I've got his back on this one.

[theweaselking]

Quoth Mike Hoye:

To my friends and compatriots to the south:

Dear filthy, ignorant savages -

Deserve has nothing to do with it, and horrific things happen to good people for no reason. The single, exclusive reason that we have "society" is because it's not as mercilessly unforgiving as random chance. When you're ready to grow up, please move inside the bounds of civilization. Thanks!

Sincerely,

The civilized world, early 2006.

Comments

[being-here.livejournal.com]

Bloody evil bloody bastards.

There are times when despite the problems we have in the UK, I am really bloody glad I live here.

How can any country do thing like this and call itself 'civilised'?

[utmoonbog.livejournal.com]

In about the same way we call the war in Iraq "justified."

[thathatedguy.livejournal.com]

Ah, Florida. The Sunshine State. Home to Disneyworld and Bubba's Gator Farm.
Ever read the back story for the game Trinity? Great stuff. In it, an Aberrant wipes Florida out with a tsunami. Good god, what a beautiful day that will be.
On another note about my fifth least favorite state in the union, owning a home there is a bad idea. Eventually, the only insurance companies that will write homeowner's policies will be the predatory kind. My Uncle Nate(tm) has stopped writing new homeowner business, and is not going to renew many existing policies in the state.
Fuck Florida.

[being-here.livejournal.com]

You know, I can almost understand why one would go to war - greed, delusion, God talking to you, whatever.

I cannot understand how a doctor who has trained to help people, can let someone die/walk out of a hospital with bits of their eye in tatters and a bullet in their brain because of money.

I guess I'm used to government's being crap, but the level of personal evil/cynicism/whatever needed to commit an action like this to a person you can see baffles me.

[utmoonbog.livejournal.com]

Ultimately, I don't think it has anything to do with the doctors. I think this probably happened because a long string of bureaucracy, including insurance agencies, the hospital board, and lots of frustrated people willing to cut corners. Ultimately, a lot like government. It probably had nothing to do with any particular doctor, because as far as I know, doctors aren't paid by individual clients... the clients pay the hospital, and the hospital pays the doctor.

Only in war, we kill a lot of people for no reason. Here, there was one person killed for a bad reason.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I am about to misquote, but I believe I have the gist correct:

"We have two pre-natal care systems in this country; a civilized one for the rich and educated, and a barbaric one for everyone else."
- Sherri S. Tepper, Gibbon's Decline and Fall

The protagnist at the moment was discussing specifically the support available for pregnant wom^females[1], and defining "barbaric" specifically as a system which valued gestation and birthing, but not the mother's health, understanding, or ability to care for the child. Nonetheless, a broader definition of barbaric is definitely seeming to apply to a broader definition of health care...

I am so not moving south. Ever.
---
[1]The individual who sparked the discussion was about thirteen when gang-raped. One of these days someone who tells me abortion being made available for rape victims is wrong because people shouldn't suffer for someone else's crimes is actually going to be able to explain why they're excluding rape victims from the class of "people". If I'm magically lucky, perhaps they will even have an answer that doesn't boil down to "But they're not a person anymore! They're just an incubator!"

[being-here.livejournal.com]

On a slight tangent, but a co-worker yesterday said when she had her first baby in the US her health insurance paid for most of the costs. She was just left with $4000 to pay.

I think then I realised how spoiled I was living in the UK.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

For me, it was being down in the States at a convention last year. The details are sketchy, as it was late, but one of the guys there (seemed nice enough, didn't really get to know him) hit his hand against the wall of the stairwell and did something horrible to his knuckle--broke it, or bashed it in, or something that resulted in him being able to poke it and there not being the lump you'd expect there to be.

I, thinking of such things as hands (precious hands! protect the hands!) healed wrong, asked him when the hell he was going to the hospital, and he explained that he wasn't going as he didn't have a thousand or so to spare.

