There are plenty of horror stories about the U.S. healthcare system; for a supposedly advanced nation, the inability to provide basic, aff...
There are plenty of horror stories about the U.S. healthcare system; for a supposedly advanced nation, the inability to provide basic, affordable care to ordinary Americans is baffling to Europeans, especially.
Sometimes U.S. citizens need to travel abroad to see exactly what they are missing; a visit to the emergency room is traumatic enough, it seems ridiculously unfair to saddle someone with years of debt too.
Back in 2006, Nashville, Tennessee-based author Mary Robinette Kowal was in Iceland working as a puppeteer on a children’s television show called Lazytown. One day, while doing a regular check, she found a lump. “This wasn’t the first time I’d found a lump, but there’s always a sense of dread, Mary Robinette told . “Even though I knew it was probably nothing, because there’s no history of breast cancer in my family, there’s still a chance that it is going to be a problem.”
“I was dreading the process of having to navigate a healthcare system in a foreign language. I assumed that it would be as complicated as it was here, with the added challenge of not speaking much Icelandic.”
So began Mary Robinette’s (amazingly short) journey through the Icelandic healthcare system. She couldn’t speak highly enough of the professional, efficient and astonishingly cheap service, as well as the country as a whole. “I love it and would move back in a heartbeat,” she told us. “The landscape is stunningly gorgeous!”
The post sparked a discussion about the merits of various healthcare systems around the world, with people sharing their own eye-opening experiences.
Expanding on her thoughts about the situation at home, Mary Robinette believes that more exposure to other nation’s experiences could benefit many American’s attitudes toward their own healthcare. “I think that we tend to see the environment that we’re in as normal, so most Americans have no idea that there are other ways of doing things,” she said.
“My normal experience, here, in the US, is one of frustration every time I interact with the insurance industry. I wrote that Twitter thread as I was in the midst of arguing with health insurance for a vital medication for a family member. In fact, I’m still fighting with them. It’s a medication that they covered last month and this month they aren’t. The contrast is frustrating.”
“At every turn, it’s clear that choices are being made from the accounting office, not for the patient’s best interests. I’ve told this story over the years to other Americans and they all have the same complete shock at how easy the experience was.”
Of course, we pay for it thru tax, but that number, % as you will, is backed into the tax we pay, as said earlyer, of 33 % standard income tax, with no overtime etc, of that, 16% goes to state health care, or social care etc, different names on the same baby, and the rest ( 17%) is split between state and comuntiy tax, but thats it, child care and comuting is what sucks cash, child care pr, snotty thing is right around 300 +/- some green backs pr month, again depends by large what level the local Gov suport, there are places in Norway where they pay you to stay, more or less.
ReplyDeleteWe have our problems, of course, with this latest epidemic cluster f....s called centralisation, large entirys with large number of bosses, the perfect shit storm to ruin any large org, and this contrals arent cheep, but somehow this have been the mantra, like the idiot politicians whom many have never had any kind of deasent job, its called nepotism etc, have to do something, they simply cant leave something that actually worked to create an expencive monster sucking founds because it have to be build, instead of improving what exists.
Right winged, huh, to me, the only party that infact have gone against this centralisation, and the insane exponential growth of road taxations where the started just 52 new ones on an city with 600 000 inhabitants, was the only one that is comunistic, hehehe, ohh.... f.... the irony, huh, cockservatives.
What lacks is an reality cheek, where and to what goes our f... tax mooneys, do you know, and do they simply just throw us something while the tax levels rise linearly every f..... year.
And yet we have no mooney to do anything apart from sending it to be sucked into an massive black hole called NGOs, Aid, to wars, wars, dumbasses costs.
Tow things people whom travels to the state must be aware of, health and police, both deadly if aproatched wrong, and I know they like cards like the one I have, in the UssA, that have unlimited range.
if not, the bill will kill you, to me, its downright f.... scary.
