@TiggerYou’re behind the curve it’s happening now and youcan’t blame it on Obama since his plan doesn’t even stat till 2014.Guess you’ll have to get your information from someone other than a birdbrain or other Fox listener.
It’s happening right now, and it has always happened. Whenever demand exceeds the supply (and you can always want more healthcare than you’re getting), rationing is the only possible result..A free market rations scarce goods and services based on your ability to pay. (Or to wait in line. Time really is money.) Can’t afford the money or waiting time to get your meds? Tough cookies…Darwin FTW..An administrative system run by insurance companies, which we have now, rations health care based on arbitrary (hopefully professional) judgment by nameless-faceless corporate bureaucrats, and profitability for its stockholders. Some patients get everything they need when they need it; others eventually get something that may or may not be enough; and still others (the uninsured) get nothing..A governmental system, “socialized medicine” in some flavor, rations healthcare based on arbitrary (hopefully professional) judgment by nameless-faceless government bureaucrats, and impersonal regulations. At its best, everyone gets something like what they need, hopefully soon enough to help, and no one is frozen out completely.,Are we clear, now? There is no perfect system, and you always have rationing. The only difference is who gets left out and what happens to them — and what our consciences can live with.
Look at the number of diagnostic machines per person in the US vs. Canada or the UK … look at the time it takes to see a specialist from the time that one is referred … I’ll take the US system anytime. Nothing’s perfect.No one in the US does not have access to medical care – regardless of ability to pay – that’s why ERs are so full.
@teb431It must have been a small selective sample of people you spoke to, very few in the UK would swap their system for the US system even with all its faults. Australians cringe at the very thought of the US health care system. Unless you personally know, understand and have used those other systems please refrain from making erroneous bigoted remarks about them.
Ask this short-term Canadian. My doctor there practiced under both systems. His analysis was, “I don’t think that I practice medicine any differently now that I no longer worry about being paid.” His waiting room wall didn’t have Norman Rockwell paintings of a doctor’s vigil at the bedside of a child – he had the contents page of medical journals carrying his peer- reviewed research papers. Little ones like The Lancet. He was in general practice.
Just had to schedule to see a doc. My “private practice” doc, a six week wait to get in. My VA doc only comes over for a clinic, and I can get in in a week. Meds from VA are “no cost”, my COPAY for my med through “insurance” is over $1 per pill, and the pharmaceutical company charges $6 PER PILL. VA negotiates, and Medicare is banned from negotiating, and my “insurance company” pays what the market will bear, which is a real bear!
teb413 – I’m Canadian and I say our system is way better than yours (despite not being perfect, or even the best in the world). We get all the health care we need and treatments are not denied because of “statistics”. Some of the delays for non-urgent care are higher than they should be and some of the costs are higher than necessary due to bureaucracy (but we still spend way less on health care than the US per capita), but I’d never want a corporation trying to maximize profit making health care decisions for me.
If I may comment. This comic humor goes beyond the present. It would have been funny twenty years ago because medical bills have always been considered expensive.
I am anticommunist and English and can say that I have paid Health Insurance for 65 years, to the Government. And at 83 I have been very well taken care of, so have many visitors, including U.S.,anyone I talk to doesn’t want Private health care
Hi. I’m European, and the “socialized healthcare” works just fine thanks. Not perfect, but what is, when pretty much every useful service is faced with budget cuts.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
You can still just go private if you’re in a hurry and want to pay more for it.
The problem with conservatives is they need better comedians to push their agenda. Liberals have all the good ones. Humor is a powerful tool that disarms people into accepting beliefs without analyzing them. Wiley and Jon Stewart promoting the dark side…
Hi, I am new here as about 5 minutes ago. can anyone tell me if it is possible to pull up older comics? I am looking for an older one from Non Sequitur entitled Livin’ the vida loca, showing a guy in a straight jacket, in a padded cell, with a pen held in his toes and scribble across a wall in the cell is the words Livin the Vida Loca….thanks to whom ever can help.
I don’t know about how “ObamaCare” is going to work for everyone, but I DO know that it has already helped kick me in the teeth. I take a medication that costs $6 a pill, and I have to take it every day. It is a relatively new drug, so there is no generic available, nor will there be for several years to come. I jumped through my insurance company’s hoops and they now cover about half of the cost (with the situation to be reevaluated each year, oh joy), leaving me to pay around $3 per pill. Then, I tried to contact the manufacturer to see if they could help me. Everyone was very helpful until they found out that I have a Federal insurance program (my husband works for the Postal Service). Then, I was told that there was nothing they could do for me. They told me that anyone with “government insurance” (including Medicare) could not get medication assistance from them because part of the Affordable Care Act dictated that it would put their own governmental funding at risk. I have no idea if that is in fact truth, but it is their current excuse for not doing a thing for me. Someone said that the medical care problems in the US are mainly caused by greed? I have to say I certainly agree.
