America

[Melanius Mullarkey]

I wonder how much Dawson Park Tory has got and gone?

 

Like most modern day Tories, probably the square root of f**k all I would imagine.

*buying your cooncil hoose coz Thatchler let you doesn’t count.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

5 hours ago, Jacksgranda said:

I wonder how my health insurance (and premiums) would have held out these last 3 years - 4 different monthly prescriptions, now augmented by another 4, a month's hospitalisation, multiple x-rays, at least 4 scans, 3 ecgs, 4 hormone implants per year at £400.00 a skite, glaucoma tests, consultations with 3 different specialists, a month's radiotherapy treatment.

I seem to remember seeing a medical bill where they charged the patient more for ‘emotional support’ where the doctor offered her tissues or something. 

[Dan Steele]

Mrs SL had a bad horse riding accident in Monument Valley. She needed a load of staples for a bad head wound (aye, she zips up the back), severe bruising and wrist damage. She was in hospital for over 8 hours, drips, the lot. Total cost was just over $200.00 dollars and I paid as we left.

It was a Navajo hospital in Navajo jurisdiction. The standard of treatment was incredible. I still wonder how much all that would have cost in "the other America".

Should add it was 2001.

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by The Skelpit Lug
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[welshbairn]

10 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Mrs SL had a bad horse riding accident in Monument Valley. She needed a load of staples for a bad head wound (aye, she zips up the back), severe bruising and wrist damage. She was in hospital for over 8 hours, drips, the lot. Total cost was just over $200.00 dollars and I paid as we left.

It was a Navajo hospital in Navajo jurisdiction. The standard of treatment was incredible. I still wonder how much all that would have cost in "the other America".

Should add it was 2001.

 

$200? She was scalped!

 

Spoiler

I'll get my coat..

 

[senorsoupe]

On 03/07/2022 at 12:11, tamthebam said:

There's Canada to the North. Quite Liberal, tend to like foreigners, team sometimes qualifies for the World Cup

And there's the States to the South. Capitalist, full of gammony fruitloops, often isolationist, was run by an idiot with shite hair, quite often qualify for the World Cup 

I really can't think of any parallels.... 

The word "occasionally" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, we've made it twice in our history lol

On the subject of our southern neighbours, it's kinda surreal to see what is going on down there and kinda terrifying that certain segments of our political class want to bring some of those elements up here.  One of the frontrunners for leadership of our Conservative party is an opportunistic wee dick named Pierre Polievre who is currently getting friendly to the convoy folks (who tend to be a bunch of far-right nutjobs) as he thinks it will help him win the leadership of the party.  Given how the governing Liberals seem hell bent on proving to everyone how incompetent they are, there is a risk that Polievre will become PM at some point and all bets are off at that point.   I have a lot of American friends and family and either they are horrified or delighted at how things are going at the moment, it's scary

[Jacksgranda]

34 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Mrs SL had a bad horse riding accident in Monument Valley. She needed a load of staples for a bad head wound (aye, she zips up the back), severe bruising and wrist damage. She was in hospital for over 8 hours, drips, the lot. Total cost was just over $200.00 dollars and I paid as we left.

It was a Navajo hospital in Navajo jurisdiction. The standard of treatment was incredible. I still wonder how much all that would have cost in "the other America".

Should add it was 2001.

 

I'll hazard a guess at 100 times that, ie. 20,000.00 dollars.

I really have no idea.

[velo army]

33 minutes ago, The Skelpit Lug said:

Mrs SL had a bad horse riding accident in Monument Valley. She needed a load of staples for a bad head wound (aye, she zips up the back), severe bruising and wrist damage. She was in hospital for over 8 hours, drips, the lot. Total cost was just over $200.00 dollars and I paid as we left.

It was a Navajo hospital in Navajo jurisdiction. The standard of treatment was incredible. I still wonder how much all that would have cost in "the other America".

Should add it was 2001.

 

I was £200 for treatment for fire ant bites (an injection of something and a smashing chat with the Polish doctor about Scotland's upcoming clashes with his homeland) plus about a tenner for a cream at the pharmacy (there were tablets too, but they gave you the runs and I didn't need to be running into Florida's long grass every half hour......I was on a bicycle tour, I should add). It was a pain in the bahook filling out the forms too. I'd have thought your Mrs' travel insurance would have covered it as it was an emergency. 

