Australia has universal healthcare and it’s fucking great. Sure, it’s not perfect, but the challenges aren’t bureaucratic meddling, it’s mostly funding.
I’ve had several family members receive life-saving or extremely vital operations that in the US would have bankrupted the entire family, yet in Australia the only out-of-pocket costs were car parking.
Similarly, a visit to the GP is free (if you have a bulk-billing one available) - so minor things which people in the US just “deal with” because they can’t afford a doctor’s visit can be sorted out. Subsidised medicine means prescriptions for most important medicines are very cheap, and practically free for people on social welfare benefits.
And let’s not get into the mental health aspects - like the fact people can get a number (at least six) of free sessions with a mental health professional if they need them. The social benefits of that are enormous and cannot be understated.
Look, I love visiting the US because it’s a fantastic place, but the inequality there is shocking and getting worse, particularly in places like Los Angeles.
Also: Getting a driver’s licence here wasn’t particularly onerous and, as Wolfpup points out, was focussed on the whole “making sure everyone knows how to drive” thing.
Ironically, it’s private insurance that has all the bureaucratic meddling, because investigating every single claim with a view to reducing or denying payment is critical to the insurance company managing their medical loss ratios. In the single-payer model or its regulated equivalent, the government just acts as a bill payer and not a clinical meddler.
So have I. And now, I include myself in that list. And here, too, the only out-of-pocket costs were parking. Had I been in the US, even with excellent insurance the co-pays or deductibles would likely have been frightening. According to some imbecile in another thread in a different forum, but a kindred spirit of SA, this would somehow have all been my own fault.
I once heard someone say that you tend to find more home-remedy type stuff in US drugstores than you do in Canada for just that reason. Makes sense if people tend to avoid doctor visits because of cost.
So yeah, I meant hundreds of thousands of miles too. So you were wrong, as usual. As it was your assessment that all republicans follow your verbal diarrhoea, a growing number do know how racist it was what Trump said.
I’ve used the NHS for the past 20 years and I have to say: what bureaucratic ordeal? I call up my doctor’s office, ask for an appointment, give them my name and date of birth over the phone and turn up. I turn up at Accident & Emergency, spend two minutes talking to the person at the counter and wait to be called (and usually not very long). I haven’t filled out a form in years unless you count signing the back of my prescriptions, which cost £8.60 per item no matter what the drug or patient (and are free for children under 16, pregnant women and a few other populations).
Doctors and hospitals don’t have to employ dozens of staff to deal with insurance claims, eligibility and enrolment in various individual government programs, and billing. That “bureaucratic ordeal” is the domain of the free enterprise-loving USA. When everyone is covered without question, all that bullshit goes away. So well done for being completely and utterly wrong, as usual.
If Starving Artist actually knew anything, he wouldn’t be a far-right wingnut. He’s a lot like his hero Trump that way: doesn’t know anything, doesn’t want to know anything.
I’ll give SA credit for one thing, though. After being a cheerleading advocate for Trump for a long time, he changed his mind and publicly announced the fact. Kudos for that, but all I get out of that is it took him months to realize the bleeding obvious that the rest of us have always known, and he still supports much of what the man is doing. So really, I think it’s a matter of “once an imbecile, always an imbecile”. You can see it throughout his posts, and he’s possibly at his hilarious best when he lectures those of us in civilized countries about the horrors of government involvement in health care, and the horrors of liberalism in general, always insidiously sliding its way toward communism!
Exactly. Medical staff can focus on providing medical care to patients, patients are happier because they’re not worrying if having that hernia fixed means they won’t eat again until the end of the year so their kids can have food, and medical staff can prescribe the right medicine for their patients (because their patients can afford it, because the Government says the price has to be reasonable).
This idea that “everyone gets free healthcare is unadulterated Communism” is bizarre to pretty much everyone outside the US. I, personally, am glad my taxes go to making sure that anyone who needs medical care - whether they’re a homeless person, a fast food worker, a building site manager, a CEO, or whoever - can get it for free if they need it.
Assumptions, more assumptions and less and less fact. All i’ve seen here is whining so far and liberal meandering to one another.
I know it’s a liberal board, otherwise Blank Slate saying** “White Trash”** would not be acceptable, because it is in fact, Racist. Hypocrites. I suppose its acceptable and the ‘in’ thing to do when demeaning whites, the acceptable hypocritical racism that is the new norm.
