I'd definitely say she should tell them to pound sand if they try to bill her for all this extra shit being done because of their incompetence. I'd also consider suing the ppl making a practice of stepping on their dicks.
Wizard's Third Rule: Common is Valuable.
This is partly true because "common" is a lot more rare than it should be (common sense, common courtesy, common ground, common coinβ¦).
Sounds like the beginnings of 'socialized medicine' where completely detached administators write 'policies' that override common sense and which can't be questioned...
Don't worry, they'll hire some senior administrators to 'reassess and promulgate expanded policy and protocols' to take moretime from those actually providing services and have them fill out new forms instead.
As someone who works in 'Socialised Medicine' no, we work much better than that on average. Also we cost a lot less for the government and the individual while giving everyone free healthcare. All round Win
'free' ? guess that means nobody gets paid...
'socialized' medicine invariably costs more in taxes than buying insurance would
with longer wait times and even rationing of services..I lost a few family members thanks to that
the best part is that I pay for insurance to cover the costs the 'socialized' part won't...
and lived in provinces where there was an additional charge for services on top of 40% tax rates
The problem with your statement is that you are incorrect. Yes, one pays extra taxes in countries with socialized healthcare. No, those extra taxes are NOT more than the cost of health insurance premiums AND dedutibles AND copays AND the random stuff health insurance just plain refuses to cover.
Ten minute's research on the internet will show you that.
Sorry, 45+ years of paying for it and using, or atempting to use, the system invalidates everything you just said.
With unending taxpayer money to fund the system, there is absolutely no incentive to promote efficiency or effectiveness, and it shows.
The levels upon levels of bureaucracy ensures that the costs go up while the services go down.
That translates into few available services at the 'front end', insanely long wait times, unnecessary complications and even deaths because of those wait times and a complete detachment of the system from the people it's supposed to serve.
You are quite wrong in stating that taxes are less than health insurance premiums. 'Health care' is up to 50% of the budgets for some provinces and when you take 50% of my tax bill, I can buy the most gold-plated insurance plan that would rival the services politicians get and still have enough left over to cover drugs and other supplies that are NOT covered by the gov't system and you need to buy private insurance for anyway.
The problem with your statement is that you are incorrect. Yes, one pays extra taxes in countries with socialized healthcare. No, those extra taxes are NOT more than the cost of health insurance premiums AND dedutibles AND copays AND the random stuff health insurance just plain refuses to cover.
Ten minute's research on the internet will show you that.
As to the cost of healthcare, prepare to have your mind blown. This is a few years old but I havenβt seen anything to say that it doesnβt still apply: m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M
Having personally been to several countries with different flavors of socialized medicine, and having family that has lived in one for decades, that's seldom how it works in actual practice. I have at least one family member that *died* over it, so go on and tell me that's not true. I will laugh in your face.
For stitches, broken bones, and other stuff like that, sure, socialized medicine is great.
But there's a reason people *still* come to the US for care if they can afford it for anything remotely uncommon, even though our system was dreadfully damaged by the "Affordable Care Act" (which made everything much less affordable).
And I knew someone who died because they couldn't afford insulin in America. Another person I knew almost died because they couldn't afford an epi-pen (which costs under $5 to make but costs hundreds of dollars to buy for some reason) and it's only the sheerest luck that someone else who DID have one was willing to use it to save her life.
Is socialized health care perfect? No. Is it way better than America's no-heath-care plan? Yes, yes it is.
"Is socialized health care perfect? No. Is it way better than America's no-heath-care plan? Yes, yes it is. "
No, no it isn't, and not even close.
Yes, there are problems with our system, and yes, it's worse now than it was a few years ago (as we moved *closer* to socialized medicine, by the way).
But no, it's still not *nearly* as bad as a system where you are dependent on the government letting you have something.
In the US, if I don't like the insurance plan I have, I can switch companies (and if we can get the government to back off and not try to control it so much, as if this were a socialized medicine system, that would be even better). In a socialized system, if the government says no, I can... uh... move to another country?
Oh wait, in some cases, they won't even let you do that - see Charlie Gard.