What's even scarier is the hospitals/insurance companies who charge for stuff, but then when you query it they quote you a different, much lower price. 

Dreadful.

[carpetmonster]

1 hour ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I seem to remember seeing a medical bill where they charged the patient more for ‘emotional support’ where the doctor offered her tissues or something. 

When carpetmonster Jr was born we had *really* good insurance. We paid a $1000 co-pay and that was us. Got sent a copy of the facsimile bill the hospital had sent to the insurance company, for our own records. Totals out at $32.5k. Various line items, with line item 4 being anaesthesia - my wife didn't have any. They don't do gas and air there, it's an epidural or nothing and the Mrs did the whole thing with hypnobirthing and breathing because she's fucking mental. 

I phone the insurance company to tell them they need to go back to the hospital for a new bill. Lady explains I've paid my co-pay and I'm not on the hook for anything else. I tell her I know that but that the hospital are trying to bill them for something that didn't happen. She reassures me that they've got it all covered. I lose patience and tell her slowly and calmly no anaesthesia was administered, and she needs to go back to the hospital to tell them to stick their bill up their arse (and I did actually say that) and get a new one. She says 'Oh! Oh, thanks for telling us!' and seems really surprised that I've bothered to phone it in. Next week another facsimile bill appears in the mail with the anaesthesia removed and a new bargain basement price of only $26k. It's a fucking cartel. 

 

ETA - globally there are half a million medical-expenses related bankruptcies every year. All of them are in the US. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by carpetmonster

[Brother Blades]

I’ve visited America a few times, mainly the southern states. It’s a very strange & confusing place in many ways. When I was working in Mississippi, the guys were the most polite & friendly people I’ve probably ever met, but every single one of them was a gun nut, quite scary getting into someone’s truck & discovering 4 or 5 loaded weapons within reach of the driver. There were a few black guys that worked there too & they were given respect & seemed to be well liked. However, any other black person seemed to be looked down on & in private, these polite people were definitely racist wankers. It was difficult to square the fact that these guys would invite you to family barbecues despite barely knowing me & yet hold such right wing views. Strangely, one time I visited, I travelled with an Indian guy that worked with us & he was also treated fantastically despite none of the guys having met him beforehand. 
 

TL;DR - The place is confusing but it’s basically a backward, over religious shitehole of a place with false manners. 

[senorsoupe]

On the subject of healthcare costs, a good friend of mine was offered a job in Seattle a few years ago that would have seen him get a massive salary increase.  However because his wife has pre-existing medical conditions the cost of the insurance for her would have meant that they would be no better off financially

[Dan Steele]

10 minutes ago, velo army said:

I'd have thought your Mrs' travel insurance would have covered it as it was an emergency. 

We've just been talking about that. There was also an added cost of the staples coming but given the relatively small amount, avoiding paperwork and just getting money into the Native American system it seemed the best thing to do at the time.

[Left Back]

10 minutes ago, carpetmonster said:

When carpetmonster Jr was born we had *really* good insurance. We paid a $1000 co-pay and that was us. Got sent a copy of the facsimile bill the hospital had sent to the insurance company, for our own records. Totals out at $32.5k. Various line items, with line item 4 being anaesthesia - my wife didn't have any. They don't do gas and air there, it's an epidural or nothing and the Mrs did the whole thing with hypnobirthing and breathing because she's fucking mental. 

I phone the insurance company to tell them they need to go back to the hospital for a new bill. Lady explains I've paid my co-pay and I'm not on the hook for anything else. I tell her I know that but that the hospital are trying to bill them for something that didn't happen. She reassures me that they've got it all covered. I lose patience and tell her slowly and calmly no anaesthesia was administered, and she needs to go back to the hospital to tell them to stick their bill up their arse (and I did actually say that) and get a new one. She says 'Oh! Oh, thanks for telling us!' and seems really surprised that I've bothered to phone it in. Next week another facsimile bill appears in the mail with the anaesthesia removed and a new bargain basement price of only $26k. It's a fucking cartel. 

