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dburkhead wrote: A friend of mine a few years ago spent an extended period in Intensive Care after contracting Legionnaire's Disease. Even after insurance, the cost was far more than he could ever pay. He had to declare bancruptcy. However, he was able to declare bancruptcy, get a settlement that he could pay, and move on with his life. Of course that means his credit rating is shot but, hey: Credit Rating? Death? Which one would I choose?

Lucky for him he was able to declare bankruptcy. The Congress and the President just passed a law making it much harder to do, unless of course you're a multinational corporation. It was essentially a big wet sloppy blow-job for the credit card industry.

Next step: bringing back the debtors' prisons.

War wrote:Also, we hear horror stories about your medical system too. Everyone has horror stories

That was kind of my point. It's all about tradeoffs.

Ouch. *Phew*...I'm glad I'm a hippie Canadian.

Hooray for hippies!

\^_^/

*gives you some flowers for your hair*

[Puts flowers in hair, wraps self in Canadian flag and goes skipping over hill and dale...]

JPSloan wrote:Considering that I don't even HAVE medical insurance, I'd have to pay everything outright.

When I had no medical insurance, I just stiffed the hospital. Depending on where you live, they can't attack your credit. And if you can't pay anyway....

A ridiculous percentage of filed bankruptcies are because of medical bills in the US (43% or something?). 44 million people are uninsured, and many of the ones that are insured only have catastrophic coverage (life or death situation) even though it'd be cheaper to treat the problems before they got out of hand.

There should be some sort of public health insurance (not socialist, hehe) because it would actually be cheaper for us in the long run. Why? Because we can't refuse care at the Emergency Room, even to those who can't pay for it. So, one way or another, we're going to be paying for other people's care.

For people who get actual treatment, the US is probably the best place in the world to receive care. Obviously the problem is getting that treatment. For being the wealthiest country in the world, it's sad that we're ranked above 30th for infant mortality rate and the such.

charlesbrubaker wrote:Wow, that sucks, man.

At least you don't live in Japan. It's way more expensive here. Come to think of it, EVERYTHING is expensive in Japan.

Not true. Look up things before you say 'em. Electronics over there are pretty damn cheap, for example.

War wrote:Also, we hear horror stories about your medical system too.

We just did.

I think Australia has a mix of both English and American systems - or it may just be the English system. I'm not sure. Anyway, we get the socialised stuff but if we want some extra perks and to skip the waiting lists, you can get medical insurance. We also have a Not-For-Profit health insurance company which, since it doesn't care one whit about it's shareholder's pocketbooks, has very cheap rates.

And, yes, there are still horror stories.

- Joel Fagin

That's the British system. Just because we have a national health system doesn't mean you can't get medical insurance and use private surgeries. If you can afford it, and you want to skip the queues, you can go the private route with folks like Bupa. What the NHS means is no one gets their life saved only to be handed a bill.
I've gone the private route a couple of times in order to be able to just walk in and see a physio.

Holy crap, and I just went in to the hospital for some muscle spasms last week. Now I'm really scared to find out how much that hour cost.

...would you have died? O_o

Good grief, that's scary.

Thank goodness you lived to tell the tale, and blessings on you.

Nightgaunt wrote:Anesthesiology is insanely difficult to do correctly, so they pay those people well

Mr.Bob wrote:*comic goodness*

ROTFLMAO!

Mr.Bob wrote:*comic goodness*

I told you Mr. Bob not to awaken War. I suspect he had something to do with this.

steverules wrote:I told you Mr. Bob not to awaken War. I suspect he had something to do with this.

I'm not so sure. Sharpened bricks implies pre-meditation. War doesn't seem to be big on pre-meditation.

- Joel Fagin

Who the hell sharpens a BRICK?

You've got some fucked up enemies, Mr. Bob...

rkolter wrote:Who the hell sharpens a BRICK?

You've got some fucked up enemies, Mr. Bob...

well don't look at me. I didn't do it.

rkolter wrote:Who the hell sharpens a BRICK?

You've got some fucked up enemies, Mr. Bob...

Well, you know bricks are a form of ceramic, right? And ceramics can and have been used to make blades that aren't picked up by magnetometers and are also hard to spot on X-rays.

So maybe somebody just got a little confused.

So Mr. Bob has an airport security checkpoint for his house?

Or did the perpetrator just have it lying around after hijacking a plane?