You liberals need to stop assuming all right wing people are racist or conspiring, the only thing we want to do is fix all of your mistakes. We are tired of the ‘hand holding’ of children like you, like a parent guiding a confused teen. You seem to think all conservatives secretly are on the Dark Side, which is simply not true and couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sure there are some bad ones out there, but the majority are not, and have a different plan from yours. It seems to be working out well for them, as it has for quite a while. Let it be noted, I don’t have some outstand America is #1 attitude, but more like, I want to take care of my home first, before I start catering to others. That is the proper way to manage a country. America will always be a great place, for EVERYONE who comes here, legally. The only point I was trying to convey is that it would be nice to vet and assure that we only get the best of the best as migrants now, as it will help our country… but having a good idea, that is practiced in most other developed countries, is somehow a verboten by some liberals. It is you who want to watch this country burn.
Enipla… Don’t extrapolate things to fit your agenda. Kaylasdad99 Enjoy Septimus Yes, Yes and Yes… Please don’t put strawman arguments in here Mijin I don’t objectively think that America is #1, I just care about my home before others. I want to clean my windows, before I go and start cleaning the neighbors.
By the by, I can tell you that I pay very little more in income tax than I would if I lived in the States.
Y’see, I’m a dual citizen (US and Australia) residing in Australia. I have to file a US tax return, so I can compare apples to apples.* I’m paying 10.6% more income tax than I would be paying in the States.
BUT! Income tax is the only deduction from my paycheck, here. I don’t have any state income tax. I don’t have any deductions for FICA or SS. I don’t have any deductions for any part of health insurance payments.** I don’t have to spend any money on private insurance at all, to receive full medical coverage.
I suspect, when all is said and done, I keep a larger percentage of my paycheck than resident Americans do.
*I don’t actually pay any, as the first 99,000-odd USD of my income is exempt from US taxes. Still, it’s a doddle to ignore that and figure my tax, and compare it to what I pay in Australia.
**IIRC, I had to pay some portion for my health insurance when I lived and worked in the States. I believe that’s common, especially for the rank and file, low-level workers. It’s been a while, and I welcome correction.
Cmon people, don’t be so hard on StarvingArtist…we all know those reeducation camps will be coming to Norway ANY DAY NOW. We’ll have to accept the Norweigan immigrants then (since there aren’t any more than net zero now).
Missing the point stupidly, the point was that your side, as you think, is not really unanimous on your stupid idea that what Trump said was not racist.
Point being that while you stupidly congratulate Starving Artist while he claims all Republicans and conservatives are the ones being insulted by the liberal “act” of yelling “racism” too soon, the reality is that a good number of conservatives do know that it was indeed racist what Trump did say.
And that also means that what is being observed continues: that even former supporters of Trump are souring on what he is doing and saying; so: so much about the “sage” you are cerebrating in this thread too. He is not only wrong on that as it was shown already, so the take home lesson is: be careful with the ones you lie down with, you can catch the ignorance fleas.
You’re very likely correct. It’s very common for U.S. employees who receive health insurance from their employers o be expected to pay a portion of the premium for their coverage (which commonly gets deducted from every paycheck). Over the past several decades, the amount that employees have to pay has risen noticeably (as the total cost of health insurance coverage has also risen dramatically), though most of them are likely still only paying a small fraction of the total cost.
According to this article, on average, an employee is only paying about 17% of their total health insurance premium, with the employer paying the remaining 83%. If you work for a small business that offers health insurance, you may well be paying a higher percentage (particularly if you’re getting coverage for your entire family), but even then, it’s likely that the employer is paying the majority.
Someone here may want to query Starving Artist on his no doubt extensive overseas experience that allows him to pontificate with such certainty on the hardships of living in those liberal shitholes that all y’all poor bastards inhabit. I won’t, 'cause, you know, feeding the troll and all that, but someone else might.
Anyone who wants to see what they’d be paying in the liberal shithole of Australia can go here, to the income tax estimator.
Exchange rate has been pretty stable at around .78 USD = 1 AUD.
Caveat: Australia doesn’t do filing statuses - married, single, etc. I use Married Filing separately on my US tax return, so that’s the number I’m comparing with. I’d say, though, that combining two spouses’ worth of income in that estimator would do fine, if you’re Married Filing Jointly.
Good thing that replying to what Trump is doing or saying applies to the Trolls.
BTW, my wife that came from one of those shitholes (EL Salvador) has found how much of a shithole the USA is regarding health-care, while it is true that several places in the old country are indeed shitholes with crime and murder, there are still places that are still nice. And also full of nice people and medical care that did not cost an arm and a leg.
She also thinks that what Trump did say was racist and personally insulting too.
I did not miss the point. Calling countries “shitholes” in and of itself is not racist. End of story. Those searching for an angle or a motive may find otherwise. That is all there is to it and the entire point of my argument.