Oh, and the epi-pen thing? That is because government over-regulation has made it insanely difficult (meaning insanely expensive) to get approved to make them - there is only one maker left, giving them all the bad problems of a monopoly, because of *government control* of the system.
Yay, let's get more government involvement! That will fix it! It's like thinking the solution to a snake bite is getting the snake to bite you more and harder.
priced epi-pens up here lately ? they aren't handed out free...you still have to buy them. Insulin is cheaper but you still have to pay for it. I'm diabetic and pay for insurance to cover drugs and supplies because the 'socialized healthcare' DOESN'T !! Granted, in this province at least, the prices for diabetic supplies are controlled, to an extent, but the insurance to cover the net cost is well worth the premium.
@ Oldarmourer, Nope not even close. This is full-on capitalist, squeeze-'em till they bleed medicine, where completely detached administrators write 'policies' that override common (medical) sense and which can't be questioned...
My experience with healthcare, combined with what Iβve heard in podcasts, says that standards of treatment are heavily influenced by local factors. In any system you get good and bad institutions. There are always pressures on any system and itβs up to local administrators, managers and other staff to provide good healthcare.
Some institutions (in multiple countries) are introducing checklists to as an aid to reducing error and others either reject them or misuse them.
I live in the UK and we have the NHS here. In Newcastle upon Tyne, where I live, the care is amongst the best in the country. In Lincoln, where relations live, the local hospital was so bad that the national Government put it in βspecial measuresβ. Similarly, I know such disparities exist in the US, Canada and practically every country regardless of system.
If I could throw my 2 cents in for a moment, this thread is reaching perilously close to a political discussion, and our Creatrixes have a strict no-politics policy for the comments section.
Since neither of them are currently in a position to moderate, it falls on us to moderate ourselves.
I know everyone wants the best for Terri, and none of us are happy about this particular Fubar, but it doesn't help her if we are also arguing among ourselves.
And tell Cent to eat yogurt, heavy duty painkillers can be constipating and it sounds like whoever's in charge of the beerflu panic is full of enough of the 'stuff that makes the grass grow green' for both of them ;)
Also, I/(we) don't expect you to have to try to post something all the time as a filler. In light of the difficulty, and with Cent's surgery in limbo hell, just a note from time to time, letting us know how things are going is sufficient, for me at least.
Re: A/N, That's great news, @Cent! Fingers crossed and hoping that everything goes according to plan, with no hiccups, and good outcomes! Stay safe! (Rose too!) :D
Stay strong, both of you. There are people wishing you well all over the world and dont worry we will wait for you, its worth it. Just put up another info page from time to time so we can cheer you both up.
Management of unrelenting pain can be tremendously wearing, emotionally and psychologically, @Centcomm. I wish you the best possible outcome and as full and complete a recovery as possible. @Tokyo Rose, thank you for keeping us informed and entertained during this necessary hiatus. I say this not to put any pressure on the creative team, or to sound ungrateful for your creative hard work, but I miss the characters I have come to know and care about and look forward to the continuation of their stories as soon as circumstances permit. Meanwhile, I hope it helps to know that there are people out there wishing for you both to be healthy and happy.
This is the wait time chart for hand surgery from the official gov't site, sorry if I don't say where exactly where I live.
hopefully, the columns either line up or make a little sense, I changed the city names.
I had to have radiation treatments a few years ago, I live within a mile of the largest Regional Hospital north of the Capital, a relatively new complex with supposedly all the trimmings... I had to drive well over an hour, to a different province, each day (and back again) for those treatments because that service was unavailable here when I needed it
The cumulative parking bill alone, for the hospital lot !! was over $600.00
My mother never did get the surgery she required and died as a result.
That didn't line up, not surprising, but the biggest and the best equipped hospital in the province has a 500+ day waiting list for consultation, and another 400+ day wait time for the surgery after that, assuming you're permitted to have it.
Cent is getting hers at an unheard of speed, even with a paperwork glitch. Up here, unless you were on WCB or an elected official, she'd be waiting years. Now that I'm retired, my wait time for knee surgery has gone from six months to "we'll get back to you in a year and a half to schedule a consultation...maybe"
This is one of the first webcomics I read. I love it!!!!! Hope Cent gets better and receives her surgery. Is this a county hospital???? They are full of BS! She might wait forever!!!!!!!