AN personal note: And then comes the cost of medics like Insulin, thank God my wife is here, despite that, yeah I even expirience hypoglycemia, ( if I had done the standard reaction and given her Insulin it would kill her within some few hourse, she barely made if, despite me been unable to do something other than call for the ambulance always messure first, always or just call the meds) acidification of the blood, aka 25 or something, 3 days in intensive care, with more tubes than my car have on it, 3 days, cost more to park my car than treatment incl ambulance.
Your countrys health care is seriouslly f....
peace
Iceland has great healthcare compared to the US. Now all they need is open borders.
ReplyDeleteThing about universal health care in America is that it would be ran by liberals. If you know what is happening to conservatives on social media the apply that to health care. If you think I being paranoid, think about Rand Paul that got blind sided attacked by a surgeon.
ReplyDeleteAll my friends who were exposed to US health care or doctors died miserably! Of course there might be one or two good doctors in the whole USA.
ReplyDeleteThe description looks more like system efficiency than taxpayer supported health care being at work. If one detects a lump in a breast, obviously the concern is cancer. Why would one need to go to a GP for a referral? An oncologist is in a better position to make a diagnoses. All of the steps from the doctor confirming the lump through direct means and down the path with a couple of different machines should be done in the way described. If the mammogram and ultrasound results indicated the possibility of cancer or were inconclusive, a biopsy should be done right there during the same visit. The doctor or lab tech should be able to see clear evidence of cancer, but if there is any question, a sample can be sent out for a more in depth look which might just be a good idea all around. For just the cyst, an appointment can be made to have it removed or left alone if it's likely to dissipate on it's own. 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish?
ReplyDeleteThere needs to be some laws that let doctors do what they need to do without having to get approval from a finance major at some insurance company. It's not good for the patient, the doctor and it winds up costing more anyway. To balance the law, doctors that are found committing fraud should be punished more severely.
Iceland actually takes percentage wise more refugees than Nazi USA which causes the stream of refugees coming to Europe by supporting Israel and insane wars in Africa.
ReplyDeleteIceland has great people who get thing done right the first time.
ReplyDeletecivilization is where everything works the way it is supposed to the first time you try it!
forget the USA it died on 911 and will never return.
Iceland is the home of the only people on earth who fought a volcano and won.
Now they use it for heat and power,even their city buses run on clean hydrogen.
Lets open the borders to Iceland, add 350 million people, legions of methamphetamine, heroin, alcoholics, homeless using the ER as the free clinic, and see what happens to the efficiency. Just for an experiment. Oh yeah throw in lawyers suing for anything less than optimal recovery.....There is a solution somewhere, but I just don't think it's gonna be a simple fix.
ReplyDeleteAll wars a caused by Jewish bankers! Fuck the Jews! Fuck Israel! Fuck the Evangelical turds of USA.
ReplyDeleteThat was truly idiotic.
ReplyDeleteWhat can you expect in a warmongering country? Its all about money here. They wage war all over the world on behalf of the mega corporations and Israel and special interests and it takes money. They stole the Social Security funds to balance the budget. What does that tell you about the US government? They give illegals money destined for our senior citizen programs. Every lying politician has their hand out for money, like the Clintons. Politicians don't give a damn about anyone except themselves. They are nearly all sociopaths! The more illegals they let in the more money they can steal until we are broke and third world. There are some third world countries that have decent medical programs without bankrupting the patient. The kazarian or jew mafia in Hollywood has propagandized you to believe you live in a holy paradise. Now some of you self righteous USA'ns might say "if you are so unhappy living here go to another country"! Well that is the retort of the ignorant brain dead a**hole that cannot face the truth and help solve the problem. Getting to the point of affordable medical care, it was just that not many years ago. My son was born in 1970 and cost $650 for the hospital and Dr. l had no insurance, paid for in 3 months. What is that cost now? Likely over $20,000! Its a big circus act today between the insurance companies, big pharma, hospitals, Doctors and government to suck you dry and enslave you further with debt. Finally, there is more than enough tax money to pay for free Citizens health care if we stop the senseless wars and hold politicians accountable.
ReplyDeleteSpoken like a true liberal.
ReplyDeleteEven more idiotic. Are you trying to make "conservatives" look bad?
ReplyDelete