The Evil of Being Wealthy

[Steve]

I pay with taxes and National Insurance but if you, as a visitor came over, collapsed/were taken ill it would be completely free for you. If we are out of work, an old age pensioner, disabled, a student etc it is totally free for us to use. There is no cost to those at all so yes it is free.
However the amount of taxes and National Insurance I pay no way covers the actual cost of any medical treatment I have had in the past or would need again. I get free prescriptions because of a medical condition I have, I don't have to pay for my drugs. I'm not sure what you mean by 'no out of pocket expenses' though.

We have thousands of hospitals here and you hear of reports from three or four of them and people decide our hospitals are rubbish? It's sheer ignorance to insult our National Health system just to try and score points on the sarcasm scale.

Tez. I agree with you on the cheap points and sarcasm. I was just pointing out that it's not free. Someone's paying for it. If I, as a tourist, end up in your hospital, I might pay nothing out of pocket, but I'd owe the tax payers of your country at least a hearty handshake and a polite thank you. No cost to me does not equal no cost.

I only point this out because "free" is bandied about a lot in the USA. Glenn Beck implied at one time that our libraries were free, for example.

 

[Flying Crane]

Really, that's somewhat snarky considring we actually have some of the best in the world and they are FREE, the ambulance that picks you up is free, the paramedics that treat you are fre, the drugs are free, the surgery and the stay in hospital even if you are a visitor we don't charge you for saving your life. No system is perfect but we do a lot better than most. You shouldn't believe everything you read you know but then many people take their opinions from political leaders with agendas, cer tain American politicians will run down UK hospitals because they don't want you to have good free care so if they make us look bad the American public won't want anything similar. Of course when you're perfect, give us a ring why don't you.

Of course Tez, all too often here complex situations are looked at in overly simplistic terms.

 

[WC_lun]

Just an FYI, "out of pocket" means money paid out of the pocket of the client at the time of service. So in this case, a patient pays mothing out of his pockets at the time of his hospital stay...or later in a bill.

 

[Steve]

Just an FYI, "out of pocket" means money paid out of the pocket of the client at the time of service. So in this case, a patient pays mothing out of his pockets at the time of his hospital stay...or later in a bill.

Fair enough. Let me try again. While there may be no cost to you personally, there is a cost. The medical care is not "free."

Sheesh!

 

[Xue Sheng]

Not to derail the current discussion but this thread is makingme wonder…. Is it ok to be evil if you’re NOT wealthy :EG:

 

[WC_lun]

Just replying to the question of what "out of pocket" means

 

[Sukerkin]

For further clarification, over here in the Green and Pleasant Land, "Out of pocket" means that you have lost out on a deal e.g. if I pay £500 for a car that is worth only £200 then I am £300 out of pocket.

 

[Steve]

For further clarification, over here in the Green and Pleasant Land, "Out of pocket" means that you have lost out on a deal e.g. if I pay £500 for a car that is worth only £200 then I am £300 out of pocket.

You just can't help but muddy the waters, eh?

To me, out of pocket simply means what I pay vs what someone else pays, whether I pay it at the time of service or am billed later.

The English language is completely inadequate. Who the HELL invented it? They should be held responsible and made to pay reparations. I'm suing. Call my lawyer!

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Steve, I blame the French for the English language.

 

[Steve]

Steve, I blame the French for the English language.

You're right. Seems like everything was going fine until 1066. Stupid Normans. King Harold II was sure no Henry V! I mean, THAT guy could fire up the troops.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

If that doesn't get your blood flowing and make you want to kick some French butt, I don't know what will!

Edit: But I think I'm still going to sue. Because... I'm American and that's what we do.

 

[Flying Crane]

And hold their manhoods cheap

now THAT is a line to raise an eyebrow...

 

[Twin Fist]

every year i have worked, i have gotten a refund, I am 45 you know, i have filed quite a few returns in my life.

the last TWO years years before I went back to school full time i made, COMBINED like 22K, thats 11K a year. AVERAGE

since i was 18, i have worked constantly, and i always felt like i was poor, but not starving, my best year ever i made almost 40K

apparently, doctors are now middle class.


oh Tez?

save your time, i have heard plenty of horror stories about the english system of hospitals, no thanks, would rather take my chances in the USA

I thought you said you had no money, which is why you got into nursing school?

