(no subject)

[theweaselking]

A third of El Paso has realised that the best healthcare for their dollars is available in Ciudad Juarez.

Not "the best", mind. "The best they can afford", where they get a whole lot more treatment per dollar at the possible risk of some of it not being as good.

Comments

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

Juarez is also one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico(most of the problems are drug trafficking related). I guess the cheap healthcare needs a trade off?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say "needs", since there are places that manage cheap health care without it.

But it's a sad day when you have to expose yourself to that just to get a doctor to look at your stomach pain to find out if it's gas or appendicitis.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

I should point out this article the next time I chat with Americans who claim that their health care system is totally the way to go, and that any form of socialised health care would stagnate medical advances (which is bunk).

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

... but, but, socialized healthcare is stealing money from the rich to pay for the health of the poor!

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Just like insurance! If I don't get sick, I should get my premiums back, I shouldn't have them go to pay for someone else's care either!

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Or even worse, be refused assistance when you actually need to take advantage of that insurance. Could you imagine if car insurance companies refused to pay out? I don't know if I've ever heard a case when they'd refuse to pay (when they otherwise had no reason to decline; I'm talking a collision of sorts, not accidentally ending up with your brand new SUV in a swimming pool).

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I know that's a joke, but it hurts my head so much that I feel like someone just pounded nails into my skull.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Health insurance is socialism!

[unnamed525.livejournal.com]

... but, but, that's a freely entered into contract.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

That's why the rich pay 50%-ish income taxes ;)

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

These two are better for that:

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-health-care-part-i
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/mythbusting-canadian-healthcare-part-ii-debunking-free-marketeers

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

And... and... our health care is just so expensive because we regulate it so much! Those Mexican assholes probably don't have to pay malpractice insurance!

[mhoye.livejournal.com]

Having no small amount of experience in the matter, I can say without hesitation that I'd rather get sick in a tough, run down part of Mexico than a tough, run-down part of the U.S.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a story you need to share.

[flemco.livejournal.com]

And at the risk of "being shot in the fucking face." Cuidad Juarez is not a very nice place.

[glitteringlynx.livejournal.com]

My guess is that you'd have to be desperate or poor for the risk to be "worth it." Maybe also uninsured.

It's really hard for me to imagine what it's like to have to pay out of pocket for healthcare.

Wow

[speck.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a much smaller percentage than I would expect.

Re: Wow

[frith]

It may well be as high as you expect. The news release version is lazy and misleading (as usual). If you read the original text to Cross-Border Purchase of Medications and Health Care in a Sample of Residents of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico you will find that this third is of a random sample of healthy adults who had bought prescription drugs in Mexico in the last year. What I didn't see in the results is the percentage of the same healthy adults purchasing prescription medicine from any source in that same year. Now _that_ would be meaningful results. (I haven't bought prescription medicine in years.)

By the way, the link I gave is for a text marked up for Firefox by Google. If you are not using Firefox, search for the title above in Google for something appropriate for your browser.

Re: Ugh, Juarez.

[spartonian.livejournal.com]

... or kidnapping... or murder... or....