To think the most shocking thing about James VDB's death is...

Of course healthcare in the US is expensive and yes, the model is seriously flawed. But you are BU to suggest that 'non-famous' people = financial ruin. It's really disingenous.

It’s not disingenuous AT ALL. ‘Non-famous’ people not only face financial ruin due to the American health system, they frequently die from things like asthma and diabetes because they can’t afford inhalers and insulin.
In a country that boasts unimaginable wealth and tells the rest of the world we should emulate them, people die because they can’t afford things we take for granted will always be available to us as part of the NHS model.

Everyone who bleats about the NHS needing to be replaced ala Farage seem to think they will be alright because and it’s only the feckless who will suffer.

My medical care has cost the NHS well over a million quid over the last 20 years. I was diagnosed at the beginning of my working life when I was paid pennies and wouldn’t have been able to afford insurance or out of pocket costs.
I would have died within months.

I have an ex colleague who, after Covid, was left with total digestive failure and needs to be fed via IV. One bag of her ‘food’ costs hundreds of pounds. She can’t work due to her condition so without the NHS she wouldn’t be financially ruined, she’d be dead.

It’s very easy for that wizened Toad to bleat about ‘reforming’ the NHS because he’ll get massive pay offs from the insurance companies and has amassed considerable wealth and pensions from his various deals including a generous MEP salary despite never doing a tap of work the whole time he was at the table and could have addressed all the issues he claimed Brexit would solve.

The gobshites who are already on the bones of their arses calling for the man of the people to come lead them need to realise they will be the first to feel the sharp end of good ol Nige’s plans to see them as collateral damage for him selling the NHS off to his pals.

It never ceases to astonish me how people can claim to value their NATIONAL health service while simultaneously believing a nation should be importing so many dependents.

To have a good welfare system you need high levels of social trust, you need a cohesive population who want to pay tax and feel their money is well spent. This is completely at odds with the migration we are currently seeing in the UK. It won't be Farage that kills it.

I'm not being difficult, I'm genuinely curious to know what the legal basis is for making a spouse responsible for their other half's debt.

The American system is terrible and not fit for purpose. We need a European system because that would allow some honesty and realism into our dialogue about health. The NHS is an unmanageable behemoth and because it is a national treasure, neither the NHS nor politicians will be honest about its limitations. They have to pretend to the public that it can do everything for everyone or risk not getting re-elected. In a European system it’s possible to manage expectations without everything becoming a political fight.

If I was in charge, I’d make life insurance compulsory for anyone with kids under 18. No one wants to consider the worst happening, but better safe than sorry. Our kids are grown up now, but during their childhood the school community’s we were part of for 17yrs or so lost two mums at primary school, and two dads and two mums during secondary school. Not huge schools either.

The NHS can’t carry on as it is, but wouldn't welcome an American system.

Poor Mrs VDB - I hope she’s got lots of family support.

Medical debt is a leading cause of bankruptcy in the USA. I would advise that anyone who wants to vote for Reform should first get quotes from private health care companies and declare ALL of their current conditions, they should also consider if their children, grandchildren would be able to afford it even if they can.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/14/health-insurance-medical-bankruptcy-debt

I agree about Farage and I sincerely hope that Reform isn't elected. But the NHS is an issue whichever party is in power.

I knew nothing about him until this thread, and have just seen a beautiful photo of the family. It’s tragic for them.
But six children? That’s a huge responsibility for her. You need a bigger house, a bigger car, the years of needing supervision are longer… food clothes and clubs are nothing in comparison.

Farage isn't going to be looking to emulate European models of healthcare. He's not known for being a lover of Europe! He'll want US style.

Adam Sandler also does this. Well, out of work cast and crew, maybe not so much old perhaps.

Don’t be so obtuse. Do you think people on benefits can afford life assurance/insurance/critical illness payments?

We’re not getting that because all mainstream parties flatly refuse to admit there are issues with the NHS, laud it as some sort of deity. We need hard truths and realism from the moderate parties now before Reform get in and tear everything up.

Obama cared, the other’s don’t, they only care about money.
The HSE like the NHS isn’t perfect but they won’t let you die because you don’t have thousands to throw at medical care, even with insurance, you cannot cover every eventuality, once the policy expires and your sick, no company will want to cover you.
Very sad, especially in a super rich country.

The changes to Widowed Parents Allowance, under the banner of Bereavement support payment being more inclusive as it includes younger widows and widowers without children is one of the biggest changes made by the Tories that people seem to have no clue about unless it impacts them.

How they got away with saying that switching from £114ish a week until your child was out of school age to £350 a month for 18 months with £3.5k one of payment was for the good of widows and children is staggering.

Their comment that the previous payment system put people off remarriage was scandalous.

That’s not luck, that’s basic life planning. It blows my mind the number of people that don’t have life assurance / critical illness / income protection then complain about benefits being too low to live on. Trying not getting your nails done and make proper provision instead.

Thr NHS funding model needs to be scrapped and started again by Keir Starmer. It’s just not working. We want a European funding model. What would be disastrous is if he didn’t have the balls to do it, it fell to Farage to fix and then we’d definitely get a US model and we’d be fucked.

Come on Keir, don’t be such an idiot!

But plenty of Americans don’t have insurance. Why they objected to Obama care is beyond me but 27 million without insurance is a lot of people at risk of destitution if they get sick.

I agree OP and it's something I often think about. Here in the UK we have a lovely home and a really good standard of living. All generations of my family work hard in professional fields going back generations.

If we lived in the States, due to inherited autoimmune family health problems going back at least 100 years we'd be bankrupt, living hand to mouth.

I have a friend in US who husband died young with brain tumour . He was a firefighter with great insurance. But his uncovered medical expenses were over $1 million . His colleagues fundraised to cover as much as they could . She was still left with thousands in debt and 7 years later still paying .

Well, ignoring your clickbait .... title

if Dawson couldn't pay for his cancer treatment, how do non-famous people in ordinary jobs cope?

You mean Van der Beek? (Or do you mean Dawson the TV series?)

VDB was in a famously unstable profession. After Dawson's he had piecemeal acting jobs. He was not a home-owner. He had 6 kids. Likely if he were in a regular profession he could have organised health insurance a part of his employment package.

Of course healthcare in the US is expensive and yes, the model is seriously flawed. But you are BU to suggest that 'non-famous' people = financial ruin. It's really disingenous.

He’s not the only one. For example John Ashton had to launch a go fund me in 2021 in the US for cancer care. The health insurance there often comes with significant co-pays and pieces of denied treatment.

My point is a lot of widows already suffer great financial difficulties should a husband die. Yes that would get worse if we had to pay for treatment but the financial difficulties are already here for a lot of us we are already living with jt. It doesn’t get talked about and a previous government changed it so we got £3k one off payment of support rather than £hundreds per month until children were 16 (can’t remember the correct figure but would have been significantly more than £3k ).