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Any country that calls itself civilised must have something like the NHS.

by Nux 13y ago

ISL 13y ago
It's not possible for any other system to be civilized?
- vidarh 13y ago
  Hence the "something like" presumably. The key point is universal access regardless of personal wealth or income.
- Nux 13y ago
  Any similar system qualifies, like Vidarh points out. :-) Actually it's the case with most, if not all european countries.
dnautics 13y ago
really? As an ethnic minority, whose diseases are underresearched, and for whom drug safety and efficacy are unlikely to be statisically well-validated, I'd be paying into a system that disproportionately helps, well, to be crude, white men. That's just the way medicine is. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to have the freedom to opt out of a system that redistributes to the already privileged.
- ollysb 13y ago
  Your rhetoric makes me feel a little uncomfortable but ignoring that isn't the converse also true, that the system is disproportionately funded by white men.
- Nux 13y ago
  I'm sure situation will improve in time, these kind of systems are huge and take long to change. I imagine when the NHS and it's counterparts in other (european) countries were established the local population was in majority white. Also, as Africa and Asia develops there will also be more research done in those areas that will benefit all africans and asians throughout the world.
  - dnautics 13y ago
    do I have the responsibility to pay for the healthcare of someone who chooses to smoke? Or should we ban smoking altogether? Is that fair to the person who has a set of genes that prevents them from getting smoking-related negative health consequences and chooses to start smoking to prevent parkinson's disease? Why should someone who has huntington's (a dominant autosomal disease that kills the patient before age 40 in many genetically testable cases i.e. 60-100+ CAG repeats) be forced to pay into an insurance or healthcare system that cares for other people's eldercare?

Any country that calls itself civilised must have something like the NHS.

by Nux 13y ago

Any country that calls itself civilised must have something like the NHS.

ISL 13y ago

It's not possible for any other system to be civilized?

vidarh 13y ago
Hence the "something like" presumably. The key point is universal access regardless of personal wealth or income.
Nux 13y ago
Any similar system qualifies, like Vidarh points out. :-) Actually it's the case with most, if not all european countries.

dnautics 13y ago

really? As an ethnic minority, whose diseases are underresearched, and for whom drug safety and efficacy are unlikely to be statisically well-validated, I'd be paying into a system that disproportionately helps, well, to be crude, white men. That's just the way medicine is. Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to have the freedom to opt out of a system that redistributes to the already privileged.

ollysb 13y ago
Your rhetoric makes me feel a little uncomfortable but ignoring that isn't the converse also true, that the system is disproportionately funded by white men.
Nux 13y ago
I'm sure situation will improve in time, these kind of systems are huge and take long to change. I imagine when the NHS and it's counterparts in other (european) countries were established the local population was in majority white. Also, as Africa and Asia develops there will also be more research done in those areas that will benefit all africans and asians throughout the world.
- dnautics 13y ago
  do I have the responsibility to pay for the healthcare of someone who chooses to smoke? Or should we ban smoking altogether? Is that fair to the person who has a set of genes that prevents them from getting smoking-related negative health consequences and chooses to start smoking to prevent parkinson's disease? Why should someone who has huntington's (a dominant autosomal disease that kills the patient before age 40 in many genetically testable cases i.e. 60-100+ CAG repeats) be forced to pay into an insurance or healthcare system that cares for other people's eldercare?