The brutal truth about American healthcare

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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Source: The Independent (UK)

An extraordinary report from Guy Adams in Los Angeles at the music arena that has been turned into a makeshift medical centre

Saturday, 15 August 2009

They came in their thousands, queuing through the night to secure one of the coveted wristbands offering entry into a strange parallel universe where medical care is a free and basic right and not an expensive luxury. Some of these Americans had walked miles simply to have their blood pressure checked, some had slept in their cars in the hope of getting an eye-test or a mammogram, others had brought their children for immunisations that could end up saving their life.

In the week that Britain's National Health Service was held aloft by Republicans as an "evil and Orwellian" example of everything that is wrong with free healthcare, these extraordinary scenes in Inglewood, California yesterday provided a sobering reminder of exactly why President Barack Obama is trying to reform the US system.

The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted.

In the first two days, more than 1,500 men, women and children received free treatments worth $503,000 (£304,000). Thirty dentists pulled 471 teeth; 320 people were given standard issue spectacles; 80 had mammograms; dozens more had acupuncture, or saw kidney specialists. By the time the makeshift medical centre leaves town on Tuesday, staff expect to have dispensed $2m worth of treatments to 10,000 patients.

The brutal truth about America’s healthcare - Americas, World - The Independent
 
"Free" treatments? Show me where anything in the medical field is free.
 
I saw a report about this on the news tonight.

I felt so bad for those people, many of them old and sick.

The wealthiest country in the world can't take care of its sick people.

How pathetic are we?
 
Now Chris, be fair. We need to be careful or we'll become socialist...like Britain, that well-known bastion of socialism.
 
I saw a report about this on the news tonight.

I felt so bad for those people, many of them old and sick.

The wealthiest country in the world can't take care of its sick people.

How pathetic are we?

apparently they just did....and lets not forget that the Forum is owned by the Faithful Central Bible Church.....
 
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And of course government involvement was limited other than not getting in the way. Buy the way offer a free play station to the first three hundred attendees and see how many people show up.

I wonder how many of those people were there because it was free and could have afforded it on there own anyway. And average cost of the treatments was somewhere in between 300 and 400 bucks per person for those first two days. scarcely a kings ransom.
 
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A lot easier than I can contenance old people dying because the government doean't want to spend the money.

Of course it's sad. But in certain respects it is also wonderful. The private charity work that went into this says a great deal of good about this country. Your just to damn pig headed to get it.
 
A lot easier than I can contenance old people dying because the government doean't want to spend the money.

Of course it's sad. But in certain respects it is also wonderful. The private charity work that went into this says a great deal of good about this country. Your just to damn pig headed to get it.

Okay, fire away. Why don't I "get it"?
 
I don't know? I have no idea beyond my initial guess that your just to pigheaded to understand the fact that this was a private charitable event that didn't involve the government. And a hell of a lot of people got treated for free by volunteers.

This whole scenario in fact pretty much demonstrates that we need governemnt run health care about like we need to be shot at.
 
The LA Forum in Inglewood, California, hosted dental and medical examinations, for thousands of people thanks to the charity Remote Area Medical.


from caption of pic @ link in OP^

Read that sentence again. Remote Area Medical......in Inglewood, California. That's like a stone's throw from Beverly Hills.......

That isn't amazing to you in any way? This charity would be more likely to show up in a NAT GEO article than so close to Rodeo Dr.....


Mind boggling.
 
I don't know? I have no idea beyond my initial guess that your just to pigheaded to understand the fact that this was a private charitable event that didn't involve the government. And a hell of a lot of people got treated for free by volunteers.

This whole scenario in fact pretty much demonstrates that we need governemnt run health care about like we need to be shot at.

Oh, so the fact that these people had to rely on a charity for medical care sort of whizzed by you did it? They had to rely on a charity because they couldn't afford to get medical care under your present system. That sort of indicates that your current system might need to be improved somewhat.

I might be pig headed but thankfully I'm not fucking stupid :lol:
 
And you think the government providing it to them isn't charity and far more expensively distributed charity at that. I don't know pigheaded might be wrong stupid probably describes it better. My bad.
 
And you think the government providing it to them isn't charity and far more expensively distributed charity at that. I don't know pigheaded might be wrong stupid probably describes it better. My bad.


eh?

I no speaky okra-homa.
 
And you think the government providing it to them isn't charity and far more expensively distributed charity at that. I don't know pigheaded might be wrong stupid probably describes it better. My bad.

:lol:

Jeez gary.

Governments don't do charity, they provide services paid for by the taxpayer. That's not charity.

Charity is me not tearing you apart - oh wait, that's mercy isn't it? :lol:

Yeah, I'm stupid, but I ain't silly :D
 
Like I said before, nothing is free. You guys get caught up in this healthcare "free" thing without stopping to think. Somebody has to pay for the medicines and the space and the time volunteered.
 
Like I said before, nothing is free. You guys get caught up in this healthcare "free" thing without stopping to think. Somebody has to pay for the medicines and the space and the time volunteered.

Of course it's not free, it doesn't all materialise out of thin air. Whoever told you that is well off beam. That's what taxes are for, to pay for it.
 
And you think the government providing it to them isn't charity and far more expensively distributed charity at that. I don't know pigheaded might be wrong stupid probably describes it better. My bad.

:lol:

Jeez gary.

Governments don't do charity, they provide services paid for by the taxpayer. That's not charity.

Charity is me not tearing you apart - oh wait, that's mercy isn't it? :lol:

Yeah, I'm stupid, but I ain't silly :D


Gary is from an interior 'k' state. They have a skewed way of looking at things.
 

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