To be really shocked by the Panorama show Poor America

[MrsHeffley]

I just can't believe that Americans don't care how their poor get literally no healthcare or help at all ie no job no food,home,benefits or healthcare what so ever.

I love America and we have American family but dp and I were appalled and totally shocked.

All those families living in drains and tent cities,schools sending kids home with food and worst of all zero healthcare and all those hundreds of desperate people queuing up in cars on the off chance of free medical care,the girl whose mum ate rats.....

The complete utter lack of hope.I just don't get how such a rich country can justify in all these years not voting in free healthcare for the poor at the very least.

FSM
Panic not - there is ABSOLUTELY no way it will go through - it will be stopped at Federal level as a breach of Roe V Wade
that and there is a lovely taxpayer revolt planned to claim the child tax return deduction from the point of conception ..... you know how the US tax code works
is being covered in the science press and the Economist .....

Sorry, I wasnt meaning anyone person MrsHeff, more a general point that it is out there, and not just in lefty papers.
I don't know the true extent either, amd certainly wouldn't seek to appear superior, I'm not. I was shocked speaking to some American friends about the level to which the Spanish language is spoken in certain towns/cities and the huge number of Mexicans present in America-that some of e southern regions are closer to being central American than northern American, yet their problems and even presence are not represented in mainstream media.

America is a funny country-we feel we know it and them, because their media permeates our culture so much, but actually we don't.

Well they know NOW don't they? Because they bothered to watch the programme. A great many people will not have done because they don't watch things like Panorama.

No one can be informed about absolutely everything. I myself am staggered at the number of people who remain uninformed of the imminent resumption of commercial whaling, and the annual dolphin slaughter in Japan, which is to provide marine parks with captive dolphins for shows for the entertainment of tourists. The information is all out there. Why doesn't everyone know about it? Why don't they do something?

It's the same thing. I see little point in castigating people about how uninformed they are, when they have bothered to post about something which they have just found out about and which has shocked them.

I know. I agree really Areil, I don't usually do it, it is counter productive. I'm just so weary with it all. Sorry all, I'll go away and mutter to myself.

www.economist.com/node/21546059
www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/02/health-reform-america
www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/01/health-spending
and just for FSM
www.economist.com/node/21542430

Oh dear Hukky :(

FFS HULLY.

I'm with you on the whaling thing Ariel! Paul Watson is my hero!

Flyingspaghetti that is terrible. So sorry you had to go through that.

Iusetoomuchkitchenroll I was being flippant, and just saying that we can learn about a culture in many different ways and formats, and still will not know everything about that country, even if you are born and breed there. I'm not advocating basing your assumptions in a country based on a Top Gear episoide. Judge Judy in the other hand ...

My brother, who for all intents and purposes is a decent and reasonable person said (in regards to "obama care" health insurance): "Why should I pay for people who have not been able to manage their lives correctly and budget?"

My DH, british labour party to the core, was in shock! Even I was in shock, and I am american and hear a variation on this theme over and over again.

Here in the US, its all for what you can do for you and your family. Tough Sh*t for everyone else if they get sick.

Have to agree with TalkinPeace2 that it won't pass. I know Roe V Wade has been a target of the pro-lifers for quite some time, but can't imagine it will be allowed to undermine it. I like the whole child deduction claims from conception. LOL

Lucygoose
what does he think of paying for Federal prisons
or for Veterans healthcare
or the fact that US tax returns let billlionaires offset their mortgage interest against tax
or the "Defense" budget.
Does he think only parents should pay for schools?
Who pays for the Fire service or the police?

When Margaret Thatcher said 'There is no such thing as society; there are people and their families,' (or some such) she outraged much of Britain, but would probably have been understood in the USA.

I guess she caught it off Ronald Reagan.

TalkinPeace Believe me, we have tried to have a normal discussion but it always gets twisted around. And he calls himself a christian....

