And then I only paid $5 ND for it, because Narnia's health-care system is awesome.
The thinking man's Republican position on healthcare reform is that we should have a system like Narnia's. Which I find hilarious, because Narnia's system is fundamentally *much* more interventionist than Obamacare. Conservatives like it because it doesn't give the poor anything for free. If such a thing were really on offer, I'd probably scrap Obamacare and take it. But that's obviously not the case; the Narnia-love is just there to allow the Avik Roys of the world to distract from the fact that they are defending an indefensible status quo ante.
I can't see "walking pneumonia" without thinking "boogie-woogie flu" even though s/walking/rocking/, I know.
Oh I mostly have mycomplainsa, I think. Unless you were taking to commenter Mr. Smorgasborde or Mr. Smurf...pâté or someone. Nosflow asked why I don't just go to the damned doctor and the answer is they just seem like ordinary, miserable but not serious colds except these last few I've felt like why the fuck do I get these so often?
Unless you were taking to commenter Mr. Smorgasborde or Mr. Smurf...pâté or someone.
I laughed out loud.
Nosflow asked why I don't just go to the damned doctor and the answer is they just seem like ordinary, miserable people.
How my mind wanted to read that until the rest quit making sense.
By all means, let's make a health system more like Narnia's. Step 1: nationalize 85% of hospitals...
the narnian government intervenes in health care like a motherfucker. they straight up set prices for things. sure, you have to pay $80 ND to go to the women's and children's hospital emergency room with your sick child (rather than it being free as I imagine it is in the UK?) but that covers you seeing the doctor, any and all tests they do and all the medicine they prescribe, which you then go pick up at a special pharmacy. where you wait 20 minutes max. I'm pretty sure poor families can get some of the $80 back, too.
And my favorite, step #2: ban medical schools from graduating >50% specialists.
Sounds nice but can you piss on an elevator?
9: specialists don't come from medical school, they come from residency.
Isn't it usually a fellowship or is that just my area?
The Fellowship of the Dermatologists.
I guess dermatologists just have residencies. But some of your fancier areas have fellowships.
They'll just say, "eh maybe" and give you a nuclear course of Cipro.
That's because Amercia Fuck Yeah is the only country that's broken it's nuclear cherry. All the other countries still get all "I don't know, I think the first time should be for true love or a confirmed case of anthrax" where America already has their game going and is down with putting some hot nuclear Cipro in anything that breathes.
I take it gswift's already been hitting the gin tonight.
You know it, brother. It's my, uh, Thursday, and all I'm doing tomorrow is office stuff like filing a case and going to a couple afternoon prelim hearings on guys who I personally caught in stolen cars and both openly talked about it with me afterwards so it's not like I need to stay all sober the night before.
Confidential to SLC area criminals: steal your cars on Monday night.
Sadly for said criminals, I expect the PD has more than one auto theft detective. I bet they have some that don't even drink.
I put out a "hotsheet" of all the outstanding stolen cars in the valley to patrol before I left the office so those guys can keep an eye out when I'm drunk at home. We've got a couple non drinkers on the squad and thank god for them because guess who's catching the call outs on a Friday night?
One of the guys I caught in a hot car today had "TC" tattooed on his face. This guy is a 6'2 285 pound Tongan. Besides the face and an assortment of other non mainstream tattoos on his arms he's got the hand signs for his gang (a pretty well known set) prominently tattooed onto his calves. A patrol officer who has at least ten years on the job helped me transport this guy and his brother to jail. At jail he asked me if I thought the "TC" stood for Tongan Crip. Jesus, buddy, you think? I guess there's varying levels of attention being paid at work.
Later on I drove past the duplex my wife's cousin owns on the west side and one of the residents on the front porch stood up and made sure she vigorously flipped me off. I laughed and waved, it was a good way to cap the day. She was the girlfriend/female passenger in this chase. She's co-renting along with her sister who is this guy's baby mama. Needless to say she knows me by sight from our many interactions.
Now, doctors in the U.S. never test what is wrong with anyone. They just give you antibiotics and guess.
They should make the most of that until next Tuesday, when all the antibiotics are going to stop working because, you know, evolution.
re: 8
Yeah, free in the UK.
Everything is free in the UK except dentistry, prescriptions, and eyeglasses. And you can get partial support for, or completely free treatment, for all of those if you are pregnant, or under 18, or in full time education, or on a low income. Prescriptions are a fixed rate [about $12], and dentistry has a maximum fee [about $300] if you are using an NHS provider. Also, if you have any chronic or lifetime conditions, your GP can get you an exemption card so you don't pay prescription charges. I don't for example, as I have to take thyroid medicine.
You also get free (medical, not optical) prescriptions if you're over 60, as I was delighted to discover. If you pay, and you're on a lot of meds, you can get a card for a flat charge which covers your prescriptions for a year. Otherwise you also pay a set amount for each item, which can be more than it's worth if the item is something like warfarin which costs pennies, but you get it back when you pay the same for a course of things that cost £100 each.
My cop lasma is making me sleepy.
25/26 can't possibly be true because if the patient doesn't have any skin in the game, then they will exploit medicine and get all sorts of frivolous treatment, just for funsies. Or so I'm told.
People probably go to the doctor more often here than in America, sure. A few are time wasters, sure. Initial consultation with a GP is usually timed to be five or ten minutes, so the time wasters get filtered out fairly efficiently.
Yes, and no harm comes from ignoring warning signs and putting off that GP visit because of your 2k deductible.
Copula excluded for street cred.
Best sentence.
25/26 can't possibly be true because if the patient doesn't have any skin in the game, then they will exploit medicine and get all sorts of frivolous treatment, just for funsies. Or so I'm told.
And yet, about half as many adults take at least 4 prescriptions regularly in the UK as in the US (13% vs 25%. RAND has a lot to answer for.
smearcase, I'm saying that if you have a crappy cold/flu and it just keeps coming back every month or three weeks then you might have mycoplasma. the whole 'walking' part is meant to indicate precisely that you don't think it can be that serious because you don't feel as sick as all that and aren't coughing blood up into your handkerchief like a dostoyevsky heroine. but hey what the fuck with this fucking cold again?
9: specialists don't come from medical school, they come from residency.
Which the US Government pays for. (Tell that to the OBGYN who is anti-government. Her residency wasn't worth it to her "employer" unless the government subsidized it.) But, that part of the ACA that was to review this has been blocked.