc fix" so that doctors actually get paid a reasonable amount for their services.

We see the ACA has just made these problems worse - insurance costs are going up, government spending going up, and the only beneficiaries are those who are getting insurance for free - those who have to pay for those "free" programs have seen their already-expensive insurance costs go higher, sometimes cancelled - with the only options available so expensive as to be unaffordable. Basically, we're once again, increasing the burden on our middle-class to benefit the poor. Trust me, it wasn't sold this way.

I was all for reform that would first look to cut costs, by reforming the multiple overlapping bureaucracies each of these programs have, and to put in strong controls to reduce the level of fraud and waste. We'd also need to look at tort reform - the amount of money lost to nuisance lawsuits for people who experience documented side-effects for drugs and treatments is obscene. Basically, there are many people who think they can take some powerful drug, and it'll cure what ails them - and if it doesn't, they sue for millions.

We also have a very expensive way of training doctors in the US - it's not uncommon for a doctor, who finally finish their residencies and can finally earn some money, over 30 years of age, and owing $200 or $300K in loans for their education. In their shortened working lifespan, they need to earn a lot of money to pay off those debts and earn a decent living.

I'd hoped we'd build a basic healthcare offering for all - like the Dutch system, or the NHS - but we took a catastrophically expensive system and reinforced the worst aspects of it, without dealing with *any* of the things that make it so costly in the first place.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 12:07 PM
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reply to post by lakesidepark
 

well i had skin cancer on my nose and i had it rebuilt with skin grafts , the result was fantastic i could not have asked for a better result .

from the first examination to the operation took no longer than four weeks then another four weeks for the second operation to tidy up and finish the grafts .

i could not have asked for better service .

this was with the british national health service .

edit on 24-2-2014 by tom.farnhill because: added further information



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 01:04 PM
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The failure of free market/corpratocracy is ruining the US.


Seriously ?

In a free market there would not be over 100 million people on government ran healthcare in the Us.

Yeah I am talking bout medicare, and medicaid who has more people on them than most EU countries.

And the 'private market' has failed.

What a effing joke.

A private market/ free market the US government would not be the largest 'private' insurer in this country.

Then there is the FACT that same government is the same people who 'regulate' it.

And the EU has better 'healthcare'.

Still a joke.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 01:06 PM
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European countries do have longer life expectancy rates, for certain. Even lower class people.


Because they have a different diet.

Diet does effect 'healthcare'.

Governments also effect healthcare.

Fiat currency also effect healthcare.

People can't compare healthcare systems of other countries.

Because no country is the same.



posted on Feb, 24 2014 @ 01:50 PM
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poet1b

I work with many Europeans these days, who currently reside in the US, and their opinion of US health care is that it stinks.

They all clearly state that medical care in Europe is much better. Even doctors agree.

What this shows is something that more and more people are starting to recognize, which is that private corporations are not always better than government, and that insurance ran medical care is horrible.

Best ranked cities.

www.usatoday.com...


Vienna, the home of Mozart and Freud, has held on to its title as the city with the highest quality of life, according to the 2014 rankings of the best places to live and work by management consultancy Mercer.

Vienna was followed by Zurich and Auckland, New Zealand. In fourth place was Munich while Vancouver, Canada, placed fifth -- the highest-ranked city in North America. Germany's Dusseldorf and Frankfurt take sixth and seventh place.
...
"Healthcare, infrastructure, and recreational facilities are generally of a very high standard. Political stability and relatively low crime levels enable expatriates to feel safe and secure in most locations."
...
The highest ranking U.S. city was San Francisco, at 27th in the poll, while New York was at number 43.


The failure of free market/corpratocracy is ruining the US.

Here is how it happened.

www.salon.com...


On August 23, 1971, Lewis Powell sent a confidential memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The memo was both a call to arms and a battle plan for a business response to its growing legion of opponents. Powell was a corporate lawyer, a former president of the American Bar Association, and a board member of eleven corporations, including Philip Morris and the Ethyl Corporation, a company that made the lead for leaded gasoline. Powell had also represented the Tobacco Institute, the research arm of the tobacco industry, and various tobacco companies. Later that year, President Richard Nixon would nominate Powell to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he served for fifteen years.
...
Powell urged new, well-funded public media campaigns to support the free enterprise system, the creation of think tanks and institutes to develop policy proposals and “direct political action” in legislative and judicial arenas. “It is time,” he argued, for “American business . . . to apply their great talents vigorously to the preservation of the system itself.” Powell’s “confidential” memo was first circulated within the Chamber of Commerce, then released in 1972 by investigative reporter Jack Anderson during the Powell Supreme Court confirmation hearings. While the document may not have been the blueprint for the rise of the Republican right that some analysts claim, its real value is as the articulation of the corporate prescription for capitalism’s ills.


This second article I have linked to is an excellent historical account of what has happened to the US since the 1970ties.

Mercer rated these places not based on health services.
Insurance corporations and health boards are in some of the places you listed and the health care for the average citizen [ not VIP] is slack, if you are poor it is worse. There is no [HDC] patient rights actively enforced in Auckland NZ and the corporation makes the calls on health, and the govt does not like to fund treatments or care that is needed.
If you have cancer in NZ[and not a vip just an average person] you will first not be diagnosed by contracted drs, then at deaths door wait, wait, put on a wait list for medical care then perhaps die. Same for any other costly treatments if you are not a VIP.
Govts being tools of the corporations make the same decisions, cost cutting is more important than saving lives and providing the level of care and treatments needed. There is an evil ACC[accident corporation commission] mandatory insurance and when you make a claim if an injury is long term it is refused. eg If an 18 year gets an injury requiring treatment ACC say its from age [degeneration] and will not fund treatment. It is so corrupt so I would not be listening to Mercer[ a hand of a corporation] .
I agree that the corporate structure based on a money model is very unhealthy for humanity.
The whole industrial medical complex is dysfunctional. Drs in New Zealand were told by the govt that their new role is keeper of the corporation's [Bank of England]money, and they only strike for higher salaries so thats sunk in.



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