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Tosca's avatar

Thank you. From the outside, everything to do with pregnancy, birth and caring for young children in the US looks utterly horrific. As in, absolute neglect would actually be an improvement; because every aspect is shaped by sexist and theocratic attempts to force everyone with a uterus back into the bloody 16th century.

Your fucking employer can block you getting contraception, what the fuck. Abortion expensive and becoming steadily more difficult to obtain. Getting pre-natal care and being able to give birth in a fucking hospital dependent on income. A minimum wage that was unlivable a decade ago. No maternity leave. Shitty access to childcare. No social safety net. No affordable housing. Shitty schools that are steadily becoming nothing but indoctrination centres.

And then a bunch of arsehole politicians and social commentators want to bitch that Millennials aren't having children. Fucking really??? AFAB people wanting children are enduring treatment that would quite literally be prosecuted as cruelty to animals if it was inflicted on a fucking dog, and you wanna know why the birth rate is for shit? Fuck off.

I am so angry on behalf of American AFAB people, I swear. I check Wonkette every day expecting that you've all just said "Fuck it" and set the whole fucking place on fire.

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Tosca's avatar

You've basically described Australia's Medicare system. Everyone who earns over a certain amount pays a Medicare Levy of a certain percentage, and that funds the public health care system. Public hospitals are free. Seeing private GPs and specialists is subsidised (some "bulk bill", ie accept just the Medicare payment, especially for low-income patients. But that's up to the individual practitioner). Most prescription medicines are also subsidised. Pathology and imaging are free or subsidised.

It's known as a "two tier" system, because you can also buy private health insurance. This is useful for (a) services Medicare doesn't cover, like private physiotherapy and the dentist (b) upgrading stuff, like high-tech hearing aids instead of basic models or a private instead of a shared room; and (c) paying for a private hospital or specialist to "jump" the waiting list. Of course you're still fully eligible for Medicare, and it's 100% up to you how you balance using Medicare and your insurance.

What's a waiting list, you ask? If you need something but it won't literally kill you to wait for it, Medicare will put you on a "waiting list". It won't cost you anything to get The Thing but you have to queue up for it, and if someone else comes along who needs The Thing more urgently than you they'll be bumped ahead of you. How long you have to wait depends on a lot of things, but can be anything from a few days to a couple of years. For some reason, there is a ridiculous wait for joint replacement surgeries; so when my Dad needed his knee done, he used his private health insurance to go to a private hospital and got it done immediately.

But there is none of this bullshit where a doctor has to convince your insurance to cover the procedure. First, the insurance policy clearly states upfront what it will and won't cover. Second, most people use Medicare for complicated stuff like emergency care, cancer treatment and getting a diagnosis, and Medicare trusts that doctors know what they're doing. Occasionally you'll come across an unusual and mega-expensive treatment that you have to jump through hoops before Medicare will pay for it; but most people will never encounter that.

I cannot imagine how I would live without socialised health care.

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