The Political Thread

[Tiplodocus]

Remember up the thread when I put on my tinfoil hat and said magic votes would appear for the Tories from somewhere?  Apparently they arrived by post already.

That's quite exceptional - if it's true then a BBC reporter is breaking the law by declaring election results before polling day (never mind before the polls have closed - they haven't even opened yet).

Again, the Calhab is ahead of you. Ruth Davison, the Scottish Leader of Conservatives, who you Have to remind yourself to hate her, did it at last election and no prosecution followed.

[radiator]

I came across a thread on Twitter a few days ago where people were sharing their experiences of US healthcare — specifically, in this case, people who'd had quite serious surgical procedures under local anesthetic because having a general meant an overnight stay in hospital which they couldn't afford. One person described actually watching surgeons open up his abdomen and how much pain you can still feel under a local.

Apparently, in US healthcare, this is Very Much A Thing (to the extent that there's a NY Times article about it that I won't bother linking because it's behind a paywall).

One doctor rightly described the whole thing as 'uncivilised' saying that in this day and age, we shouldn't just be giving people "something to bite down on" during surgery.

See also: uninsured victims of accidents begging bystanders not to call them an ambulance and opting to make their own way to hospital instead, women in labour getting Ubers to hospital instead of ambulances etc etc. These aren't exaggerated horror stories, these are things that happen all the time.

Mixing healthcare with profit motives, to me, introduces so many self-evident conflicts of interest, as a corporation is, given the choice, obviously always going to put profit before wellbeing.

Far from being 'more efficient' because of competition, the sheer number of different providers and the huge amounts of money involved things like marketing, having to hire god knows how many agents and middle-men, all the bloated admin involved... It's really hard to see how it isn't far more wasteful and bloated than a fully socialised system.

Again, things like this alone, in any sane world, should end the argument.

[Funt Solo]

I was in A&E recently after falling off my motorbike.  The ambulance crew put me in a wheelchair and gave me some kind of vape to smoke which got me absolutely off my tits and most definitely killed the pain. I had a great time.  Sorry, I realise this doesn't advance discussions in any way.

Europe: "Someone has been hurt: quickly, get them high!"
USA: "Someone has been hurt: quickly, let's profit from that!"

[blackmocco]

I came across a thread on Twitter a few days ago where people were sharing their experiences of US healthcare — specifically, in this case, people who'd had quite serious surgical procedures under local anesthetic because having a general meant an overnight stay in hospital which they couldn't afford. One person described actually watching surgeons open up his abdomen and how much pain you can still feel under a local.

Apparently, in US healthcare, this is Very Much A Thing (to the extent that there's a NY Times article about it that I won't bother linking because it's behind a paywall).

One doctor rightly described the whole thing as 'uncivilised' saying that in this day and age, we shouldn't just be giving people "something to bite down on" during surgery.

See also: uninsured victims of accidents begging bystanders not to call them an ambulance and opting to make their own way to hospital instead, women in labour getting Ubers to hospital instead of ambulances etc etc. These aren't exaggerated horror stories, these are things that happen all the time.

Mixing healthcare with profit motives, to me, introduces so many self-evident conflicts of interest, as a corporation is, given the choice, obviously always going to put profit before wellbeing.

Far from being 'more efficient' because of competition, the sheer number of different providers and the huge amounts of money involved things like marketing, having to hire god knows how many agents and middle-men, all the bloated admin involved... It's really hard to see how it isn't far more wasteful and bloated than a fully socialised system.

Again, things like this alone, in any sane world, should end the argument.

When I moved to London back in '89, the advice I received was "stay out of political and religious conversations". When I moved to LA in '98, the advice I received was "don't call an ambulance if you're sick. Get a friend to drive you." They weren't joking. I've three friends who drove themselves to hospitals while having heart attacks.

[Funt Solo]

Air ambulance is even worse: there's a flood of air ambulance private companies: too many copters and not enough patients.  The upshot of this is that if you take a ride in an air ambulance they're going to try and extract the cost of running the entire business from you. Because it's the land of the free (*cough* *drool*), there's no regulation on what they charge you.

Air ambulance == bankruptcy.

(Of course, if you need one, then you have no choice but to take it. Or, I dunno, attempt to crawl to hospital. You'll die, but at least you'll still have money in the bank.)

[IndigoPrime]

Fuck.

[Jim_Campbell]

Yep.

[Hawkmumbler]

Jesus suffering fuck....

[Professor Bear]

LOL We really are the absolute worst.

[JayzusB.Christ]

God help us all. I'm half Brit myself, but what the hell's going on over there?

[paddykafka]

I think this link says it all. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aItpjF5vXc

[edgeworthy]

Air ambulance is even worse: there's a flood of air ambulance private companies: too many copters and not enough patients.  The upshot of this is that if you take a ride in an air ambulance they're going to try and extract the cost of running the entire business from you. Because it's the land of the free (*cough* *drool*), there's no regulation on what they charge you.

Air ambulance == bankruptcy.

(Of course, if you need one, then you have no choice but to take it. Or, I dunno, attempt to crawl to hospital. You'll die, but at least you'll still have money in the bank.)

If you want to feel really bad my local Air Ambulance is a Registered Charity.

[shaolin_monkey]

Jesus fucking shit Christ. Really UK? Fucking REALLY?!?

Oh my god. It looks like right wing propaganda and lies wins over truth a progressivism. We are so fucked.

[Funt Solo]

It's Brexit, innit. People want it done (even if they didn't originally want to do it).

[radiator]

It's Brexit, innit. People want it done (even if they didn't originally want to do it).

I understand the impulse behind Brexit, even if I oppose it. I get why people are angry and wanted to reject the status quo. I guess I just had a glimmer of hope that the party with the policies that could actually start to address some of the underlying issues that made people so frustrated as to want to vote for Brexit in the first place might gain a bit more traction, but I guess not. Getting Brexit through isn't going to satisfy that anger, it's just going to make everything worse.

All I see is a country that is enthusiastically hastening its own decline. God knows what the tories will inflict now that they basically have free reign to do whatever the hell they want.

And this is all also probably mana from heaven for those over here that want to stop Bernie Sanders from getting anywhere near the Democratic nomination. What does Labour even do now? New New Labour? Tories but a bit superficially nicer? Don't we have the Lib Dems for that (and look at how that's going for them)?

A sad day.