Oh, Noes!!!
The Pensacola News Journal shrieks: Okaloosa County has case of probable swine flu. Which is terrifying news, because everyone knows there are no other possible causes of death in Okaloosa County … well, except for all of the other diseases on the planet, and with military people who are sent all over the world, we get to see them all. I guess the lethal mix of terrible local drivers and tourists on overcrowded roads, is sort of dangerous. We do test all of the airborne weapons systems that the US has in the county. There is that Explosive Ordinance Disposal school here. We’ll probably have to include all of the crazies with access to guns.
Yeah, but this is THE FLU, you know, not just a cold. You get a fever with this one and there are reports of nausea.
I’m sorry, but I’ve spent a lot of time in areas around the world where living until the age of 40 was a rare thing, and making it to adulthood was a 50-50 bet. We are going to have the same problems with this flu that we have with regular flu, and one of the biggest problems is the lack of a single payer health care system that would have people visiting a doctor’s office, instead of crowding into an emergency room.
10 comments
I was just wondering if they made as much noise about the outbreak of West Nile virus last year in Escambia county? It too has ‘flu like’ symptoms. Are people being instructed on how to tell the difference?
fallenmonk´s last blog post..Shrinking the Kids
We get West Nile every year and Equine Encephalitis. Malaria can’t be far behind.
This is the disease of day, and gets headlines. I think HIV and drug-resistant TB are more important, but what do I know, I’m just a guy with a computer, as opposed to a corporation with a printing press.
dd:
my parents get superb care from medicare, my friends get superb care from the vha, i got crappy care from my private insurance company, and then when i got really sick, the insurance company dropped me completely. i’d be thrilled to take my chances with govt-run healthcare, even our woefully-underfunded indian health service.
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what do y’all put in the water over there, bryan? your shootings are getting to where they rival those in prichard [alabama].
hipparchia´s last blog post..
@ Brian: LOL Yeah… I know the feeling m8! 😀 Thankfully, at least the news services here are sticking to the facts and not trying to drum up business for the insurance companies and drug companies etc. 🙂
@ hipparchia: Yeah. Howard tried very hard to destroy our health system, he managed to dilute it and help the insurance companies, but Medicare still works for many. Sweden, France and even Cuba (and many others) have great health care systems, I guess they actually care about their people. My mother had top tier private health insurance for years. Then she got cancer and they practically abandoned her (did the absolute minimum they could). She would have had similar or even better treatment under the public health system before she passed away. Was a total waste of money. It’s obvious to anyone sane really. The Insurance companies are private corporations. They are in it to make money for the shareholders, not to help people! The only ones who claim otherwise, are fools and shareholders (or at least, stakeholders).
For the first time in forever, Hipparchia, we have real unemployment in the county, and people can’t adjust. It will get worse, as people realize that they can’t get a tourist-related or construction-related job, any time they want.
If you lose a job now, it is a major problem, and a lot of jobs are already gone.
I had a health insurance related business trying to hire me for some maintenance programming, but after I figured out what their software did, I told them to stuff it. If I wanted to work for someone with the morals of the CIA, I would have worked for the CIA. The entire industry is such a bunch of sleaze bags.
The purpose of the health insurance industry in the US is to take policy holders’ money and keep it.
My older brother is dropping his private insurance, now that he has qualified for Medicare, because he gets much better coverage, and doesn’t have to keep changing doctors at the whim of an insurance company.
Hospital access is not the reason I would support universal health care. Even in the US, hospital is to be avoided at all costs. You will enter with one ailment that they may or may not treat correctly, and leave with a few chronic infections that might kill you. This was my experience with my mother’s illness. Hospital was a nightmare.
What people need is access to routine health care, the kind they put off if they don’t have money or a job. The kind that keeps you healthy.
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Well, Mr. Duff, you can get exactly the same service in the US, and we pay £5,230 per person per year for it. That includes the over 45 million who are without any form of insurance, which means they aren’t poor enough to qualify for the government program or rich enough to buy it on their own. The uninsured are the middle class. Oh, there is no dental or vision included the US non-system, unlike the UK system.
Our local infection specialist removes all of his referrals from the hospital immediately, as your home is a more sanitary environment than the hospital.
If you want rude, try talking to an American health insurer about covering the cost of treatment your doctor ordered.
Two people I know have caught new infections in the local hospital after being admitted for totally unrelated reasons. One of died of the infection.
Yes, Lady Min, the point of single payer is to catch things before they get so bad you are hospitalized. That’s how you stop outbreaks of infectious diseases, and generally keep the cost of health care down.
eh, dd, what bryan said. we pay far more than you do, and we get far less.
plus, i don’t care about rude, if i get actual care. the best specialist i ever had was extremely brusque, bordering on rude, and often even going over the line. but i got excellent care.
i’ve heard that your system was a lot better before the thatcherites started trying to
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