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Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by Swizec on Friday August 09, 2019 @07:40PM (#20659107)
America is the only country where a TV show about a chemistry teacher who started selling meth to afford cancer treatment makes sense.
Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by shadowbanme on Friday August 09, 2019 @10:29PM (#20659779)
It’s worth noting that Walter White could have had cancer treatment under his insurance, he just wasn’t happy with the quality of it. (This was an important plot point — all along the road it was demonstrated that Walter did have other options, but due to his pride and greed he didn’t take them.)

In countries with fully socialised medicine, if you’re not happy with the level of care provided you don’t even have the option of paying for better care.

Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by rdm_blackhole on Friday August 09, 2019 @11:23PM (#20659938)
That is simply false.

In most countries with socialised healthcare, you can buy extra private health insurance that allows you to be transferred to a private hospital, for example, to receive better care if that is what you wish.

In this type of scenario, the government would still pay what it deems is the price of the service, then your health insurance will pay some % on top of that and the rest of will be from your own pocket.

Finally, even if you can somewhat argue for some potential benefits of private health insurance, in Australia I can buy the very best health insurance for me and my wife for the price of $AUD125 per week with no deductible and very small waiting periods.

In the USA I would probably have to pay triple that amount and have a 10k deductible on top of that.

Finally, not having to think twice before to go to the doctor is amazing.

My wife has a lot of health issues and even though I would love one day to emigrate to the USA for potential career opportunities, I know that not having a proper healthcare system is a deal-breaker because I want my family to be treated properly when they are sick no matter what kind of income we have.

Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by fian on Saturday August 10, 2019 @03:45AM (#20660754)
Sadly at least one of the major parties in Australia seems to want to emulate the US healthcare system here:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2019/jul/27...

Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by refurb on Saturday August 10, 2019 @12:22AM (#20660146)
Private care is de facto banned in Canada.
Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by Scoundreller on Saturday August 10, 2019 @03:48AM (#20660765)
But very close by!
Re:A Mexican Hospital, an American Surgeon, and a $5k Check by dragonwriter on Friday August 09, 2019 @10:56PM (#20659862)
> America is the only country where a TV show about a chemistry teacher who started selling meth to afford cancer treatment makes sense.

He didn't sell meth to afford cancer treatment, he sold meth to preserve his ego and avoid taking money from his ex and his former business partner, to whom she was married, who had become wealthy from the business that he had thrown a fit and demanded to be bought out from years before.