I read the news today oh boy! Page 1,790

Guess I should buy a lottery ticket before Saturday.

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Quote: billwill @ 6th January 2016, 7:12 PM GMT

> than if they had been admitted to a US hospital."

Do uninsured americans get into a US hospital?

If not those graphs are wildly skewed.

Bill if I can be bothered to get the figures the US and UK are according to WHO roughly at the bottom of the WHO charts for healthcare provisions.

Although on average the US spends treble what the UK does to achieve this.

Both fail for differing reasons, the NHS is slow moving, beauracratic resistant to early intervention and late adopting of new treatments. UK cancer mortality rates are a national disgrace.

Though in part mortality rates are exagerated by hospital being where a lot of old or vulnerable go to bed block until they die.

The American system has a toxic mixture of finance and politics. With some states turning down hundreds of millions of dollars of Obama care money meant for their poorest citizens out of pretty much spite. And health insurance and health providers in an ongoing war of invoices.

France, Holland most of the developed sensible world have private companies providing health provision. But state run health insurance companies funding it. Every one gets treated, everyone gets paid and the state can crack down on lousy providers and none paying patients.

That the UK and the US are wedded to different but equally failing health models is something both countries electorates should question.

Though Dabutt that was the answer to "is UK or US health provision better?" the question I asked was "do people die from lack of insurance?" the answer is yes, although Obama Care is slowly adressing this.

Quote: sootyj @ 7th January 2016, 2:28 PM GMT

the question I asked was "do people die from lack of insurance?" the answer is yes, although Obama Care is slowly adressing this.

People die from lack of caring about themselves, not lack of insurance.

The life expectancy in the UK is 81, in the US it is 79; so why does it matter if those people are dying in hospital or not?

Quote: DaButt @ 7th January 2016, 2:11 PM GMT

I like how they report that "those who took part in the recent visit to Tulliallan said they had experienced an 'epiphany'" while later identifying that quote as coming from a Scottish officer.

About 50 American police officers are shot and killed each year. Disarm them and the number will reach triple digits at the very least. Any training that saves lives is a good thing, but comparing apples and oranges is ridiculous. My city isn't even one of the largest in the country, but it's about as big as the top 10 cities in Scotland combined.

Purposely dumbing down the incidents and then putting them into first-person quotations is purposely misleading and dishonest.

Lee Rigby killers: "I don't like soldiers and I saw a soldier, so I killed him."

Not sure anyone's suggesting disarming the police. A friend of mine was a UK firearms officer, he never shot anyone in his career nor did any of his colleagues. Some used tazers but even then a minority. In Japan all the police are armed most won't draw their service shooter the whole of their careers.

Quote: DaButt @ 7th January 2016, 2:31 PM GMT

People die from lack of caring about themselves, not lack of insurance.

I sincerely hope you never end up so poor you realised that really isn't the case.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/33-million-americans-still-dont-have-health-insurance/

Quote: sootyj @ 7th January 2016, 2:38 PM GMT

I sincerely hope you never end up so poor you realised that really isn't the case.

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/33-million-americans-still-dont-have-health-insurance/

I have been unemployed for 19 months. My income is zero. Can't get much poorer than that.

Your article proves my point: 14 million Americans have no insurance even though they earn enough money to afford it. Why? Because they don't care all that much about their health and/or they'd rather spend their money on something else.

19 months shit! How you coping? Considered me in the semilucrative world of digital nomading?

I worked for years in the charity sector and even in the UK which still is but used to be more a hugely generous countury. I'd come across people who couldn't pay bills, sometimes it was just being shit out of luck it happens, sometimes it was making stupid decisions (usually about buying on HP or crappy relationship choices) and sometimes just deep personal inadequacy.

I think in a relatively wealthy country, none of those should be a reason to die of pneumonia living on the streets.

Quote: sootyj @ 7th January 2016, 3:09 PM GMT

19 months shit! How you coping?

I lived on severance pay and accrued vacation time for about 6 months, blew through my savings, then I collected unemployment benefits (which didn't even cover my mortgage) for the maximum 26 weeks and then I cashed in my 401k (retirement savings account).

I just paid my months bills and came out in the red for the first time. Time to start sending out more resumes and consider bagging groceries at the local market. :(

Quote: DaButt @ 7th January 2016, 2:28 PM GMT

Guess I should buy a lottery ticket before Saturday.

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You do know you have more chance of becoming the new Matt Damon?

Quote: Paul Wimsett @ 7th January 2016, 4:36 PM GMT

You do know you have more chance of becoming the new Matt Damon?

Who in their right mind would want to be Matt Damon? I know 3 people who have won millions but I don't know Matt Damon, so the odds are on my side ;)

Quote: DaButt @ 7th January 2016, 3:54 PM GMT

I lived on severance pay and accrued vacation time for about 6 months, blew through my savings, then I collected unemployment benefits (which didn't even cover my mortgage) for the maximum 26 weeks and then I cashed in my 401k (retirement savings account).

I just paid my months bills and came out in the red for the first time. Time to start sending out more resumes and consider bagging groceries at the local market. :(

Good luck there's a remarkable amount of work to be had online if you're semi literate and can tell the difference between a computer and a toaster.

It's the Lawyers who are the cause of all the major problem these days.

They try to sue the NHS for mistakes by Doctors.*

They try to charge Soldiers for War Crimes when they are under extreme mental stress.

They try to protect terrorists, rapists. murderers and paedos using the F**king Human Rights Act.

They should all be named and shamed and then any right-minded person would not use any of these parasites.

* I have good reason to sue a Doctor but would not dream of punishing the NHS

Hey! Fully agree with you again Chappers. :) As I have said elsewhere, a load of grubby, money grabbing leeches on society.

"Tough new guidelines issued on alcohol say there is no such thing as a safe level of drinking."

In that case no point in stopping at 14 units, might as well just keep on drinking...

"Overall, Branas's study found that people who carried guns were 4.5 times as likely to be shot and 4.2 times as likely to get killed compared with unarmed citizens. When the team looked at shootings in which victims had a chance to defend themselves, their odds of getting shot were even higher."

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17922-carrying-a-gun-increases-risk-of-getting-shot-and-killed/

This doesn't prove a causal link.