I still haven't gotten that out of my mind. A week later I got to see the frustration engendered by someone having to explain that no, really, their insurance had said seeing such-and-such a doctor was okay, good god what do you mean the paperwork might have been dropped, what do you *mean* there might be trouble getting pre-natal care covered, I'm here for the ultrasound, and that was mind-blowing too. But it was really just the icing on the cake, you know?

The idea of not being able to take care of your hands gets to me.

[being-here.livejournal.com]

That's awful.

I've been fuming about the NHS recently, but this is really making me feel lucky to have it.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

And that's the real issue. Most doctors I know (because I wouldn't associate with another kind) are appalled at how much their own hands are tied by health care bureaucracy in this country.

(On a lighter note, I love your icon.)

[jerril]

For all that canadians angst about the state of our healthcare and how our system is in crisis, and how the wait time for treatment of terminal but not immediately life-threatening conditions is ridiculous (and it is), our system's ability to deal with critical conditions, and our systems treatment of you once the gears finally get rolling, are both excellent.

When they thought I had a blood cloth in the arteries leading to my lungs, I had a chest xray with blood dye, a CAT scan, a sonogram, arterial bloodwork, and radiographic workups of my lungs and my circulatory system, all within 24 hours, for free, on a SATURDAY. Along with the attention of a specialist, again, on a SATURDAY. During his VACATION. I didn't even have to pay and submit a form to be re-embursed.

What with all the chemistry and radiation I should have superpowers by now... but honestly that's bloody fantastic treatment.

[jerril]

Blood clot, not tweed in my arteries.

And a note on the blood dye: that was a totally bizarre experience, being able to feel it disburse through my circulatory system. You should NOT be able to tell the order your blood flows through your body. Wacky.

[being-here.livejournal.com]

Ha. I've been having a day typing like that today.

Seriously, I think that any country that wants to even pretend it's civilised should have publicly available health care.

A story like your is a case in point. I hope you're well now.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

I fail to understand why people who have the choice, would choose to live on a giant sand bar, in tropical waters. I mean, i live, surrounded by 200mi+ of water in every direction and near the most active volcano in the world, but still feel much safer than Floria...

[jerril]

Amusingly enough, after all the radiation and chemistry and whatnot, it turned out to be an inflammation of some membrane/lining in my torso, treated by asprin, and patience.

Literally "take two asprin and call us in the morning if it doesn't help."

[matgb]

Seconded. Whenever any politico talks of reform, I listen, but if they take away free for all at the point of delivery, then they're nuts.

I'd consider national compulsory insurance schemes and deregulated non-profit corporation hospitals, but that's as far as I'll go.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Thus proving that evil can be slow and inexorable. And usually comes in the form of a bureaucrat.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

'cause it's purdy.

[ryusen.livejournal.com]

that's probably what those morons who built $12 million homes on unstable ground in california said before the ocean reclaimed the foundations...

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Do not build your house upon the sand, and all that. Sometimes the Bible *is* uncontrovertably correct!

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

You know I vehemently oppose the death penalty.

That said, the doctors and everyone involved deserves a painful death, which they will not recieve, but will go on, free to murder- for it was murder, cold-blooded and calculating murder- again.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

Haven't read all the previous comments but please don't lump us all with idiots like the person who wrote that article. Also, while he generalized the idiocy, those actions are specific to each hospital so you can't necessarily assume that all hospitals would have done the same. In case I haven't made it clear, I think the person who wrote that article is an idiot. Even if I agreed with him (which I don't) I'd think he was an idiot for being peeved by people exercising their right to free speech. I also think he managed to blame poor people for being poor, which pisses me off in a very personal way, as well.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I am proud to live in a country where some small portion of my tax dollar went to making sure you weren't about to die.

[jerril]

I appreciate the sentiment. While it was an emotional rollercoaster at the time, I'm VERY glad that they could quickly tell me "No, you don't have a life threatening condition at all, you can stop working on your will and we can stop injecting you with blood thinners."

I'm still disapointed that six months later, after all the radiation and whatever, I don't have superpowers. I should have radiation breath, or something.