Like the US, the UK system is “because it evolved that way”, the .nl system is a modern and deliverately created system intended to avoid the issues with both fully private and fully government-controlled medical systems, and also encourages health insurance providers to provide proper screening and preventative medicine to avoid longer-term costs.

THE HEALTH-CARE SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES IS *ALREADY* SOCIALIST, AND HAS BEEN FOR DECADES, YA DUMBASSES!

I.e., there’s a threadbare amount of contrast to be gleaned from comparing the U.S. socialist system to the communist systems in other places.

Well-heeled Canadians and Europeans travel to American clinics to get their problems fixed…..and well-heeled Americans travel to Mexican*, Guatemalan* or Israeli clinics to get their problems fixed (ref: stem-cells, etc). (*Staffed by ex-pat American medical professionals sick of the commie bullshit.)

It requires some data collection and research, but it is possible to sue the roadway owner if they have reduced the yellow time below the dilemma zone time, that is, the time that a driver going at the speed limit can neither make it through the interchange without stopping nor stop prior to the stop bar. It takes some work, and all you’ll get done is the yellow time increased. But there are loathsome agencies that have done this, in the name of increased revenues.

It just infuriates me to no end that an effective tool at preventing deadly collisions, the red light camera, has been perverted into a money making scam. A properly designed intersection, with adequate yellow time, and advance warning signs of photo red-light enforcement, WILL reduce accidents. Unfortunately, it’s been shown to be obvious that this is not the goal of the programs.

the shitty quality that she mentions, but doesn’t go into too much detail on. starving patients lying for hours in their own wastes, hospitals overrun with roaches and vermin, efective meds denied because the NHS has decided they’re too pricey (sound familiar?), the *oftentimes months-long waiting lists for treatment*…..

the people who want to bring us socialized medicine, just like in good old blighty, are the *exact same idiots* who gave us the current financial/mortgage crisis.

what could possibly go wrong?

Still, even if the system here is riddled with problems, I’ve come to appreciate the U.K.’s efforts to care for the health of all of its people, including me.

When I got sick I wasn’t afraid to call the doctor because of money. I was run through myriad tests and attended to by a fleet of nurses and doctors. I am now fully better. I can and do make appointments at my neighborhood doctor’s office a five-minute walk from my house, without ever having to worry about being bankrupted.

Man falls to death after police stun gun shock
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26885773/

(I’m also reminded of something my friend who lives in the Philippines told me: “Here, corruption is affordable, so you can actually get some government asshole to leave you alone.” — In the US, you have to be a fat-cat to get the government to leave you alone.)

They’ve pretty much turned all the red light cameras off here in Alexandria, Virginia, because they found that they caused more accidents from people slamming on their breaks once they saw the camera in the intersection.

So, to the person behind them it looked like they’d go through the light and then, BAM!

Worst part: I could have gone to the private hospital down the street since either way my insurance was paying, but I didn’t realize that.

Because if not, I don’t think they can prove he did it on purpose.