Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger

[Mr Master]

You know, a little bit of a fee might be OK. Say, a tenner? If it's cheaper to buy a bottle of asprin, maybe the silly complaints might put themselves off. But the idea of waiving for minors and those already on assistance seems reasonable, as well.

25 can be a lot of money, but 10 is somewhat more doable. In America, you're looking at perhaps 100 for a doctor's visit, or several hours' wait in a free clinic, if you've got one handy. Even if you've got insurance, there's usually a co-pay. And yes, the idea is to have people put off unnecessary visits (hangnails, muscle soreness, etc.), but it really gets out of hand.

Don't do what we did! If it's a choice between this and having people come in for piddly stupid issues, go with the piddly stupid issues. Have nurses do triage, they're moderately less well-paid than doctors, and thus their time is marginally less expensive.

 

[☢☢Zombies Galore☢☢]

As someone who has had to go to a farm hand to get his arm stitched up since I didn't have insurance at the time--which left some nasty, embarrassing scars that makes me look like a failed suicide attempt not to mention the wound that went necrotic--I fully support having a free or limited copay. Less than ten dollars. I'd like to see every alcoholic bum be able to get treatment, as well. I'd like to see every drug addict be able to get treatment. If we put these people in an environment in which they can flourish, or at least more slowly decline, health wise there's a greater chance they will reverse their lot and improve.

 

[Kawamura]

If you want to get really selfish and not even worry about the health of others, you can remind people that having pockets of sick people is basically like having pockets of OHGODTHATSHITWILLKILLME.

Gated communities can keep the homeless out of sight, out of mind, but diseases don't mind mechanized car gates so much. :]

 

[☢☢Zombies Galore☢☢]

That's a good solution. Everyone gets basic education in epidemiology. That would really change some opinions on how and why healthcare should be changed (in the US).

 

[Kawamura]

Generally, when I talk to people about this sort of thing IRL I focus on costs (sick people eventually get treatment for a much higher cost then preventative care), economic effect (sick workers negatively effect their businesses) and then the last part of "sick people get you sick, dumb ass".

While on the inside I mostly just want to go IT'S CALLED ANOTHER HUMAN BEING, YOU'RE SITTING THERE WITH YOUR IPOD AND YOUR SKINNY JEANS TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER HUMAN BEING'S HEALTH AND ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE AND YOU ARE SUCH A DOUCHE I WANT TO PUNCH YOU IN THE THROAT.

Not that I do enough charity work/try and make less waste as I should. But still.