It was rather odd this morning... had to take Ben to the doctor's, as we suspected an ear infection (turns out it's the muscle that joins the jaw to the skull that's become inflamed - chances are it's a stress thing, so he's home resting today). It used to be bulk-billed. Which means the most of the cost of the visit was sent directly to Medicare (government health program... basically, the government pays for the bulk of medical bills with some, if any, co-payment, which is called the "gap"). Now, at least at the place Ben goes but possibly everywhere (I haven't looked it up yet), it costs $30, which is just under half the total cost. Unless you're a pensioner, on a Health Care Card (another govn. program for those earning under a certain amount) or under 16. The rest goes to Medicare. We were just like, What?! And then you get the prescription, and you have to usually pay full price for it cos we're not on a Health Care Card...
But we were discussing it on the way home, and we know that we are so lucky compared to many other places, because we can actually afford this. I mean, we watched Michael Moore's Sicko the other week, so it's all rather fresh in our minds at how good our country actually is Our prescriptions, even when paying full price, are probably again, about $30. Depending on the drug of course, as there are very expensive ones out there, but still.

Anyway, talking of prescriptions, I should go get it filled now that chemists'll be open. I just had to share my observation/morning/thoughts with a forum of mostly Americans.

Well...I'm not a fan of Michael Moore's "Sicko", honestly.

The area that I live in is one of the most government-funded regions in our country. Like, working as a cashier, well over 2/3 of the groceries bought are bought on government money; I'm thinking that 3/4 would still be a conservative estimate. When I work at the optometrist's office, the vast majority of our patients are on Medicare and/or Medicaid; we share a waiting room with a family doctor and their patients are even more on government programs.

Having lived here and seen this, I honestly am not a fan of government-funded healthcare. People take advantage of the system right and left. If you have to pay $30 for an office visit, you'll not go unless it's needed - like today, Ben needed healthcare. However, here in my little town, most of the patients waiting at the family doctor's office don't need healthcare. You see the same kids in there all the time for some little cold or general "not feeling well", or maybe they even managed to get a flu. There's not much the doctor can do for that...and if they didn't have free healthcare, they'd just buy the kid a decongestant and move on.

I could go on... butthat's just my view of govt. healthcare, having lived in the middle of it and seen too much non-good result.

Oh yeah, there are people that do that. Some of my FB friends are young, single mums and the amount of times they're complaining about colds, and trips to the doctors or ER... for goodness sake, just give the kid some decongestant and let them rest! I with you on that one.
But at the same time, when you need healthcare for more than just the local GP, like surgery and dental work... if you can't afford private insurance, there's no way you could afford what you need. Sure, there may be a waiting list, but if it's an emergency, you get in straight away.

Ughh, don't get me started on this! This is something I feel very strongly about, and all I can say is that - despite its faults - the NHS is soooooooo much better than anything America or Australia can offer. We are so blessed to have completely free healthcare in this country, and I can't imagine being without it.

And you pay $30 for a prescription??? That is ridiculously expensive! I don't pay for mine, but here they are about £7 and I thought that was a lot of money!

I've only ever once had to go to the doc- to get stitches and that was 15 years ago... I've only had to get a prescription once too after Archer was born and I think that was 3$... The healthcare here is free. I had to have an op after he was born and could have stayed a few nights in hospital ( urgh no thanks... I wanted home straight away!) and it woulda been totally free. No insurance, nothing...
Then again we are a tiny country with hardly any overstayers/illegal immigrants so from that aspect it is a little easier to control. NZ used to be such a 'she'll be right' nation and didn't make a fuss over a sniffle...but now people give their kids antibiotics for hiccups it seems! *rolleyes*

Sensible place. Sounds like you are just like us!

Yeah, the English system is another step better than us, France is good too apparently!!

I clearly have a fair amount of the independent American in me...but despite all the stories I've heard of wonderful free healthcare, I don't want it. For one thing, it's not free - you who have only been to the doc once or twice in your whole lives are paying for the people who are there getting antibiotics for everything. For another, it means that the government controls yet another aspect of my life. I don't want my kids getting all their vaccinations, and I don't want the government knowing every time they don't feel well. I want to work primarily with alternative medicine. However, if the government pays for it all, the government has to know all.

