Non-US minimum wage + healthcare

Maybe a bit late, but congrats on the kids. Trust they are not giving you too much stick...

I think the 20 mile travel is considered the norm now. I used to live near Market Harborough and we had a cottage hospital which was great. Out patients stuff and all that, but they did get arsey about A&E stuff.
For major stuff, Leicester R.I. was 20 miles away.
From my Fenland borrie, Q.E at Kings Lynn is 20 miles too.
 
Thanks for the complement, Nick. Three of our children are married and one is divorced. We have six granchildren, ranging in age from 24 to 4. A 22 year-old is expecting our first great-granchild in July. Our three daughters all live in Washington State and our son lives in Chiba-Shi, Japan.He's the father of the 4-year-old.
 
Thanks for the compliment, Nick. Three of our children are married and one is divorced. We have six grandchildren, ranging in age from 24 to 4. A 22 year-old is expecting our first great-granchild in July. Our three daughters all live in Washington State and our son lives in Chiba-Shi, Japan.He's the father of the 4-year-old.
 
There percentage of GDP spent on health in the US might be large but I suspect about third is actually spent where it should, much like the defence budget in the 90's. Oh, those days spent in Point Loma were ace!!
 
How many people have ever become wealthy by being generous ? Our social system is the way it is for a reason.
 
I would point out that there are cultural differences between nations. When the prisoners were in Changi after the fall of Singapore during WW2, there were three distinct groups. The British kept their class system going. The Americans were individuals. And the Australians had the support groups up and going. I don't have health insurance, yet my heart op cost me about $100 which was the pharmacy bill. Most of us pay taxes at a high marginal rate. So who believes in 'the cult of the individual' ?
 
Yikes, some real horror stories here, both medically and financially. I'm fortunate to live in a Kaiser Foundation area, they are the insurer AND provider so unexpected bills are pretty much unheard of...am getting older though so I'm determined to live within one of their service areas even though they are generally expensive housing wise. I have heard that Kaiser completely screws up in some cases but I've only had good experiences so far...
 
bluto said:
Yikes, some real horror stories here, both medically and financially. I'm fortunate to live in a Kaiser Foundation area, they are the insurer AND provider so unexpected bills are pretty much unheard of...am getting older though so I'm determined to live within one of their service areas even though they are generally expensive housing wise. I have heard that Kaiser completely screws up in some cases but I've only had good experiences so far...
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yep Kaiser here is real good too, on the outer islands they have their own clinics for the basic stuff, if you need something major they fly you to their hospital in Honolulu. We've been members for almost 20 years, since obamacare our bill went from over 1000 down to 600 a month. I'm told thats a great deal, I just don't understand how it can be free in other industrialized countries. American exceptionalism I guess.
 
How much of the education of your medical profession is subsidised by the taxpayer ? And are their incomes when in practice, much higher than in countries such as Australia ? Our government is moving towards deregulating university fees, so the cost of professional degrees will escalate and our current health system will probably become unsustainable when our doctors recoup their costs through higher charges for their services. My feeling is that corporations should fund universities through taxes, however in Australia the corporations do price transfer and avoid paying tax.
 
$600 to a $1,000 a month for health insurance that would kill me but our GOVT would like to go down the same road as in the US but if they did they would be kicked out real quick, they were going to try and change our medicare system but it slipped out before the next election, at the time the GOVT had a big majoratiy and when they went to the polls early they only just got over the line by one seat, the poeple had spoken.
When my Norton spat me over the handle bars a few years ago I had to go the the emergency dept. at 8:30 pm becauce of the pain in my left arm, by 10 pm I had xrays then plaster as I fratured my left arm and broken thump and I was back at home by 10:30 pm and all this didn't cost a cent, but lucky it was a week night when things are a bit quiter.
I think we pay about 2% in our taxes to keep medicare going, we can get private health insurance but every year the price of private insurance keeps going up through the roof and a lot of nomal poeple are going back the public system because they can't afford it no more, cost of just living these days is getting out of hand and nomal poeple are suffering, poeple are working longer when they should be retired and kicking up their heels and its only going to get worst, work till you drop.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
$600 to a $1,000 a month for health insurance that would kill me but our GOVT would like to go down the same road as in the US but if they did they would be kicked out real quick, they were going to try and change our medicare system but it slipped out before the next election, at the time the GOVT had a big majoratiy and when they went to the polls early they only just got over the line by one seat, the poeple had spoken.
When my Norton spat me over the handle bars a few years ago I had to go the the emergency dept. at 8:30 pm becauce of the pain in my left arm, by 10 pm I had xrays then plaster as I fratured my left arm and broken thump and I was back at home by 10:30 pm and all this didn't cost a cent, but lucky it was a week night when things are a bit quiter.
I think we pay about 2% in our taxes to keep medicare going, we can get private health insurance but every year the price of private insurance keeps going up through the roof and a lot of nomal poeple are going back the public system because they can't afford it no more, cost of just living these days is getting out of hand and nomal poeple are suffering, poeple are working longer when they should be retired and kicking up their heels and its only going to get worst, work till you drop.

