Metal Reviews

What is the health care system like in your country and how much does it usually cost you a month? In the US things are getting pretty shitty where most working class people can't even afford basic health care, despite the fact that our president has passed the "affordable care act."

In Norway we use the universal health care system, while not completely free in some cases it does reduce health care cost to a minimum, meaning nobody gets ruined financially if they get sick. If you are rushed to the hospital, the first thing they ask is: Where does it hurt? Not: Do you have health insurance? Because the bill is already taken care of. Major surgery is free and is paid by the government through our taxes. Minor surgery is usually not free and private clinics can charge what they like (although those on disability and pensions have a card that limits what they have to pay in year, if the amounts gets bigger than the limit set, whatever medical attention you need beyond that is free!). Few people have health insurance here actually, people are much more likely to have a life insurance instead. If a medication is vital and is required for you to live, the doctor writes out something called a "blue" prescription and is therefore free and paid for by the state (in our case, the entire country) All other prescriptions which are not vital to stay alive are not free. Everybody in Norway also get a free international health care card which basically says that if you get sick anywhere in the world outside of Norway, the bill should be sent to Norway. So while not flawless, it's pretty damn good and is ranked at Nr. 11 on a global scale. I'm sure i'm missing other stuff too.

Our president passed a neutered, rather haphazardly cobbled together bill about healthcare. Rather fucking worthless.

Something really awesome was how my university had record enrollment each of the three years, record enrollment of out of state students who pay triple what in-state students pay, are expanding the campus twice over (literally doubling the size of the campus with a western half that requires a tunnel built under a road that separates the two portions of land in order to connect them), yet as a grad student dependent on them for my livelihood, they have cut my insurance particularly my dental insurance to a discount plan and not a full insurance plan. I have paid thousands out of pocket for dental care the past year and a half. Not to mention, the cost of living here is twice what it would be anywhere else.

Edit: Mind you, I pay a hundred dollars each year for this discount plan.

That must be nice. Would a broken ankle be considered major or minor surgery?

I'm not 100% sure, but i think a state hospital would fix you up for free. Any injury that impairs you in big way like a broken leg or ankle (probably) and would require immediate surgery would probably fall under the major surgery category. Actually...when i think about it i think just about any injury can be repaired for free, it just depends on your willingness to wait for a free surgery. If you decide that your injury can't wait, there is always the option to go to a private clinic and pay for the surgery out of your own pocket.

I get taxed slightly over 50% of what I make for stuff like healthcare, social welfare etc. so in a word: outrageous.

Its the price you pay for being a member of society!

We have the fabled NHS. You get 'free' healthcare, assuming you don't mind the wait and the possibility of being one of the poor unfortunates who gets left to die of thirst!

Left to die of thirst?

I have paid $7,000 of my $18,000 wages in medical costs, not including shots I had to get last year. And my sister got evicted. Sounds like you made out like a bandit assuming that your 50% would have covered any medical expenses you had and kept folks you know who live at the poverty line in their houses. Anecdotal evidence sure but anecdotes like mine are way better than what folks positioned in a "non-middle class" background suffer. I'm a grad student with a shit ton of cultural capital and I still get screwed over by this shit. Idk, gripe about the system if you like, but I think you're lucky in that security even if you take it for granted. Making $18k in a town that is super expensive is way better than the $13k I used to make living in the Midwest if solely for the fact that I have security. Living paycheck to paycheck, juggling the $20 in your bank account each week for food/gas/credit card payments takes such a toll on one's nerves. But now, my finances are squared away for the most part each week: half of my wages go to rent, the other half to car payments, gas, food, beer, medical bills.

@Zad: Charles would obviously know more about this than I do in terms of English politics, but what do you expect in having a public system in an age when we're post-public, a la Margaret Thatcher saying there is no society? I'll say this about America. Our "socialist" option, as Obamacare is described, won't fucking work because it is the govt trying to corral cats, getting private companies to work for public benefit. You either go all in and make a single payer option or let the market figure things out. A compromise is only going to be incompetent and frail in its essential fracturing. The Thatcher quote is a caricature, but my guess is that your govt doesn't properly fund its healtcare system, especially in comparison to the military bills you've been footing, gallivanting across the globe with us for the greater part of two decades.

*waits for the hate*

Fraid not...

http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_de ... ng_30.html

But yeah, big changes are needed, especially since we have an ageing population that needs a different sort of care than the NHS provides.

Wow. Y'all actually fund your healthcare.

Wow, is that a progressive tax or does everyone pay that amount.




I was watching the Michael Moore film "Sicko" and he made the British health care system out to be the best thing since canned beer.

Yeah, but this is non-optional; evere working Belgian donates half his paycheck to the tax collectors. And there's families with three generations of unemployment, and it's been going on for decades, even when there were a lot of jobs.

Michael Moore not being correct? Shocker.