GeorgeSep 11, 2023
Kay Elúvian

Want to know why the #NHS rules and why Brits love it and will defend it to the death?

I take:

Sertraline ($76 USD per month)
Atarvostatin ($148 /m)
Propranolol ($42 /m)
Estragel ($158 /m)
Decapeptyl (~$100 /m)

$524 every month.

I pay £110 per year / ~$12 per month.

Also I was out of sertraline so the pharmacist said "come in, I'll give you some".

And while I was at the pharmacy, I got a free flu shot (cos I'm a fat squidge).

No wallet biopsy. No insurance.

TREASURE THE NHS.

Sep 11, 2023 at 1:09pmWeb
Show threadFábio Costa 🐇🕐🎩☕Sep 11, 2023

@kayeluvian I'm this way here in Brazil...

Even SUS (Brazilian NHS) having LOADS of problems with corruption and inefficiency (questionable, but plausible), it's better than the US solution (no money no life)

Show threadEmSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian I envy the NHS so much. My husband's insurance covers most of my meds, but when I first started taking Estradiol (injections then, I take pills now) and Spironolactone it was about $250 US /month. Sure I only do a co-pay of $60 for a refill, but my husband's paycheck is devoured by insurance. I wish more brits could come here and convince people that universal healthcare is in fact good 😔
Show threadPeter Bowden 🚗🔌⚡ 😷💉💉💉💉Sep 11, 2023
@emszabo @kayeluvian It isn't so much that universal healthcare is good, but that the US System is demonstrably bonkers! I have yet to hear a sensible argument in favour of it.
Show threadMei LinSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian
Sharing just in case anyone wonders why socialised healthcare is a good thing.
Show threadAvestiteSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian I shudder to think how much my cancer treatment would cost me over the pond.
Show threadLazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Sep 11, 2023

@Avestite @kayeluvian when my MiL was ill with Cancer there was some small comfort that this wouldn't bankrupt the family as it would if it were the States.

And they want to take that away from us....

Show threadnovatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️Sep 11, 2023

@kayeluvian the same NHS that gives many trans people arbitrary, absurdly long wait times (up to five years) for lifesaving gender affirming care even while their offices are empty and their doctors idle, in an attempt to discourage them which can often lead to suicide during the wait?

"Socialized" (centralized) medicine may be an unalloyed good for the in-group, but for people whose rights are a "debate", it just means the possibility of the bureaucratic system being captured and denying them care, since it's centralized and there's one point of failure. If it worked out for you, good. But it still puts your care and the care of other trans people on a knife's edge.

Show threadnovatorine 🏴🏳️‍⚧️Sep 11, 2023

@kayeluvian we really need to think past "socialized" and state socialist models of providing medical care (and other things) and figure out a decentralized means of providing care that serves everyone instead of being a bureaucratic gatekeeper above then deeming them worth or unworthy, that relies on mutual aid, distributed networks, and voluntary, overlapping, multifarious associations. Like the old lodge system. So that there's no single point of failure and we can have a variety of methods and provisions and associations that are dedicated to serving the needs of particular groups of people if they are underserved. But of course for that to work we need to tear down a lot of the existing medical system — the rules in the US and UK that make it so that you can't get a license as a doctor if you work on retainer for workers, the intellectual property laws, the laws that serve regulatory capture and artificial monopoly through restriction of supply. And that's a lot harder than just appealing to the state, as your God, to save you.

Also, have I mentioned that with centralized bureaucratic healthcare informed consent is kind of impossible to really do?

Further reading:

"How Government Solved the Health Care Crisis: Medical Insurance that Worked — Until Government "Fixed" It"
http://freenation.org/a/f12l3.html (spoiler: mutual aid, insurance owned and run by the people that use it, worker's associations, unions)

"The Right to Self-Treatment"
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kevin-carson-the-right-to-self-treatment

"Healthcare and Radical Monopoly"
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kevin-carson-health-care-and-radical-monopoly

How Government Solved

Show threadsnaeqeSep 11, 2023

@kayeluvian

You brits sure fucked up some stuff, but with the NHS, you sure got one thing damn right. Please take appropriate measures if anyone tries to privatize it.

