The Invisible: Two rants about NZ healthcare.

[Freeky]

Flu shots aren't covered here either, but their usually only $25, if you go to a Walmart or a supermarket or pharmacy store.  I don't even bother with them ever, nor do I deal with it for my monkey.  Meh.

It sounds like about the same as some US state coverage, what you have, only slightly more confusing because sometimes your gov. doesn't say "Don't get sick."

[AnarChloe]

Well said.

I believe flu shots here are $45 or so. In your money that'd be about the same I think, if the exchange is what it used to be.

My complaint about the shot price is that $45 is more than half of the money I have a week, and I'm pretty average in terms of money for a student here.

The good news about flu shots here is you can usually wrangle a free one if you have asthma, or a similar health concern. So at least the people flu will probably kill get their shot.

And the govt. here only tells you "Don't get sick." if you can't afford to deal with illness, they could at least tell rich bastards that too but nooooooo.

[Cain]

This thread is another reminder that, despite the many, many shitty things about living in the UK, if there is just one thing this inspid, wet piece of rock filled with xenophobic lunatics can take pride in, it's the NHS.

If I get sick, I just...go to a doctor.  I don't have to worry about how much it is going to cost me.  I know prescriptions are going to cost me about £7.50...unless it's important enough for me to go to hospital, in which case it is going to be free.  Many things, from the insanity of our elected leaders to the banks may end up bankrupting me, but the one thing that wont do it is me getting sick.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Our health care system is so fucked up it doesn't even make sense.

[AnarChloe]

This thread is another reminder that, despite the many, many shitty things about living in the UK, if there is just one thing this inspid, wet piece of rock filled with xenophobic lunatics can take pride in, it's the NHS.

If I get sick, I just...go to a doctor.  I don't have to worry about how much it is going to cost me.  I know prescriptions are going to cost me about £7.50...unless it's important enough for me to go to hospital, in which case it is going to be free.  Many things, from the insanity of our elected leaders to the banks may end up bankrupting me, but the one thing that wont do it is me getting sick.

The one reason I would vaguely consider returning to my homeland for.

Then I think of the fact that it sucks and I hate it.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

I've never had a flu shot in my life. I don't want one. I hardly ever get flu, and when I do, I get over it. What with all the crap they put in our food, and the drugs the FDA approves that end up in a class action lawsuit because they fucked people up, I'm inclined not to totally dismiss those stories linking flu vaccines with Alzheimer's and assorted other nasty shit nobody wants. I question why they make it so cheap and available, since I know they don't give a fuck about us and would probably be happy to get rid of a lot of people who aren't making money for them - like those elderly people drawing checks that they try to say really NEED a flu shot. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I've never had a flu shot in my life. I don't want one. I hardly ever get flu, and when I do, I get over it. What with all the crap they put in our food, and the drugs the FDA approves that end up in a class action lawsuit because they fucked people up, I'm inclined not to totally dismiss those stories linking flu vaccines with Alzheimer's and assorted other nasty shit nobody wants. I question why they make it so cheap and available, since I know they don't give a fuck about us and would probably be happy to get rid of a lot of people who aren't making money for them - like those elderly people drawing checks that they try to say really NEED a flu shot.

Maybe it's just a bias I carry because of my career plans, but despite some pretty shitty rumors about the CDC, from what I can see public health is one of the few areas that is more or less devoid of the corruption and profiteering of other realms of government.


Oh, BTW, Alzheimers is genetic and anti-vaccine people make shit up. It's a bunch of crap. Sometimes a vaccine has to be recalled, and they aren't 100% safe, but even with the risks the cost/benefit ratio is strongly in their favor. Flu used to be one of the #1 contagious killers; now it's not.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

That's good to hear...Nigel slices through the bullshit again. 

How does the CDC manage not to fall into the corruption thing?

[Cain]

Usually, the problems when it comes to things like flu shots are that the scientists who advise the government to buy the vaccines are invested in the company providing them, as has been the case over here before.  Of course, that could be a form of endorsement, but it does raise the issue of potentially conflicting interests.

Doesn't mean they don't work, as a rule, I've had flu shots every year since age 7 through to 18 with no noticeable side effects.  Probably for the best, too, given the one time I did get the flu, it knocked me on my arse for three weeks.  Everyone at school thought I had died, and even to this day I remember virtually nothing about that time period.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's good to hear...Nigel slices through the bullshit again. 

How does the CDC manage not to fall into the corruption thing?

I think it's largely because conflict of interest in disease control is highly visible and has huge risks, so there's fairly strong systemic pressure to avoid impropriety, as the consequences for widespread public loss of trust in the CDC could be catastrophic.

Their ethics are pretty intense: http://www.cdc.gov/about/ethics/resources/faq/index.htm

Because of how much criticism they get from wingnuts, the CDC is under constant scrutiny and pressure from politicians in other branches who want to appeal to the wingnuts, fringes and fundies who are suspicious of vaccination. That increases the internal pressure to maintain propriety.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, also, contrary to what the anti-vaccination nutjobs would have everyone believe, vaccines are expensive to produce and don't offer much profit, so pharmaceutical companies don't really like making them. It's vastly more profitable to sell drugs that treat diseases than it is to prevent diseases.

http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/3/622.full

Contrary to the popular misconception that the CDC is in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies, the CDC is pretty much constantly struggling with pharmaceutical companies. They have directly contrary goals; the CDC's goal is to keep the population healthy, and the pharmaceutical companies' goal is to sell drugs. You can't sell many drugs to healthy people.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

This makes sense. 

The main thing the anti-vaccine people are carrying on about is thimerosal...polio, etc. aren't things you want to roll the dice with, but couldn't they use something else?

[Freeky]

Polio is, to my admittedly limited knowledge,  nearly gone in the US and other industrialized nations,  because of the polio vaccine. Don't fix what ain't broke.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

Well yeah, keep the vaccine but find something other than mercury to preserve it with.

It looks like they might be phasing it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal

[LMNO]

Yeah, but only because people freak out about it.  If you also notice, there are literally no clinical trials that show it's a danger.