Can private medicine be expensive? Yes. But, it is quite rare that someone really can't afford what they need and therefore doesn't get it. Like...I've never really heard of such a case. We have government healthcare for the poor, though I'd argue that's more the place of the church...but whatever, we have govt healthcare for the truly poor. We have it for a lot of people who aren't truly poor.

Anything that goes into the U. S. government ends up costing the people more because the government has such ridiculous overhead bureaucracy costs. It's gonna cost us more if the government is in control.

And...Canada's healthcare is what's held up as an example here in the U. S... I saw a stat the other day (from an academic source - not just some random blog ) that 1/4 of patients who are treated in Canada end up with some form of infection or disease due to their treatment. I'm not interested in that.

As some of you may know, I'm pretty a-political, so this is going to be one of the very rare times that I do this: Please don't take it as an ad hominum attack!

I simply don't understand why free healthcare cannot be a good thing. I would much rather take the risk of some people abusing the system and getting too many antibiotics and know that the healthcare system is there for me if I have a medical emergency, as opposed to paying just for what I need and not having it there if required. I spent 10 days in intensive care some years ago; while there, my dad (who loves financial things) casually asked a nurse how much my stay would have cost. The answer: £10,000 (you'll have to convert it, I'm afraid...). That alone would have wiped out a fairly good proportion of my parents' savings, and it doesn't take into account the other c.9/10 weeks that I've spent in hospital over the last decade, plus numerous prescriptions, visits to specialists, etc. Honestly, if they had had to pay for all that, I doubt that I would be getting any wedding money or, worse, my parents may not even have been able to afford to put my younger sister through university. No one should ever have to choose between health and a good standard of living. Moreover, my parents are not that badly off; if my dad had a much worse job, the repercussions on their finances could have been so much worse.

As for no examples of people suffering because of this, only last week I watched a programme that had a family from Georgia in, where the daughter had cerebral palsy. The family ran their own business and, having been hit by the recession, they were struggling but refused to lay off their staff. Hence, their own child was having to forego necessary treatment because they couldn't afford to pay for it. I'm sorry, any system that doesn't allow people access to healthcare is pretty barbaric to my mind.

Yeah, I agree with Elisabeth... I guess mostly, the American mindset is that free health care = socialism and most Americans think socialism=bad. (Well, maybe not most, because if that was the case we'd have a completely different president, but...)

For example, at the moment I am currently uninsured. I have the option to get free or greatly reduced insurance through the state, but I'm choosing not to... I don't want the government paying for me (or to be more specific, tax-payers ) I am physically able to work a job (and would be if it were up to me, but my parents don't really want me to yet... anyways) - for a physically disabled person it may be different, though I still think the church should help them, not the gov't. What will I do if I get in an accident or something? I suppose I'll just have to claim Phil. 4:19 and in the meantime I do everything I can to stay healthy and treat myself with natural remedies when I get a little sick.

******************************************************************************************

Side note: I think it's important to remember that all of this - increased government control - is going to happen anyways, whether we like it or not, because it's part of God's plan for the end times and what's going to happen during the tribulation with the anti-christ and his one world system.

Out where I live, all we have is a clinic and we never go there except when it's absolutely neccessary. If we get a cold, my Mom gives us homeopathic medicine. I've only been there to get shots and get a physical for a Brio mission trip.

My sister split her head open on a piece of sharp metal and my dad stitched it up!!!! He bent a needle and boiled it and some thread and just sewed it up; no pain meds no nothing. She didn't even have a stick to bite on.

My family just doesn't like the clinic very well for a number of reasons. They have a reputation for misdiagnosing and a boy I know was shipped out to Anchorage for something and given some medication for it. Turns out, (once he was re-diagnosed in Anchorage) he had apendicitis (sorry, I don't know how to spell it) and the medication they gave him was something you should NEVER give to someone with appendicitis.

The dentist at the clinic is also not very good. He can't do root canals so rather than refer the person to another dentist not affiliated with the clinic, he tells people they have to go to Anchorage which means they have to sit in town in pain until they can get a flight out.

And the clinic wants to give you antibiotics for every little thing you have. My parents don't believe in antibiotics for stuff like colds or the flu or a sore throat.

I just cannot believe that you think a government healthcare system is a sign of the end times. My goodness, this is people's health we're talking about! If you want to opt out of the system here, and you have the money to do so, then you can easily go private - but for all those people who don't have the money, surely it's better that there is a system that can catch them and treat them?