Re: [OT] Paywalling health services

On 08/08/2026 10:59, Nuno Silva wrote:
> On 2026-08-07, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> 
>> On 2026-08-07 13:02, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> [...]
>>> Things that amuse me
> [...]
>>> - You have to *pay* for an ambulance,
>>
>> Recently it was on the news a guy that was having a walk in the
>> countryside, a nurse. Somehow he fell or something, and his walking
>> stick got stuck on his belly, not the centre, but the side. Instead of
>> phoning rescue, he walked down, some 17 km, for fear of being ripped
>> out by the cost of rescue.
>>
>> Amazing.
> 
> And this is why these costs can't exist.
> 
In the end there is a simple difference in basic philosophy.

socialised health care goes back in the UK to the realisation that 
disease was not restricted to poor people, and they could easily make 
rich people sick, and cost rich people money when they were.

So things  like proper sewage and clean drinking water and some sort of 
basic community hospitals were already in play when the NHS was formed. 
I believe the medical professions hated it. No more big incomes.

But it stuck.

And the idea that *some* basic socialism was probably better than having 
rat infested shitholes, roads only available to those who could pay, 
workers who couldn't read or do sums, was accepted as the norm, in a way 
it never has been in the US

And rightly or wrongly that has been extended with some success to e.g. 
the fierce regulation of public monopolies like railways, electrical 
grids, broadband and so on.


To the extent that over regulation is now a distinct problem

> 

-- 
Canada is all right really, though not for the whole weekend.

"Saki"