Oh, and I forgot to add that I experienced “socialized” medicine in Spain in the late ’90’s and I have very few complaints. They didn’t do any sort of cosmetic repair (I was in an accident that crushed my cheek bone) but they DID keep me alive when my liver was shattered. Talking with several doctors here in the US, it was pretty much the consensus that if the accident were to have happened here, I most likely would have died because of the malpractice risk involved with that type of injury. Approximately 70% of people so injured will die on the operating table, and then 60% of those who survive the initial surgery will then die within the week. So, with all the second-guessing that the doctors have to do to avoid being sued, most people in the US with an injury like mine don’t stand a chance. I’m willing to give “ObamaCare” a chance; I’m just disgusted that companies are already using it as an excuse to withhold assistance.
Just fyi, I know a number of Canadians as well, and they’re about 80/20 in favor of the system over there. The 20 tell me a story of how the Canadian doctors “let grandma die,” while a few of the 80 took grandma back up north because HERE she would have been left to die.The problem is that so many views are based merely on personal experience. This should not be the case when we have the data processing technology to see the whole picture, yet no one on either side wants to do anything except cherry-pick examples to support their own argument. As a result, we get a polarized debate that implies a false conclusion where one side is completely right and the other is either totally corrupt or completely out of their minds.
ANQuixote about 13 years ago
Sorry Wiley, but I don’t think that this comic will make much sense outside of the United States.
Nebulous Premium Member about 13 years ago
And critics of Socialized Medicine say that the US Health Care Market doesn’t have any rationing of services.
Kali39 about 13 years ago
He’s got an HMO – what’s not to understand?
ellery_l about 13 years ago
Credit ratings make a lot of sense for us Asians…and probably much more for Europeans.
roctor about 13 years ago
The Doc’s oath applies only to the insurance company.
William Reynolds about 13 years ago
Somebody’s confused. Obama care doesn’t start until 2014 does it?
walruscarver2000 about 13 years ago
@TiggerYou’re behind the curve it’s happening now and youcan’t blame it on Obama since his plan doesn’t even stat till 2014.Guess you’ll have to get your information from someone other than a birdbrain or other Fox listener.
PShaw0423 about 13 years ago
It’s happening right now, and it has always happened. Whenever demand exceeds the supply (and you can always want more healthcare than you’re getting), rationing is the only possible result..A free market rations scarce goods and services based on your ability to pay. (Or to wait in line. Time really is money.) Can’t afford the money or waiting time to get your meds? Tough cookies…Darwin FTW..An administrative system run by insurance companies, which we have now, rations health care based on arbitrary (hopefully professional) judgment by nameless-faceless corporate bureaucrats, and profitability for its stockholders. Some patients get everything they need when they need it; others eventually get something that may or may not be enough; and still others (the uninsured) get nothing..A governmental system, “socialized medicine” in some flavor, rations healthcare based on arbitrary (hopefully professional) judgment by nameless-faceless government bureaucrats, and impersonal regulations. At its best, everyone gets something like what they need, hopefully soon enough to help, and no one is frozen out completely.,Are we clear, now? There is no perfect system, and you always have rationing. The only difference is who gets left out and what happens to them — and what our consciences can live with.
jimgamer about 13 years ago
Your money are your life ?
jimgamer about 13 years ago
NO your money or your life ?
Prey about 13 years ago
Good one Dogsniff, funny comment on a CARTOON.
tripwire45 about 13 years ago
I thought Obamacare fixed all that.
Wiley creator about 13 years ago
Thought you folks might like to see this to add to your back-and-forth on health care.
http://www.comicstripoftheday.com/
drdougsteward about 13 years ago
Look at the number of diagnostic machines per person in the US vs. Canada or the UK … look at the time it takes to see a specialist from the time that one is referred … I’ll take the US system anytime. Nothing’s perfect.No one in the US does not have access to medical care – regardless of ability to pay – that’s why ERs are so full.
cpl.jarhead about 13 years ago
BRING BACK THE GIRLS AND CAPTAIN EDDY THEY AREFUNNER TO READ
combick_reader about 13 years ago
@teb431It must have been a small selective sample of people you spoke to, very few in the UK would swap their system for the US system even with all its faults. Australians cringe at the very thought of the US health care system. Unless you personally know, understand and have used those other systems please refrain from making erroneous bigoted remarks about them.
Fan o’ Lio. about 13 years ago
I’m sure that doctor can find a way to reduce that swelling —in his bank account.
psychlady about 13 years ago
If you don’t have money – don’t get sick or injured!
hippogriff about 13 years ago
Ask this short-term Canadian. My doctor there practiced under both systems. His analysis was, “I don’t think that I practice medicine any differently now that I no longer worry about being paid.” His waiting room wall didn’t have Norman Rockwell paintings of a doctor’s vigil at the bedside of a child – he had the contents page of medical journals carrying his peer- reviewed research papers. Little ones like The Lancet. He was in general practice.