 

ETA - globally there are half a million medical-expenses related bankruptcies every year. All of them are in the US. 

Was out for dinner with a group of people I was on a course with in the States once.  One of the lassies had just been made bankrupt due to medical bills.  Her work didn’t cover the treatment she needed.

rest of life utterly fucked.  Can’t get a mortgage, credit but even more important she couldn’t get medical insurance so couldn’t buy all the ongoing medication to properly manage her condition.  Late 20’s or early 30’s she was.

[welshbairn]

I got invited round for dinner to a family in Georgia just outside Savannah, whose son had just been treated for a straightforward broken leg. $18,000, it took all their savings. Another thing I noticed recently was a medical bill including $25 for a single ibuprofen pill.

[Brother Blades]

1 minute ago, Left Back said:

Was out for dinner with a group of people I was on a course with in the States once.  One of the lassies had just been made bankrupt due to medical bills.  Her work didn’t cover the treatment she needed.

rest of life utterly fucked.  Can’t get a mortgage, credit but even more important she couldn’t get medical insurance so couldn’t buy all the ongoing medication to properly manage her condition.  Late 20’s or early 30’s she was.

Aye, the most advanced country on the planet (apparently!!) & people are rationing such common drugs as insulin as it’s so expensive. We are treated with contempt by our political classes here, but it really pales when you consider how the American public are treated by their political classes & large corporations. 

[carpetmonster]

2 minutes ago, Left Back said:

Was out for dinner with a group of people I was on a course with in the States once.  One of the lassies had just been made bankrupt due to medical bills.  Her work didn’t cover the treatment she needed.

rest of life utterly fucked.  Can’t get a mortgage, credit but even more important she couldn’t get medical insurance so couldn’t buy all the ongoing medication to properly manage her condition.  Late 20’s or early 30’s she was.

Having your healthcare being dependent on, and tied to your employment, is a fantastic way for the system to keep the minions productive. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

Michael Moore's 'Sicko' is worth a watch if you want to see how US health insurers operate.

[Bob in Denny]

1 hour ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

I seem to remember seeing a medical bill where they charged the patient more for ‘emotional support’ where the doctor offered her tissues or something. 

It was 40 dollars she got charged....

Edited July 4, 2022 by Bob in Denny
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[Florentine_Pogen]

1 minute ago, carpetmonster said:

Having your healthcare being dependent on, and tied to your employment, is a fantastic way for the system to keep the minions productive. 

Never a truer word. When Bill Kaiser (He of Kaiser Permanente fame) was badgering Nixon to revolutionise health insurance in the early 70's, this was one of the cornerstones. Cynically, devilishly smart in fact. 

[carpetmonster]

1 minute ago, Brother Blades said:

Aye, the most advanced country on the planet (apparently!!) & people are rationing such common drugs as insulin as it’s so expensive. We are treated with contempt by our political classes here, but it really pales when you consider how the American public are treated by their political classes & large corporations. 

As much as it's funny that he's *still* insisting that the referees gave the Heat the 2006 NBA Finals over his Mavericks, hats off to Mark Cuban who's just launched a discount pharmaceutical company selling generics. He can get you 30 days worth of Gleevec cancer medication to you for $15 rather than $2500.  - https://costplusdrugs.com/medications/imatinib-100mg-tablet/

Even just 24 paracetamols here is $6 over the counter at the pharmacy or supermarket versus 30 pence or so out of Boots'. 

[velo army]

21 minutes ago, Left Back said:

Was out for dinner with a group of people I was on a course with in the States once.  One of the lassies had just been made bankrupt due to medical bills.  Her work didn’t cover the treatment she needed.

rest of life utterly fucked.  Can’t get a mortgage, credit but even more important she couldn’t get medical insurance so couldn’t buy all the ongoing medication to properly manage her condition.  Late 20’s or early 30’s she was.

Hate to bring the mood down further, but one of the consequences of school massacres that isn't covered much is the cost of medical care that bairns who died (but didn't make it) received. Parents who are having to deal with the sudden bereavement now having to sell their house due to the 200k or so major surgery sets you back there. A few bankruptcies came as a result of that too.

So aye, I'm super grateful for where I live.