The Great Scottish FREEEEEEEEEDOOOMMMMM!!!!1!!! vote

[Felch]

Or if you come down with an abscess or something.

There are a lot of things wrong with American health care. But I don't know why Bereta's friend would be paying 1,000 dollars a month for insurance. I pay 60.

[DaShi]

Or getting your teeth knocked out in a bar fight.

[kentonio]

But doesn´t a referendum need the approval of the prime minister or at least a parliamentary majority to be allowed?
I somehow doubt that the Prime minister would give his O.K. again for a referendum (at least not in the next decades) ... and I guess hat also the parliament would be rather not supportive of a referendum, considering how close scotland came to segregating last time

(or with other words ... scotland had its chance and didn´t use it, now it is property of the UK forever )

The Prime Minister won't have any choice if nothing happens and you end up with large scale protests on the street, all supported by Scotlands elected government. Seriously, the Scots aren't about to let this go, and everyone knows it.

[kentonio]

Also, the reason you face so much bureaucracy is twofold:

1. Government rules on what can and can't be covered
2. The fact that healthcare insurance choices are not made by the consumer.

Healthcare insurance is highly competitive. But the customers are not actually the patients. The customers are the employers. Employees don't directly choose their healthcare. If this changed, I guarantee health insurance companies would be more responsive overnight.

Dear god you're actually deluded. Healthcare here is completely run by the government, is cheaper and delivers better overall outcomes. Sick people here also don't have any form filling or trying to persuade private companies to agree to pay their costs. No worry about having to find the money to make you well again, just the ability to concentrate on healing. If you had ever lived in a system with universal healthcare you'd riot before you let anyone take it away again.

[Hauldren Collider]

Dear god you're actually deluded. Healthcare here is completely run by the government, is cheaper and delivers better overall outcomes. Sick people here also don't have any form filling or trying to persuade private companies to agree to pay their costs. No worry about having to find the money to make you well again, just the ability to concentrate on healing. If you had ever lived in a system with universal healthcare you'd riot before you let anyone take it away again.

[regexcellent]

There was a great article on the BBC's webpage a while back which unironically celebrated the fact that the UK's NHS was better in every way to US healthcare except in patient outcomes. Jaguar had it, I can't find it at the moment.

[C0ckney]

is your consistent wrongness ironic or unironic?

[Dr Strangelove]

1. As someone who is currently on Medicaid (hopefully not much longer, start a new job with possible long-term prospects tomorrow), I have to say, it's much better than nothing, but it ain't the greatest. For example, in several weeks I'll be paying eighty bucks to have a dentist look at my teeth, because my insurance covers nothing but extractions. Everything else dental is out-of-pocket.

2. The way we deal with healthcare in general is tiresome and stupid. I've never heard a clear explanation exactly of why everything sucks here--generally they just say "administrative costs," whatever that means--but it costs too damn much, and a large percentage of my healthcare decisions are not "which option is better for my health?" but "which option will the insanely draconian bureaucracy allow?" Which doctors are covered under my plan? Which treatments are covered? It's all in the fine print somewhere, but often you get bounced between three different offices who give you three different answers. And sometimes office C will just refer you back to office A.

Often the lack of Medicaid covered dental care is not for the lack of coverage, but instead because dentists won't participate. In this area dentists who participate with Medicaid (except for those who work with kids) tend to disapperar with a few months. I'm not sure why that is.

[Dr Strangelove]

Dental should be paid out of pocket, Elok. It's not risk and shouldn't be covered by insurance. The only reason it ever is is because of the tax exemption.

Lack of dental care can lead to a number of other health problems. Chronically untreated caries and abscesses are clearly related to cardiovascular disease. It can aggravate Migraines and TMJ disorders. People who lack access to dental care abuse the medical care system as they seek pain medication. The chronic pain may lead to depression.

[kentonio]

There was a great article on the BBC's webpage a while back which unironically celebrated the fact that the UK's NHS was better in every way to US healthcare except in patient outcomes. Jaguar had it, I can't find it at the moment.

I've posted the figures on several previous occasions to show that is untrue. If you want to just keep repeating something that is clearly nonsense, then you go for it.

[DinoDoc]

People who lack access to dental care abuse the medical care system as they seek pain medication. The chronic pain may lead to depression.

If they have the money to get narcotics from a doctor (an expensive habit to keep up even on Medicaid), why do they suddenly lack the money for a dentist?

[DinoDoc]

Often the lack of Medicaid covered dental care is not for the lack of coverage, but instead because dentists won't participate. In this area dentists who participate with Medicaid (except for those who work with kids) tend to disappear with a few months. I'm not sure why that is.

I presume that it is the pay.

[Fake Boris]

DD's and Reg crusade against the less fortunate

[Dr Strangelove]

If they have the money to get narcotics from a doctor (an expensive habit to keep up even on Medicaid), why do they suddenly lack the money for a dentist?

On Medicaid their co-pay is $ 1 per visit to the doctor, their co-pay for drugs is the same. In Virginia most Medicaid patients have ben farmed out to HMOs, if you're a physician who participates with Medicaid you're obligated to treat them for dental infections and dental pain.

[Dr Strangelove]

I presume that it is the pay.

There are several dentists in the area who treat children on Medicaid, the pay for an adult's visit is the same as the pay for a child's visit. The dentists treating children on Medicaid are doing just fine. Remember dental procedures are considered surgery, the reimbursement is better than for non-surgical visits to general practitioner physician.