Dtroutma about 13 years ago
Just had to schedule to see a doc. My “private practice” doc, a six week wait to get in. My VA doc only comes over for a clinic, and I can get in in a week. Meds from VA are “no cost”, my COPAY for my med through “insurance” is over $1 per pill, and the pharmaceutical company charges $6 PER PILL. VA negotiates, and Medicare is banned from negotiating, and my “insurance company” pays what the market will bear, which is a real bear!
lin4869 about 13 years ago
I’m so sorry for your loss.
iantheevil about 13 years ago
teb413 – I’m Canadian and I say our system is way better than yours (despite not being perfect, or even the best in the world). We get all the health care we need and treatments are not denied because of “statistics”. Some of the delays for non-urgent care are higher than they should be and some of the costs are higher than necessary due to bureaucracy (but we still spend way less on health care than the US per capita), but I’d never want a corporation trying to maximize profit making health care decisions for me.
The Life I Draw Upon about 13 years ago
If I may comment. This comic humor goes beyond the present. It would have been funny twenty years ago because medical bills have always been considered expensive.
billhan1 about 13 years ago
I am anticommunist and English and can say that I have paid Health Insurance for 65 years, to the Government. And at 83 I have been very well taken care of, so have many visitors, including U.S.,anyone I talk to doesn’t want Private health care
Luminance about 13 years ago
Hi. I’m European, and the “socialized healthcare” works just fine thanks. Not perfect, but what is, when pretty much every useful service is faced with budget cuts.
Just wanted to get that off my chest.
You can still just go private if you’re in a hurry and want to pay more for it.
zebralou about 13 years ago
xD
sleepeeg3 about 13 years ago
The problem with conservatives is they need better comedians to push their agenda. Liberals have all the good ones. Humor is a powerful tool that disarms people into accepting beliefs without analyzing them. Wiley and Jon Stewart promoting the dark side…
c u about 13 years ago
Hi, I am new here as about 5 minutes ago. can anyone tell me if it is possible to pull up older comics? I am looking for an older one from Non Sequitur entitled Livin’ the vida loca, showing a guy in a straight jacket, in a padded cell, with a pen held in his toes and scribble across a wall in the cell is the words Livin the Vida Loca….thanks to whom ever can help.
cutiepie29 about 13 years ago
I don’t know about how “ObamaCare” is going to work for everyone, but I DO know that it has already helped kick me in the teeth. I take a medication that costs $6 a pill, and I have to take it every day. It is a relatively new drug, so there is no generic available, nor will there be for several years to come. I jumped through my insurance company’s hoops and they now cover about half of the cost (with the situation to be reevaluated each year, oh joy), leaving me to pay around $3 per pill. Then, I tried to contact the manufacturer to see if they could help me. Everyone was very helpful until they found out that I have a Federal insurance program (my husband works for the Postal Service). Then, I was told that there was nothing they could do for me. They told me that anyone with “government insurance” (including Medicare) could not get medication assistance from them because part of the Affordable Care Act dictated that it would put their own governmental funding at risk. I have no idea if that is in fact truth, but it is their current excuse for not doing a thing for me. Someone said that the medical care problems in the US are mainly caused by greed? I have to say I certainly agree.
cutiepie29 about 13 years ago
Oh, and I forgot to add that I experienced “socialized” medicine in Spain in the late ’90’s and I have very few complaints. They didn’t do any sort of cosmetic repair (I was in an accident that crushed my cheek bone) but they DID keep me alive when my liver was shattered. Talking with several doctors here in the US, it was pretty much the consensus that if the accident were to have happened here, I most likely would have died because of the malpractice risk involved with that type of injury. Approximately 70% of people so injured will die on the operating table, and then 60% of those who survive the initial surgery will then die within the week. So, with all the second-guessing that the doctors have to do to avoid being sued, most people in the US with an injury like mine don’t stand a chance. I’m willing to give “ObamaCare” a chance; I’m just disgusted that companies are already using it as an excuse to withhold assistance.
Yammo Premium Member about 13 years ago
Yeah…what’s the point here? That he should receive the surgery for free? Please…
Seeker149 Premium Member about 13 years ago
Just fyi, I know a number of Canadians as well, and they’re about 80/20 in favor of the system over there. The 20 tell me a story of how the Canadian doctors “let grandma die,” while a few of the 80 took grandma back up north because HERE she would have been left to die.The problem is that so many views are based merely on personal experience. This should not be the case when we have the data processing technology to see the whole picture, yet no one on either side wants to do anything except cherry-pick examples to support their own argument. As a result, we get a polarized debate that implies a false conclusion where one side is completely right and the other is either totally corrupt or completely out of their minds.
Archistoteles almost 3 years ago
American health care is sick.