Yay! Thumbs up for affordable medicine!

God yes. I've been to the doctor four times in two months now, which has cost me approximately 162 NZD in total--but that's the maximum for a year, and now all my doctor's visits (including specialists) is free until May next year. And only one of my referrals have taken more than a month to go through. (I live in Sweden.)

Edited at 2012-06-23 10:32 am (UTC)

Of course what Karen hasn't told you is that we all have to salute a photograph of Fidel Castro every time we visit a pharmacy or medical practitioner.

Me too me too!!! My 12-y-o son has declared himself a socialist and is determined to convert his friends. :-)

As a Canadian, and despite all the problems in our socialized health care system which Canadians in general love to complain about, I HEARTILY AGREE.

I am so fucking jealous I feel like I want to throw up, and also stab people in the face. (Not you. Other Americans. Who think I should not have this.)

Rage away, it is a rageful situation!

Amen to that.

Being able to afford vital meds is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

ANOTHER WIN FOR SOCIAL LABORATORY OF THE WORLD!

Fuckin a. I'm overseas right now and missing soooo badly just being able to nip into the dr and pick up something, as opposed to having to wait until I'm on death's door to justify it.

Canadian here, yo. I LOVEEE my socialized health care.

So are you, as a nation, taking new entrants?

Yes.

My Heinous US Medical Story:

When I was in grad school, at one point I was really depressed. And I broke my elbow riding my bike. I had insurance. I went to the ER, they fixed me up. I started getting envelopes from the hospital. I did not open them, because I had insurance and they were going to take care of it, right? Also I was depressed.

Several months later I discovered that I owed the hospital $2000.

I am sure that, had I been more on top of things, had I opened the bills when I got them, had I had the wherewithal to phone up people and ask what exactly was going on, I wouldn't have had to pay $2000. But, hey, depression.

At this time I discovered a lump in my breast.

What I knew about the US medical system, at this point was:

1) PRE EXISTING CONDITIONS OH NO.
2) They will find some way to charge you a whole ton of money.

And therefore it seemed like a better idea to my little brain to spend the next several months WORRYING ABOUT HAVING CANCER than to actually get myself examined.

Several months later I spent a couple days walking on a broken ankle because my student insurance didn't work during the summer.

And then I got a full-time job that offered insurance, I didn't have cancer or anything, but if I hadn't already been pretty socialist, that would've done it.

I guess it's true what they say about academia.

Obama's not a socialist?
Yeah, I know.
I'm disappointed too.

Of course, even if Obama was a socialist, we would still have virtually the same problems unless the rest of the government was also socialist: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/us/white-house-waits-tensely-for-decision-on-health-law.html?_r=1&hp

The other problem is that lots of Americans would rather sacrifice their own health and lives, and the life and health of others, than give in on a point of principle which I personally find hard to understand. I honestly don't get why so many people are vehemently opposed to mandated health insurance when they have no problem with mandated car insurance.

"JoAnna Hanson, a mother of three in Lincoln, Neb., who works the night shift at a Walmart, said she tried for years to get health insurance, but because of a rare kidney ailment did not succeed. When a cyst burst in an ovary several years ago and she was rushed to the hospital, her bill was sent to a collection agency. A total of $330 a month is now sliced from her and her husband’s paychecks, more than a tenth of their income.

“The thing we worry about most is, do we pay the rent or do we feed our kids?” said Ms. Hanson, who is 34. They have not paid rent on their trailer’s lot in three months.

Still, though the law would benefit her, she does not like it.

“I don’t think it’s right because you can’t force someone to buy something when they can’t afford it,” she said."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/health/policy/those-already-ill-have-huge-stake-in-health-ruling.html?ref=health

"The tumor grew like a thick vine up the back of Eric Richter’s leg, reminding him every time he sat down that he was a man without insurance. In April, when it was close to bursting through his skin, he went to the emergency room. Doctors told him it was malignant and urged surgery. His wife called every major insurance company she found on the Internet, but none would cover him: His cancer was a pre-existing condition."

Also: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/health/oregon-study-reveals-benefits-and-costs-of-insuring-the-uninsured.html?hpw

"When Wendy Parris shattered her ankle, the emergency room put it in an air cast and sent her on her way. Because she had no insurance, doctors did not operate to fix it. A mother of six, Ms. Parris hobbled around for four years, pained by the foot, becoming less mobile and gaining weight."

....

"Ms. Kious, 24, who also has depression and Crohn’s disease, a bowel condition, makes only $1,000 to $1,200 a month and cannot afford insurance. The clinic performed some tests and prescribed Ms. Kious the pills. But they also told her that she had Stage 2 cervical cancer. As of now, the condition remains untreated. She and her boyfriend even considered getting pregnant so that she would automatically qualify for Medicaid."

Socialist, Antichrist, and Muslim are the right wing trinity of name-calling, yes.

I find it unbelievable too. And for a party that supposedly is in favor of business, even if they don't care about people dying and living in misery, they should notice that the lack of health care is destroying entrepreneurship in America - most people are unwilling to leave a job with health insurance to start their own business, because then they immediately lose access to health care. But I think they only care about large corporations, not small businesses. Let alone individual human beings.

I support a single-payer system, which isn't even on the table in the U.S., but, to be fair:

(a) Escitalopram has been available in a U.S. generic since spring-ish of this year;

(b) NZ has just as long a patent term as the U.S.;

(c) NZ "just" subsidizes the drug purchase; but

(d) Question whether there is regulatory capture going on there, because the clinical evidence for the superiority of escitalopram (Lexapro) over citalopram (Celexa) has never been very strong; and

(e) If your doctor is writing you prescriptions to treat mental illness without even talking to you first, that's not good.

(Which you wouldn't've been charged for in the U.S., either.)

No country has solved the problem of pharma IP. New Zealanders get ripped off more indirectly (and with the weight falling more heavily on the wealthy, which is an advantage).

The only thing which makes me consider living elsewhere is the health-care system. It has done well by me, but this was a matter of luck and privilege, and can't be relied on indefinitely. Without some form of mandated insurance, I'm completely uninsurable on the private market.

One of the biggest arguments people make against socialized medicine in this country is that you "would have to wait a long time to get treatment." Yet under our current capitalistic system, I already have to wait weeks or even months to get an appointment with my doctors.

Another big argument is that people don't want to pay to be other people's social safety net. Yet that is what we do when people go to the emergency room because they have no other health-care option. And that is what private insurers do: collecting premiums from all and awarding benefits to some.

There's also a fundamental difference in belief about whether health care should be a profit-making enterprise producing private wealth, or should just be a universal service. Interestingly, while this is the conceptual difference at the core of the whole divide, this issue is not usually debated or questioned in mainstream public forums. More often, the assumption that it should be profit-making is taken for granted.

You have no idea how much I miss New Zealand medical care. I feel depressed now. Shall go do something homeopathic to make myself feel better, like eat chocolate.

My mental health meds cost me under $30 here in Australia, but if I were eligible for low income Health Care card, they would cost about $5.50.

$30 is a lot less than $300. It makes me very happy.

Recently I moved from Florida to Ohio, and while my best friend and I were driving up through Florida and Georgia and other portions of the south, we passed many billboards decrying the Socialism of President Obama.

Each time we cackled and said WE WISH!

Seriously, if only. I have never had health insurance after leaving my parents' house, and now that I'm out of university, the (rather crap) student health services at the school is looking quite rosy in hindsight. Until such time as I get a real grown-up job with benefits (hahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAAHhsahshahfsksndgjk), it's self-medicating with garlic and yogurt for me, and the walk-in clinic in cases of losing voice to strep/copious bleeding.