Centy update..: second cv-19 same as before "Neg." no problems.. and maybe, just maybe a window on the 20th.. (fingers crossed..)
Rose: no idea.. don't talk as much.. (except heard rumor ,, that hasi is being treated with meds..)
That all things are clear and ready for op and that Rose is responding well to the medicines is the important stuff. All the rest is just small fry and as the saying goes don't fret the small fry.
Another rendition of your comment is "don't sweat the small stuff", a misquoted saying from the Age of Sail. Small stuff is material like cod line marline, thread, and the like, and sweating is what one does to snug material up; sweating small stuff *can* break it.
--
deck ape, Scow Schooner Alma, built 1891
Hand, Reef, and Steer
It's also a method of soldering pipes but the solder can plug extremely small lines or ruin them entirely if they are very thin walled so you "don't sweat the small stuff" then either
Remember...never sweat the small things but always pet the sweaty things ;)
i know how fuzzy the hospital can be. my sister had to have heart surgery. took her almost 2 weeks to get into the operating room. i'm sorry she's in such pain. i hope it won't be much longer for her. we can wait. your comic is worth it. take care and be safe. steven
Does anyone else remember the old conversations about how terrifying Australia would be in the Datachasers universe, and the running joke about combat wombats?
Well, Animalogic did a video that involves wombat combat. Link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFRot1i0CQ
Back in the Golden age of computing, Digital Equipment Corp sold a software product named Datatrieve. The developer was a fan of these marsupials and populated the beta version of the product's help file with information on them. There were two lavels of help, the basic and the advanced, so a user could type HELP ADVANCED WOMBATS
Glad both of You are through your respective repairs. Cent I know you want to get back to artisting, but please take extra rest to become extra strong.
and for a +1 response, I too am glad that the future has brightened for the both of you. Because the commentariat here is so entertaining, the interim between now and the next page will be bearable.
I hope things work out for Centcomm.
Recursion: see Recursion.
Best wishes to Cent, and I hope she doesn't have any more delays, or problems caused by taking strong painkillers for too long.
I hope everything gets sorted out for you! <3
1. Oh lord, please open the ears of the doctors so that they listen to rose as she discusses the situation with them.
2. Oh lord, protect the doctors from the wrath of Rose Long enough for them to do a good job of the surgery.
or
3. Oh lord, bring down thy righteous and neverending judgement on these heathens, but please wait until after they fix Cent's hand...
Personally I'll go for prayer number 1, but I'm willing to take a consensus
"O Lord for what we are about to receive, make us truly grateful" ;)
This is partly true because "common" is a lot more rare than it should be (common sense, common courtesy, common ground, common coinβ¦).
Don't worry, they'll hire some senior administrators to 'reassess and promulgate expanded policy and protocols' to take moretime from those actually providing services and have them fill out new forms instead.
'socialized' medicine invariably costs more in taxes than buying insurance would
with longer wait times and even rationing of services..I lost a few family members thanks to that
and lived in provinces where there was an additional charge for services on top of 40% tax rates
Ten minute's research on the internet will show you that.
With unending taxpayer money to fund the system, there is absolutely no incentive to promote efficiency or effectiveness, and it shows.
The levels upon levels of bureaucracy ensures that the costs go up while the services go down.
That translates into few available services at the 'front end', insanely long wait times, unnecessary complications and even deaths because of those wait times and a complete detachment of the system from the people it's supposed to serve.
You are quite wrong in stating that taxes are less than health insurance premiums. 'Health care' is up to 50% of the budgets for some provinces and when you take 50% of my tax bill, I can buy the most gold-plated insurance plan that would rival the services politicians get and still have enough left over to cover drugs and other supplies that are NOT covered by the gov't system and you need to buy private insurance for anyway.
Ten minute's research on the internet will show you that.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=qSjGouBmo0M
{edit}
For something more recent, thereβs this www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz7wm. The relevant bit is from about 10:50.
