are Teabaggers correct about socialized medicine ?

[Swagman]

After having 2 full knee replacements over the past ten years in Australia under their "socialized" Medicare at a grand cost to me of $200 (cost of taxis to and from hospital, rent of TV during 4 day stay, incidentals etc)my wife had to have a cataract removed and a lens laser fixed.

She had to wait 5 months. She could have paid $1200 to have it done privately much sooner but we couldn't afford it.

Again she, like me had to choose her own doctor, choose her own surgeon (who would have done it privately - he does private patients 3 days of the week, public patients the rest of the week. Lives in a multi-million dollar house and drives a Merc.).

No cost for day surgery at the Eye Hospital. I wasn't in town-$30 for taxis to and fro.

It isn't free..we both pay around $10 each a week Medicare supplement (tax) out of our wages. Just like paying for private health care except the government doesn't need to make a profit.

Communism? I don't think so.
More like common sense. Why are the Teabaggers and others so upset about things like this ?

:shrug:

ps : ironically-the Surgeon is Russian who emigrated from the USSR where he was superbly trained.

[Ozymanithrax]

1. Ignorance as broad and deep as the pacific. n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

2. Self Delete

[gratuitous]

3. The Tea Baggers think only the weak get sick

And they're strong. Strong! The world is stacked in their favor, and they don't want to chance losing their advantage. Of course, as soon as they find themselves in a bind, that same world is expected to drop everything and make sure they keep their exalted position.

[sandnsea]

4. There's private care too?

How does that work? Is there private insurance in Austalia too? I thought it was like Canada.

A lot of people here don't want any private health providers because it creates a two-tier system. They probably would oppose Australia's system if it were proposed here.

[kenny blankenship]

6. Sigh... There's private health insurance in Canada too.

It's just not central to the delivery of basic health care, hence not allowed to dominate the system and prices.

[sandnsea]

8. It covers elective procedures

The OP is talking about separate private care. I think they have recently begun introducing that in Canada, but it's not a huge part of their health care system.

[Zoeisright]

5. Teabaggers are stupid.

There. Simple, concise, and to the point.

With every word spelled correctly, too.

[blue sky at night]

7. you ask a very good question...

here are another few: why are stupid people stupid, and why are mean people mean, and why are evil people so damn evil, and why, oh why do we have to hear from them every god-damn day???

thanks for the post! wish i lived down under!

[K8-EEE]

9. Teabaggers are never right about anything

But they're loud and obnoxious so they think that's just as good as being right...

Jealous of your ins! We have great ins. through my husband's union but there's always a fear of unemployment, in which case we would be out in the cold. Even with our "gold plated" insurance we ended up paying almost $4,000 for a recent hospital stay for our daughter when she had to have a cyst removed (emergency surgery - she had collapsed and needed an ambulance.) It would have been $35,000 without ins.

[madrchsod]

10. at my hospital a overnight stay in the intensive care unit costs 25,000 dollars---

if you don`t have insurance. i had a heart incident so they had to monitor me overnight. i applied for hospital charity and they paid the bill in full.

i`ve declared bankruptcy twice in the last 29 yrs over hospital and doctor bills.

[Eric Condon]

12. .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH5ixmT83JE

[KT2000]

11. Know a man who

has cataracts so bad he will have to quit his part-time job because he can barely see. Somehow he will have to survive until his Medicare kicks in and he can have his eyes fixed.

[upi402]

13. Teabaggers are on socialist security

in larger percentage than any political group.

My wife refuses to use the sketchy medical care here. Feels they are trained to take your money, not cure you. She's right. My whole family have used the superior care in a 3rd world country. But we can't afford to fly to her country now that I'm laid off.

Blame the propaganda media.

[rve300]

14. Please do not lie about your public benifits....

to make your situation look better than it is.

The Australian government classes laser eye surgery (both lasik and PRK) as "cosmetic surgery". You can claim a small rebate from medicare but you would have paid at least a $1500 for your wife to get her eye fixed under the public system.

How long did you wait for each of your knee replacements?

[thelordofhell]

15. As opposed to 3-4 thousand per eye here?

If you don't have less on you have.........

[Ikonoklast]

16. Do they use laser correction during the cataract procedure?

That is the case here, the cost is included as part of the overall operation.

And calling someone a liar without having all the facts at hand is fairly low-rent.

[old mark]

17. The American Medical Association was founded in part to protect US medical doctors

from any type of infringement on their right to become extremely wealthy. They have been fighting any type of socialized medicine for a century, and many of their membership still is.
Meanwhile our real quality of health care is around 45th in the world, so it is not only prohibitively expensive, it isn't very good much of the time.


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