Open Thread October 15 2017
On this day in 1965 the first draft card was burned to protest the Viet Nam War. Somehow we still managed to win the Cold War. (..then lose it 50 years later by electing an agent of Russia to the presidency.
Sorry about the late and lacking open thread. 
On another thread here about the ACA a few months ago, Dana Pico made this comment:
“A commenter on my old, defunct site was a liberal from New Zealand who went by the handle Phoenician in a Time of Romans. He related a story to us about having two ingrown toenails, and how the New Zealand medical system would have taken care of them, for free, but he’d have to wait 12 weeks! I don’t know if you’ve ever had an ingrown toenail, but those things are painful, and the average nail growth rate could have extended his nails completely out the end of his toes in 12 weeks.”
What Dana conspiciously FAILED To mention was the OTHER half of that tale (because Dana has a problem with selective quoting to the point of dishonesty).
The other half of that tale (which I mentioned at the time, because the two of them put together illustrated the difference between the US and the NZ system very well) was that at two points in my life, I have had major illnesses. The first was as a child with a badly infected foot, being bought up by a solo mother, in which I had three operations and more than a month in hospital. The second was as an adult, with an infected spinal disk, in which I was rushed to hospital for nearly a month, had excellent tests and medical care, and was treated so well that they managed to avoid an operation on my spine. I also had rehab and spent months away from work on recovery, with considerable followup care and social support.
In both cases, it didn’t cost us any medical bills.
If I had been in America, my family would have been bankrupted covering me or I would have lost a foot as a child. If I had been in America, I would likely be bankrupt by now, and possibly have had a much worse outcome since I would have been unable to afford the procedures that precluded invasive surgery.
So what Dana is leaving out is that, with the NZ system, minor problems are often badly covered, AND PEOPLE HAVE THE OPTIONS OF PAYING PRIVATE MEDICINE OR HAVING PRIVATE INSURANCE to cover them. Which is essentially how the US system covers these minor problems anyway. My toenails did not take 12 weeks to resolve – I paid for outpatient surgery to resolve them then and there, and not that much either.
But for catastrophic problems, you get good medical care with no need to worry about bankruptcy, recision, arguing with insurance companies, or paying for necessary medication. No system is ever perfect, but from everything I’ve read, it works a lot better for the bulk of the population – the moderately well off, themiddle class and poor – than the American system. You get sick, they give you care, you recover. And it works.
Which is why Dana selectively quotes.
Bot comments are getting amazingly sophisticated.