Shoutbox

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7032155.stm
Opinions?

Wow, I don't see that as funny but more sad.  The kid's mother is working at Burger King, probably getting minimum wage and the father is disabled so they would be struggling to live and have no other way of getting the father to the hospital other than by the son driving.  This is why I prefer the Australian health system (even with all of its flaws) over the American system, at least if we need transport to a hospital it is free (as long as you have cover, which everyone is Queensland does at least).

Unfortunately it seems like we may start to head more towards an American system soon .

Are there any advantages to the American Rip-off, evil bastard system at all?

Well you wouldn't find that happening in Britain, its just funny to know that you got kids driving around in America.

Wow, some things are really unbelievable these days

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Originally posted by aNILEator
Are there any advantages to the American Rip-off, evil bastard system at all?

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Since no one authority has a monopoly on healthcare, it leads to better quality of service, lower waiting times, and more doctors per patient.

Also, because it is based on the free market, drugs are developed faster and more drugs are available quicker, also owing to the fact that public bodies tend to have a lot of red tape, and a large top down management structure, which makes it quite hard for changes to be passed down.

However, the benefits of a completely private healthcare service come at a major cost that basic healthcare is only available to those who can afford it.

At least in a public healthcare service, if you can't afford your own healthcare, it is provided for you, even if it isn't as good as a private service. And even then, if you can afford better healthcare, you can always go private.

What we pay in tax to the health service, Americans have to pay double in insurance.

In Australia we have both public and private health care.  Our public health care has been criticized a lot recently, but in reality it works well and the private system is there for those who want to pay not to wait.  We have cheap drugs (in many cases) because of government subsidies and our paramedics work for the government.  Our systems may not change quickly, but you don't need to change quickly if you are doing things correctly.  Health always loses lots of money and only a government can really make it affordable for everyone, which IMHO is the humane thing to do and there should be no justification that is good enough to privitise any required service (this includes water, electricity, telecommunications and health).  This is because these industries can charge whatever they like and you are basically forced to pay it because you need it to live in today's society.

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Originally posted by markee
In Australia we have both public and private health care.  Our public health care has been criticized a lot recently, but in reality it works well and the private system is there for those who want to pay not to wait.

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But lets think about why it's been criticised..We have 2 main levels of Government who want to play the blame each other game rather than sorting through the issues presented and not to mention we have so many overseas bureaucrats who think that by cutting costs you can provide better health care. Not sure exactly which State of Australia you live in, but recently here in Sydney over the last week so many stories of mistreatment of pregnant women, elective surgery and other things that have lead to public outcry down here. And the worst part is that doctors and nurses are being told to do things to cut costs, therefore resulting in a sub-standard level of care. I have a few friends in the health system and they have told me that unless most of these bureaucrats go into front line duties for just one day, they have absolutely no idea on what crap nurses and doctors cop because of what these bureaucrats are telling them to do. Also add the fact that staffing is another issue, which further deepens the problem. A number of people are saying to get back to the days of training nurses on the job rather than at TAFE and Uni so they experience first hand various situations and aren't left feeling dumb not knowing what to do in a situation because they haven't experienced it through tertiary education.

quote:

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Originally posted by markee
There should be no justification that is good enough to privitise any required service (this includes water, electricity, telecommunications and health).  This is because these industries can charge whatever they like and you are basically forced to pay it because you need it to live in today's society.

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Not to mention that grocery prices here in Sydney are priced way above inflation rates as there are 2 problems;
1) 2 chains run most supermarkets
2) No real regulations are in place to control them

but then again I suppose I'm drawing a bit of a long bow on the Supermarket bit for other reasons

And not to mention how well Sydney's "ShittyRail" runs

That's not funny, it's pretty dangerous.

This is funny, albeit old.

Look at the picture

Note: It wasn't me.