Thursday 31 May 2007

Insurance

I was, as is my usual tool, surfing the interweb. Checking out sites and links until I ended up somewhere I had never been before. Jacquline Mackie Paisley, who I take it, is or was a prolific blogger who is now taking a break or not blogging us much - now to what matters to my post right here. That is the content of here latest blog, posted 29 May 2007.

Which relates to Health Insurance and her struggle to find the right policy for herself. What brings my attention to this is the apparent lack in interest in the fact that she HAS to get health insurance in order to plan for any future medical assistance.

The post reads as if she has lost all thought that her Government has some responsibility to her well being and health. I suppose I am looking at this from the perspective that here in Australia we have a partially Government sponsored Health system. That is if we need emergency health care - aside from the Ambulance trip, which is another story - we have things covered in the sense that the hospital will heal you, operate etc. It is not completely covered but you will get medical care in emergencies and in selective surgery you will, eventually, get in to the hospital and get say a knee reconstruction or hip replacement.

From what I understand in the USA if you have no health insurance you will not get any medical care at a hospital. I understand that there are 'free' clinics and such but I do not understand the general apathy that intelligent people, like JMP seems to be, have towards Health Insurance. Why does she pay taxes if not for the Government to take care of her well being.

I realise that I am picking on JMP a lot and I do not mean to single her out, I mean this to the general public of the USA and as a warning to people in Australia. Are we turning into America, will we one day turn people back form medical care because they do not have Health Insurance? What will that mean to us as a country if or when that happens?

I am happy to be in a Country that cares for those on lower incomes, that cares for the battlers and those unable to work in a higher paying job. I also am happy for when I earn more money to use things like Private Health providers instead of the strained public system. What I am not prepared nor willing to do is sit back and let it all turn into a terrible and horrid system like they have in the USA and like the UK is going/gone.

Public Health and Public Education ( I'll leave that for another rant) SHOULD be and always SHOULD be the major mandate of any Government. After all it is he Tax payer moneys that fund Governments and not the other way around.

There is my rant for the day.

Thoughts? Theories? Go right ahead maybe we can get a debate happening here.

3 comments:

Smarter Than the Average Cat said...

Right on, brother! The system here in the United States is heinous.

Constance Parker said...

If you go to a public hospital (not one of the private ones that are run as a business -- a scary concept in itself), they will treat you, despite your lack of insurance. And, private healthcare insitutions will do the same, but they don't have to see you because they are private. The problem steps in when the bill arrives and then doesn't get paid because of the huge price of healthcare...and then the credit collectors start to call,

Now, I *don't* think that you can get in a lot of trouble by not paying for services at a public hospital. I *think* if you pay anything at all per month, they can't do too much (except ruin your credit rating). I'm not sure what recourse private hospitals have, but they can probably sue for the amount owed.

Whew, I rambled on that one.

Scary, isn't it?

Constance Parker said...

Oh...and I just read that idiot woman's post. She's an elitist who is terrified one of her hard earned dollars may go to help someone else. All too common.