Having personally been to several countries with different flavors of socialized medicine, and having family that has lived in one for decades, that's seldom how it works in actual practice. I have at least one family member that *died* over it, so go on and tell me that's not true. I will laugh in your face.
For stitches, broken bones, and other stuff like that, sure, socialized medicine is great.
But there's a reason people *still* come to the US for care if they can afford it for anything remotely uncommon, even though our system was dreadfully damaged by the "Affordable Care Act" (which made everything much less affordable).
Is socialized health care perfect? No. Is it way better than America's no-heath-care plan? Yes, yes it is.
No, no it isn't, and not even close.
Yes, there are problems with our system, and yes, it's worse now than it was a few years ago (as we moved *closer* to socialized medicine, by the way).
But no, it's still not *nearly* as bad as a system where you are dependent on the government letting you have something.
In the US, if I don't like the insurance plan I have, I can switch companies (and if we can get the government to back off and not try to control it so much, as if this were a socialized medicine system, that would be even better). In a socialized system, if the government says no, I can... uh... move to another country?
Oh wait, in some cases, they won't even let you do that - see Charlie Gard.
Yay, let's get more government involvement! That will fix it! It's like thinking the solution to a snake bite is getting the snake to bite you more and harder.
Some institutions (in multiple countries) are introducing checklists to as an aid to reducing error and others either reject them or misuse them.
I live in the UK and we have the NHS here. In Newcastle upon Tyne, where I live, the care is amongst the best in the country. In Lincoln, where relations live, the local hospital was so bad that the national Government put it in βspecial measuresβ. Similarly, I know such disparities exist in the US, Canada and practically every country regardless of system.
{edited for grammar}
Since neither of them are currently in a position to moderate, it falls on us to moderate ourselves.
I know everyone wants the best for Terri, and none of us are happy about this particular Fubar, but it doesn't help her if we are also arguing among ourselves.
***Gets down from the soapbox***
p.s. Terri, Krissy, I'm praying for both of you!
Rose, if you're reading, help Cent feel better, and tell her this ^^, and I hope you're doing well too. Both of you stay safe!
(you find the best kitten pics, Rose!)
...hope Cent will get her surgery soon... =S
...thank you for keeping us posted, Rose...
hopefully, the columns either line up or make a little sense, I changed the city names.
I had to have radiation treatments a few years ago, I live within a mile of the largest Regional Hospital north of the Capital, a relatively new complex with supposedly all the trimmings... I had to drive well over an hour, to a different province, each day (and back again) for those treatments because that service was unavailable here when I needed it
The cumulative parking bill alone, for the hospital lot !! was over $600.00
My mother never did get the surgery she required and died as a result.
Consult Wait Time Surgery Wait Time
city 1
city 2
203 days
170 days
capital city
capital city 2
122 days
384 days
city 3
city 4
243 days
301 days
capital city
capital main hospital
508 days
478 days
city 5
Regional Hospital
---
---
city 6
Regional Hospital
---
417 days
large city
Hospital
---
---
city
Consolidated Hospital
---
---
large city
Regional Hospital
44 days
---
large city
Regional Health Centre
---
---
Cent is getting hers at an unheard of speed, even with a paperwork glitch. Up here, unless you were on WCB or an elected official, she'd be waiting years. Now that I'm retired, my wait time for knee surgery has gone from six months to "we'll get back to you in a year and a half to schedule a consultation...maybe"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hiOnLknh6s
We care just as much about you, you know!
Rose: no idea.. don't talk as much.. (except heard rumor ,, that hasi is being treated with meds..)
(yeay)
How did Rose's meeting with the stabby vampires go ?
--
deck ape, Scow Schooner Alma, built 1891
Hand, Reef, and Steer
Remember...never sweat the small things but always pet the sweaty things ;)
You both matter very much to me. Please get well first. The comic can wait.
Rose is the one who's supposed to be typing you go rest those hands, right now young lady.
Well, Animalogic did a video that involves wombat combat. Link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyFRot1i0CQ
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/690988313473056850/734835481858146415/JPEG_20200720_105433.jpg