 

[Twin Fist]

and NOTHING IS FREE

that you call it free is laughable

do those people work for free? of course not, what you MEAN to say is "someone pays for it for me from thier hard earned money"

Really, that's somewhat snarky considring we actually have some of the best in the world and they are FREE, the ambulance that picks you up is free, the paramedics that treat you are fre, the drugs are free, the surgery and the stay in hospital even if you are a visitor we don't charge you for saving your life. No system is perfect but we do a lot better than most. You shouldn't believe everything you read you know but then many people take their opinions from political leaders with agendas, cer tain American politicians will run down UK hospitals because they don't want you to have good free care so if they make us look bad the American public won't want anything similar. Of course when you're perfect, give us a ring why don't you.

 

[Sukerkin]

now THAT is a line to raise an eyebrow...

Now, now. Don't make me have to explain Shakespearean English too :lol:.

 

[granfire]

Now, now. Don't make me have to explain Shakespearean English too :lol:.

Pretty please!

<claps excitedly>

 

[Flying Crane]

Now, now. Don't make me have to explain Shakespearean English too :lol:.

aye, but the image it conjurs in my head...

 

[Sukerkin]

and NOTHING IS FREE

that you call it free is laughable

do those people work for free? of course not, what you MEAN to say is "someone pays for it for me from thier hard earned money"

She means free at the point of service, mate. We all share the cost and take the benefits as and when we need them for emergency care.

I've never really grasped, at the humanitarian level, why that (communal funding) is such an evil in America-land. I've heard the arguments and the protestations about 'paying for someone elses care' and, whilst I do grasp the Nietzschean logic, they just leave a nasty impression of a selfish people concerned only with looking out for themselves. It's much better to have a publicly funded system than one based upon personal insurance, with all it's evils of short-termism, fraud, price inflation and simple ruthlessness when the money runs out.

That leaves aside the real unpleasantness that a 'for profit' system will be much more likely to embrace a palliative for baldness, with the income that implies, than a one-shot, cheap, cure for all cancer.

 

[Sukerkin]

Pretty please!

<claps excitedly>

:chuckles:

Pick a passage and I'll see what I can do . I once spent a summer helping a not-so-well educated friend of mine get his head around the Bard's language and the sheer joy he took in finally understanding that these 'boring' plays were exciting stuff was worth every hour :tup:. He loved Othello greatly .

Of course that was back in the day when the BBC would run a series of Shakespeare works rather than 'Strictly Come X-Factor Top Model' bollards.

 

[granfire]

:chuckles:

Pick a passage and I'll see what I can do . I once spent a summer helping a poorly educated friend of mine get his head around the Bard's language and the sheer joy he took in finally understanding that these 'boring' plays were exciting stuff was worth every hour :tup:. Of course that was back in the day when the BBC would run a series of Shakespeare works rather than 'Strictly Come X-Factor Top Model' bollards.

Not to mention that one is not likely to pay in as much as they take out when they have a hospital stay, even with paid private insurance. One is always paying for others....

 

[Twin Fist]

we are self sufficiant Mark, always have been, and untill the 60's under liberal Johnson and his "great society" daydream bull ****, we still were. Now it is slowley eroding away, and the dream of 'free stuff" is seeping into our society like a cancer


NOTHING IS FREE, and you DONT all share the cost unless everyone, and i mean EVERY SINGLE CITIZEN pays taxes

that doesnt happen here, almost half our people pay NOTHING and they get the lions share of the benefits

its horsecrap to not support yourself and pay your own way

look at it this way, when you know that no one will save you, you work harder to support yourself.

thats why america has achieved more than any other nation, we are (or were) a nation of highly motivated *** kickers without compare becasue WE TOOK CARE OF BUSINESS OURSELVES

She means free at the point of service, mate. We all share the cost and take the benefits as and when we need them for emergency care.

I've never really grasped, at the humanitarian level, why that (communal funding) is such an evil in America-land. I've heard the arguments and the protestations about 'paying for someone elses care' and, whilst I do grasp the Nietzschean logic, they just leave a nasty impression of a selfish people concerned only with looking out for themselves. It's much better to have a publicly funded system than one based upon personal insurance, with all it's evils of short-termism, fraud, price inflation and simple ruthlessness when the money runs out.

That leaves aside the real unpleasantness that a 'for profit' system will be much more likely to embrace a palliative for baldness, with the income that implies, than a one-shot, cheap, cure for all cancer.