The NHS May Suck, But...

[thessalian]

I am lucky. I have been lucky for a very long time. Why? Because I have lived almost all of my life in countries with nationalised healthcare.

It's not perfect, I grant. I need to go to the dentist but can't actually afford to. I'm reliant on my mother to keep my glasses prescription current. However, I know enough to be grateful. Grateful that, when I was four and got hit in the nose with a wooden swing, my single working mother didn't have to worry about insurance issues and all of that stuff - her focus was on my health and well-being, not the guilt of having to wonder, "What is all this going to cost?" Grateful that I can go to my GP whenever I need to without worrying about what it's going to cost me and, the next time I have the time spare to explain that my migraines are not going away and the features are starting to worry me, I can push for a neurology referral and not worry about what a specialist is going to charge. I don't panic about copays and what'll happen if I or my friends get sick or injured.

...Well, except I do, because a lot of my friends live in the US. Some of them have medical insurance of some description. Some don't, and I worry about them. Particularly beepbeep, who has lupus and whose state government will stop paying her Medicare Part B premiums in about two months.

I've had a lot of rants over the months and years, but I can't rant about this yet. I'm too worried and scared for my friend. I grant I don't talk to her in real time much these days, but the fact remains is that she is one of the sweetest people I know and I do not want her to die of greed and stupid. But I can't do anything about it, because I can't afford to pitch in financially and I'm not eligible to vote in the US and thus cannot have my voice heard that way. And I have this niggly sort of conscience-based logic-voice telling me that killing the person responsible wouldn't actually solve anything because paper covers rock and I don't like making martyrs. But I'm as angry as I am scared and sad, and that's always a bad combination.

So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back to work. I'm going to type up the rest of this tape until my lunch break rolls around. Then I am going to take my lunch break, and during said lunch break I am going to sit and consider whether there is anything I can do. I'm sick of reading about someone I care about not being able to care for herself when she's unwell and her own government screwing her over. I can't make my voice heard for change in the US in any meaningful, vote-related way, and I thus can't help everyone ... but I can damn sure find a way to help one. She would do (and has done) the same for me.

(And also, I am not going to cry. The moos I work with would have a field day.)

Comments

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

*hugs* best wishes to you both.

[the-blonde-one.livejournal.com]

Darling. You are a wonderful person. I doubt anyone would disagree and I would hope anyone that would, would also be mentally quick enough to not dare voice that opinion in front (or in view) of me.

My baby sister also has Lupus...though I will admit to a milder form of it. Our wondrous government doesn't pay ANYTHING for her as she has no insurance. My mom pays for all her and her fiancee's medical issues...well she did, my future brother-in-law was just recently granted Disability (the deserved kind) after years of struggling with a neurological injury (car wreck at age 17, he's a year older than me and today is his birthday, so 33) and so many people just writing him off as a lazy, worthless, waste. So he will get Medicaid now. And I am much YAY for that.

Only because I work for a State Institution do I get decent insurance. jedishadowolf works for the City and thus gets similar coverage. We are exceptionally lucky in this.

The fact that there are still folks that remember their friends here in the US is a point of hope for all of us thinking Yanks. Those humiliated few have endured the last 8 years of our waking nightmare, though not all of us have come through unscathed. The fact that so many countries group view of us, the people of the United States, for the actions and words (strategery) of our Leader is do abysmally low has not gone unnoticed. We are the ones that appreciated and enjoyed the status of the US as a decent, wholesome, at least vaguely intelligent country. With luck and no tampering, this view will again be bestowed on our great nation.

To your friend and others like her, they are in my thoughts as well.

[the-blonde-one.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and the other point that I missed.

You can do something. You can support positions and candidates in your
government that affect policy and relations with the US. I don't know
alot about Gordon Brown, but I did know that Blair (whatever faults he may have had) was very Pro-US. When the US & UK are both helmed by functional leadership, the world felt better to me.

Today I feel like I might be stoned in the streets of London for admitting my native citizenship. That is not a good feeling. We know it doesn't have to be this way.

...and now I think I'm on the verge of rambling so I'll stop, but remember, to make nations work together requires the support of their people.

[thessalian.livejournal.com]

Well, right now, people in this country are too worried about what's going on in their own back yards to worry overmuch about American policy. In terms of the financial state of the nation, we're about as badly off as the US is. We've got a man in office we didn't really vote for (because in this country, we vote for the MP and the party more than we do for the Prime Minister, and whoever's leading the party-in-government leads the nation, and Blair handed over the seat to Brown with no say-so from the people. I'm about to get saddled with a biometric ID card that's going to be bloody expensive and more or less useless as a counterterrorism measure because I'm a foreign national.

And I think foreign policy as it pertains to the US is up in the air until we know for sure who's going to be running the place come January. I'm hoping that Brown has the good sense to run a mile if McCain gets in, but given that we apparently need to be on somebody's side if we're going to remain more or less separate from the EU (which I don't get why we're doing that - the EU makes a hell of a lot more sense than the US), I guess we need to maintain American goodwill, as far as they're concerned.

(Besides, the papers here are too busy carrying that whole Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand bullshit on the front page to focus on things like politics and finance and healthcare and anything sensible...)

*sigh* In any case, that's something I already do as far as I can do it. But it doesn't stop my friend from being fucked over (turns out she's losing more than just the Medicaid B stuff now...) Right now, the plan I'm kicking around is to get the website for the writing/podcast stuff up and running, make sure I've got a few things worth paying at least a teeny bit for and setting up a PayPal donation fund. It might not be everything she needs medications-wise, but at least it'll cover some of the grocery bills for foods she needs to eat to keep things from getting worse but can't afford.

[notorious-oit.livejournal.com]

I am flying to Reno, Nevada on Sunday, for a job interview. Yes, I am THAT desperate for a position with health insurance, that I would travel over 400 miles just to INTERVIEW for a position that offers benefits. And I WORK IN THE FUCKING MEDICAL FIELD.

Something is definitely wrong with this country.

[the-blonde-one.livejournal.com]

Yes and here's to hoping that we can all do something to change
that something next week, if not before then.