Apparently they don't want their tax money to pay for contraceptives/abortions (even though that doesn't happen) but I can't opt out of my taxes going for the Afghanistan war and the giant war machine we have.

There are some counties in the US where Fire services are considered "opt-out" services - and if your house catches fire, the firemen will not do a thing. Here you go if you don't believe me: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346/ns/us_news-life/t/no-pay-no-spray-firefighters-let-home-burn/

Lucy
optional fire service does not surprise me in the least
but I bet he wants the right to call the cops without paying a fee!
and cops pensions are one of the least affordable to the state governments!

Spanish language tv and radio is alive and kicking in the US; it is very mainstream, but only in the (albeit huge) Spanish speaking community. All media is very fragmented in the US, and among broadcast channels (like Fox, NBC, ABC etc., people can cherry pick whatever message they like to hear from their news).

Flying Spaggetti-that happened to me in Oxford ten years ago.
Trans-vaginal unltrasound etc. I was told by the GP when I told him I had decided there was no way I could keep the baby that the hospital "wouldn't be nice to me"
When the bitch nurse did the TV ultrasound she turned the monitor toward me so I could see the image, even though I clearly did not want to and was distressed.
I definitely wouldnt have wanted a picture. I still have the picture in my head all these years later.
(Was not late term abortion btw)
Sorry for hijack, just wanted you to know it happens here too.

When I first moved to the UK almost 10 years ago I was surprised to see that the amount taken off my pay was a similar amount to that in the US. with all the deductions it worked out at about 28%. What surprised me about it was that not only did my UK deductions include my use of the NHS, but it also covered all the other social programs here. In the US I still had to pay my private health insurance (another 15% or so of my pay). I think part of the problem is that folks in the US don't want to pay more taxes to get a health care system. They government needs to pay for it with existing tax money. How? The US currently spends more on "defence" than the next 10 countries combined. They are currently spending a billion dollars a day in Afghanistan. It's simply a matter of them getting their priorities straight.

And that was a city fire service. Elsewhere in the US firefighting is being offered by private insurance companies, while city fire services are cut.

Leading to pictures like this in Rancho Bernardo, a wealthy San Diego community which fails to meet national minimum standards for public firefighting, and was hit by wildfire in 2007.

When we had people calling in on 911 for medical emergencies in the states (in AZ, and we did police, fire, ambulance dispatch for a large city), a lot of people worried about the cost involved. We had to constantly reassure them that it was a city service (for that particular city) for the paramedics, and that transport by ambulance would be sorted later if needed. We encouraged them to at the very least let paramedics treat them, if they were worried about the money, to verify that it was nothing life threatening or in any other way serious.

Aaaahhhh ! USA Today
this page just about sums up everything I love about the country I was born in - and why I cannot forsee ever living there again
www.usatoday.com/news/index

Thanks for the links talkinpeace - are you an fhg cronie? :-)

Glad to hear it will be fought against... but people here seem worried as the final say is with a Republican governor - I know very little of US politics as no TV access, but I am guessing it goes through here then is vetoed higher up?

Northern sorry it happened to you too. The worst of it for me was I can see their reasoning... for the other women in the clinic it was a badge of honour 'my man's so fertile this is my 4th abortion' and 'he'd rather pay for this than use a condom'... it was sickening the attitudes in that clinic and something does need to happen to educate these people into understanding an abortion isn't just birth control.

I did resent paying $400 to be treated so unpleasantly though.

FSM
I used to be on FHG sometimes, I'm more Business board and the late lamented Q&A : I have the same name all over the place - saves me remembering who I am.

The most interesting statistics I come across to do with the relative merits of the US healthcare system is that their infant mortality rates are appalling considering what their total spend on healthcare is. In other words, it is expensive but it is not working at a population level. Enough said.

To be fair, BoffinMum, the reason for the appalling IMR in the US is mainly due to social and economic issues and broader determinants of health rather than the healthcare system.

But I do agree the system is failing there for all that they throw money at it.