America goes to the polls

Bless you, Sabot, you are assuming those responsible acted with good intentions....

LL, I have no complaints about the NHS; I know there are problems in some areas due to pressure of population, but that isn't the fault of the organisation itself. That is entirely another social issue.

I can't fault it, either for the treatment I've had, or for members of my family

Considering the number of people it caters for, the NHS is to be applauded. No big concern is glitch free, but at least the UK population knows if they get ill they will be helped in any way needed. By the way, it's 8 years younger than me! And it's the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world. Here thery still pay doctors so badly that patients - the ones that can afford it - do give brown envelopes to their physicians. LL

Lamplighter wrote:I think it's complicated because it is insurance companies' driven, whereas the UK system is salary driven,  You pay as you go, the more you earn the more goes in National Insurance.   You can, if you so wish, supplement the state NI with private insurance.  As I recall, in the US you have to pay the doctors, hospitals either before or after the treatment.   When I was over there I didn't need medical treatment, if I had I was flush enough to pay cash.   But if you can't afford the medical bills you have to go without, whereas in the UK you will be treated in a Nat Health hospital whether you have money or not.   You are ill, the state will provide.   The US should change over to the UK system which, with all its faults still functions and people still get help.  LL

Oh really? If they can't actually get away with bumping off the patients.

Lamplighter wrote:Considering the number of people it caters for, the NHS is to be applauded.   No big concern is glitch free, but at least the UK population knows if they get ill they will be helped in any way needed.   By the way, it's 8 years younger than me!   And it's the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world.   Here thery still pay doctors so badly that patients - the ones that can afford it - do give brown envelopes to their physicians.    LL  

Would you rely on The NHS, LL? I wouldn't. And thank God I don't have to.

I have and I do, and have no complaints, Sabot.

Sabot wrote:

Lamplighter wrote:Considering the number of people it caters for, the NHS is to be applauded.   No big concern is glitch free, but at least the UK population knows if they get ill they will be helped in any way needed.   By the way, it's 8 years younger than me!   And it's the largest and oldest single-payer healthcare system in the world.   Here thery still pay doctors so badly that patients - the ones that can afford it - do give brown envelopes to their physicians.    LL  

Would you rely on The NHS, LL?  I wouldn't.  And thank God I don't have to.

If I was in the UK, an average taxpayer, yes. I always had private insurance as I could afford it, but there was one time when my younger son had a bad fall and injured his back and ended up in an NHS hospital and I could never fault the service and care they lavished on him. LL

bb1 wrote:I have and I do, and have no complaints, Sabot.

But then you aren't particularly old, Bonny.

Sabot, I have family who are. I really do not understand why you have such a dislike of the NHS - as LL says, any big organisation has problems from time to time. It doesn't mean they represent the organisation as a whole, and are generally down to pen-pushers, not nursing staff or doctors.

bb1 wrote:Sabot, I have family who are. I really do not understand why you have such a dislike of the NHS - as LL says, any big organisation has problems from time to time. It doesn't mean they represent the organisation as a whole, and are generally down to pen-pushers, not nursing staff or doctors.

The Liverpool Pathway sickened me, Bonny. And precisely down to pen pushers and targets. But they are such a large part of the NHS now.
And I don't want to be afeared if I am ever ill.

I once went to an English hospital to get a severely sliced finger stitched, and suffered years of septic infection afterwards. Everytime I cut or scratched myself for years after that, everything went septic. I finished up with a serious case of blood poisoning which was spotted here by a rural French Doctor who couldn't speak English, at a time when I couldn't speak French. I survived for as long as I did because I am basically healthy. And it was all down to filth in the one place where you don't expect it.
And I will never forget how ill I felt. I actually thought I was going to die when it finally caught up with me. I laid in bed for two days before I was able to drag myself out to the Doctors Surgery. But I certainly should not have been driving. I still don't remember how I got there.
So if for nothing else, you won't catch me in an NHS Hospital.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/14/cornell-student-body-furious-over-school-health-care-opt-out-fees/?intcmp=latestnews

Ah, the joys of Obamacare.

Great isn't it?

I am genuinely flabbergasted by it, Lily. There are various models of healthcare systems around the world, most of which work pretty well without bankrupting the users. ANY of them would have been better.

It's as if someone threw a bit of all of them, plus a bit of privatised healthcare, into a hat, drew bits out at random, then tried to create a healthcare system. And as for this business of the people that contribute most financially getting the WORST treatment....and fining people that don't want to join Obamacare - words fail me.

I see some Americans complaining about it being 'socialist' healthcare, but it's not even that; if it was, there would be some genuine equality in it. To an onlooker, it looks like the worst of every possible world. And it's incomprehensible.

Actually, I would love to see some of your Free Sh*t Army get a taste of genuine Socialism; they would soon find out that they wouldn't get a cent for sitting on their ar@es all day. If they're capable of holding a broom, then that is what they would be put to work doing in exchange for three centrally-planned meals a day. If they were lucky.

Bring it on, is what I say.

http://nypost.com/2015/02/14/bill-clintons-libido-threatens-to-derail-hillary-again/

She hasn’t even announced, but the question has already resurfaced: Will Bill Clinton’s baggage derail Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes?
Just a few weeks ago, reports broke that Bill Clinton had flown at least 11 times on “The Lolita Express” — a private plane owned by the mysterious financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. According to Virginia Roberts, who claims to have been one of Epstein’s many teenaged sex slaves, Clinton also visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, known as “Orgy Island.

I just hope she doesn't run and also hope Jeb Bush doesn't either.

It will be a sad day if either of them are enthroned, Lily, to an outsider, it looks like the US needs fresh blood and new thinking, not just more of the same old, same old.

That's exactly it, Bonny. Whatever fresh blood it is, I hope it will not be like this present example.....

So, whose bright idea was this hashtag?

https://twitter.com/hashtag/iloveobama?f=realtime&src=hash

Not surprisingly, the I Love Obama # is under rather heavy attack...

#JeSuisCharlie Bee ‏@bossyhoneybee 2h2 hours ago
#ILoveObama because he first loved himself. #selfiestick

Think he would be better as an actor actually. He could quit now and do it.......

Unless he has something else in mind?

Nooooooo.....

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO...........

AHA! That's what he was practising for when he was taking selfies in front of that mirror!

He's got the Dictator shades, he was doing the gun thing, and he's going to seize power as Dear Leader very shortly. Probably in March, as he couldn't pronounce February.

Probably in March, as he couldn't pronounce February.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-16/us-vs-china-study-opposites

That's an interesting piece about how the US and China seem to have somehow changed places over the past 40 years.

There are still differences, of course - there's no Free Sh*t Army in China, and China periodically shoots oligarchs when they get too corrupt.