piranha | (Reply)

Posted by

It's OK, the threat of getting fired & having to jump through the 3 billion often-demeaning hoops required to be given Job Seekers Allowance until they give up on you after 6 months handles that fine.

(UK, not Canada)

I've lived in the UK all my life, apart from a brief stint in Australia (whose healthcare system I never really got to grips with, except that it's not UK-style absolutely-free-at-point-of-use, but there's some kind of payback system. I think.). So admittedly I have little other experience. But the idea of having to *pay* your GP or hospital or whatever absolutely baffles me. (And scares me, whenever I hear from US people who can't afford the medical care they need, which seems to be alarmingly often.)

My experience with waiting lists has been reasonably OK - my GP referred me for (non-urgent) problems with my veins recently & I was seen within about a month. (Had I been having to pay directly for healthcare I doubt I'd have gone to my GP at all, or at least not for a while longer, due to current employment situation. I find that scary, too.)

i don't at all mind paying taxes to support such care for people who have less than i do. i like living in a society that cares about all its members, whether they're currently fortunate and able-bodied or not.

Yeah. This.