Ashley
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I've been telling folks that same thing for years. All the wealth is created by those who work, but it's getting squeezed farther and farther up the ladder towards those who have too much and don't want to work but must have more. If you work until you drop dead, you won't need any retirement or old age health care.
 
Wealth is created by adding value. The American system of quality management and risk management is good and worth promoting. However the system is based on continual improvement and that must come from grass roots level while the system is biased towards making the wealth generated collect at the top of the social scale. Doctors probably don't make much money compared with others at the top in America, how much value do they add when they operate on a patient ?
Unfortunately our whole mindset is directed towards consumerism, so our manufacturing technology base is of paramount importance. At present the wealth is being created in China. What is happening in Australia and America is simply wealth-shuffling. My feeling is that the industrial revolution of the 1800s cannot be extrapolated to infinity. We probably need to invent something that people value more than flat screen TVs.
 
acotrel said:
Wealth is created by adding value. The American system of quality management and risk management is good and worth promoting. However the system is based on continual improvement and that must come from grass roots level while the system is biased towards making the wealth generated collect at the top of the social scale. Doctors probably don't make much money compared with others at the top in America, how much value do they add when they operate on a patient ?
Unfortunately our whole mindset is directed towards consumerism, so our manufacturing technology base is of paramount importance. At present the wealth is being created in China. What is happening in Australia and America is simply wealth-shuffling. My feeling is that the industrial revolution of the 1800s cannot be extrapolated to infinity. We probably need to invent something that people value more than flat screen TVs.
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with the current and upcoming changes to the planet's climate, all bets are off.

With a 3 acre spread, a greenhouse and a still, I feel ok with it. All I need now is an extra wife or two. Then I would live the life of a philosopher-king. and a weed puller, and a janitor, and a cook....
 
DonOR said:
acotrel said:
Wealth is created by adding value. The American system of quality management and risk management is good and worth promoting. However the system is based on continual improvement and that must come from grass roots level while the system is biased towards making the wealth generated collect at the top of the social scale. Doctors probably don't make much money compared with others at the top in America, how much value do they add when they operate on a patient ?
Unfortunately our whole mindset is directed towards consumerism, so our manufacturing technology base is of paramount importance. At present the wealth is being created in China. What is happening in Australia and America is simply wealth-shuffling. My feeling is that the industrial revolution of the 1800s cannot be extrapolated to infinity. We probably need to invent something that people value more than flat screen TVs.
Click to expand...

with the current and upcoming changes to the planet's climate, all bets are off.

With a 3 acre spread, a greenhouse and a still, I feel ok with it. All I need now is an extra wife or two. Then I would live the life of a philosopher-king. and a weed puller, and a janitor, and a cook....
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One wife drives me nuts. Anyone who could put up with three must be permanently sedated.
 
Those guys who get around proclaiming 'the end is nigh, prepare to meet they doom' might be right. If you put two blow-flies in a cage with a limited but continuous supply of food there is a population explosion followed by a spontaneous mass extinction and only a couple of flies left buzzing around. Then the cycle repeats. However I don't believe in immutable prophesies. Our future is in our own hands. One thing is certain - change will happen, whether we affect it or not.
 
DonOR said:
I would need a house for each of them...
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The patriarch in "Big Love" did it that way and things were still VERY messy....a most amusing show in its better moments FWIW ;-)
 
I have got only one woman and I am 'in love' with her. However the hangers-on tend to drive me crazy. Kids these days don't ever seem to grow up - 30 and 40 year-olds who are still adolescents ! I have a minor problem at the moment - another of their new-born babies has grabbed hold of my heart.
 
acotrel said:
I have got only one woman and I am 'in love' with her. However the hangers-on tend to drive me crazy. Kids these days don't ever seem to grow up - 30 and 40 year-olds who are still adolescents ! I have a minor problem at the moment - another of their new-born babies has grabbed hold of my heart.
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Interesting to hear that (failure to launch) is also an issue in Australia, it is a BIG deal here in the U.S. FWIW there is a compelling and well done study/book on the subject in the U.S. from 2013 at

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/ ... 092913.pdf
 
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