@cstross

Show threadCharlie StrossSep 11, 2023
@snaeqe @kayeluvian The Tories are definitely trying to privatize the NHS, along American lines at that! They probably don't have time to ram it through before they lose the next election. Probably ...
Show threadBazSep 11, 2023

@cstross @snaeqe @kayeluvian

There was footage taken of Oliver Letwin at a private Tory event, saying the only way to get Brits to turn against the NHS would be to defund it slowly over the course of 15-20 years so service levels dropped and people chose to go private. That was about 13 years ago.

Show threadSir David NielsenSep 11, 2023
@rahoulb @cstross @snaeqe @kayeluvian @bsdphk we don’t need shadowy conspiracy, conservatives have switched to doing this shit on camera, for the world to see, because they have learned that so long as they stoke racism, then they can get to ruin society to their heart’s content.
Show threadLarrySep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian
The Ontario provincial insurance plan ... medical doctors and emergency care - paid for by an employers' tax and a surcharge on income tax for the affluent, no copay.
I have a daily insulin injection, a weekly ozempic injection, nine medications daily for which I pay $100 annually and a pharma filling fee for each med, now $12. The diabetic sensor reader was free but the needles and sensor are a minor charge after the rebate grant, quarterly.
I could not afford this, else.
Show threadKay ElúvianSep 11, 2023
@quoidian my biggest gripe with the system they have in the USA is the direct linkage to employment: no job, no healthcare. If what you have in Ontario avoids that trap then I'm definitely on board x
Show threadPam SonnenSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian Wish we had the NHS here in the USA!!
Show threadAndy Warburton ❌❌❌Sep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian I’m a Brit with many years of experience living with the NHS and it’s… ok. At best. Sure there are lots of perks but also lots of downsides. These days I live in the Netherlands and although the healthcare is “private” it’s all controlled by the government so you don’t get the price gouging that the US experiences. You get private quality healthcare, low waiting times etc (including dental) but almost never pay out of pocket. I prefer this over the NHS.
Show threadKay ElúvianSep 11, 2023
@andy_warb is that a result of the type of system (single payer government subsidised insurance) or just the fact that the Dutch government actually give a fuck and invest/maintain/monitor their system properly? I don't mean this to dismiss your point, which I see, more redirect to “is the problem ‘the NHS’ or the bastards in charge, who would very readily screw up a model similar to NL or FR because what they actually want is a US style system because it will make money!”.
Show threadAndy Warburton ❌❌❌Sep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian I definitely think it’s a government/ society thing. Honestly from experience the Tories will do anything they can to fuck over the little guy!
Show threadCharlotte WalkerSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian @musingoddity And that’s in England. In Scotland and Wales we don’t even pay prescription charges
Show threadMcWabbit🐰 has movedSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian Hear, hear! Healthcare is a basic right! Not a privilege!
Show threadderptronSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian Those aren't the prices I'd pay as an American. I'd pay about $300 a month for the insurance, $100 for the psychiatrist because there aren't any in my network, and then like $70 out of pocket for the meds.
Show threadJacob Christian Munch-AndersenSep 11, 2023
@crazyeddie @kayeluvian Only if you roll a natural 20, otherwise your insurance company is going to argue that you don't actually need the medicine that your psychiatrist say you need and refuse to pay for it.
Show threadJacob Christian Munch-AndersenSep 11, 2023
@kayeluvian Note that Decapeptyl is the only one of those medicines that have any right to be expensive. The others are easily produced chemicals that cost little more than the base cost of stamping tablets, and all the patents are expired. The UK price is not because of a government subsidy, it is simply what the medicine cost anywhere in the world, except the US.
Show threadDocHollidaySep 11, 2023

@kayeluvian just like we have here in the USA. You know, the country with the finest health care schools and facilities in the world.

Oh, wait…Never mind.