The musings of a juggling mother

Rants & raves about life as a woman today, juggling work, home, kids, family, life the universe & everything.

© Mrs Aginoth. The right of Mrs Aginoth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988

Sunday, January 28, 2007

A civilised society?

I have never understood why the USA has such a general apoplexy whenever "socialized" medicine is mentioned. It seems that even many "liberal" Americans have a blind spot about this most basic human requirement and refuse to look at possibilities, probablities and facts. It seems to me that any country that does not have universal healthcare, can barely be called civilised, but on the few times I have tried to debate it with Americans they have been even more blind to the arguments than when I debate with fundy creationalists!

We may think that the NHS has problems, and is expensive, but compared the the US system we are a picture of perfection! I've highlighted some specific examples of fellow bloggers brush with injury & illness before, but when even the msm points out:

"most personal bankruptcies in the US are the result of illness.

The story of American healthcare is one of huge expenditure for little obvious benefit.

By head of population America spends twice the amount Britain does on health.

But life expectancy here is lower and infant mortality is higher, way higher in some ethnic groups. "


Those four statements seem pretty damning in themselves, but I still regularly hear Americans arguing that social medical care would bankrupt their country/cause immigrants to "use up" all the resources/encourage unecessary procedures (because the USA is well known for it's conservatism & reticence in using medical procedures for personal reaons!)/undermine their cultural values etc....

I am confused.

Ca anyone actually come up with a good reason for keeping the US system?

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Friday, January 26, 2007

Taking what I can get

I'm all for reducing the NHS costs with a bit of lateral thinking, and a bit less medical intervention. For years I've been saying it would be cheaper and more medically effective to send Aggie of to somewhere hot for a couple of weeks two or three times a year than to pay out £10k+ on drugs for his psoriasis and depression (although the new expensive drugs work even better thanh ot climates), but this story just made me wonder......

Can I turn up at my local clinic and claim that I am a drug addict, get a clean blood test and go shopping? Cos I sure as hell can't afford to actually become a drug addict! Or go shopping:-(

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