Is this that socialist health care system Americans are supposed to want to pay $4 trillion per year for?
(media.kotakuinaction2.win)
You're viewing a single comment thread. View all comments, or full comment thread.
Comments (51)
sorted by:
A depressing, hair-raising hour sitting or two sitting in a hallway and trying to determine whether I'm getting better or worse as time went by.
It doesn't sound like much but the thing is that the difference between 'trouble breathing' and 'unconscious and asphyxiating' is about 5 minutes, and the difference between 'unconscious and asphyxiating' and 'brain damage' is about 5 more.
I had just travelled was really not used to the combination of 20 below zero with dry air, and my asthma, which hadn't bothered me in over a decade, was having none of it.
Eventually I decided I wasn't getting worse, and chose to take the risk of heading back home, blasting the car heater and buying coffee purely to inhale the steam. I went to sleep boiling a kettle in my bedroom. Yes, I bought one of those, too.
I never did fully adjust to that climate, but it never fucked me up half as bad as it did the first year I was there.
If it had been the NHS, based on my prior experiences with their treatment of my asthma, they would have stuck an oxygen mask on me without question or fee.
Realistically, If I had chosen to be admitted, I would not have ended up actually paying $13,000 in the end, but that is not really what you're thinking when you're wondering if you're about to fucking suffocate.
And really, should I have to haggle with debt collectors over such an obviously bullshit price tag? I knew I didn't need $13,000 worth of treatment.
Yes, in this case, the ultimate issue is 'why can't I access an oxygen mask at something approaching market cost?'
In the US, that answer is 'because a legion of insurance middlemen want their cut for work they aren't even doing.'
Correct.
It's not the case in the UK that 'everything' is nationalized. We have private medical providers (some of which also provide services to the NHS) and for some things, I would recommend that over the NHS even for the poor - I am never waiting six months save to £350 on an ultrasound ever again.
My personal opinion is that there is not enough availability of private care in the UK (because it has to compete with most people defaulting the NHS), and not enough availability of public care in the US. The politicians of both countries seem to agree with me on that, as they've made attempts to push things toward that middle ground in the last decade.