[ExI] simple solution to health care
Damien Broderick
thespike at satx.rr.com
Thu Jun 25 07:49:33 UTC 2009
At 03:47 PM 6/25/2009 +0930, Emlyn wrote:
> > Cost: $16,000, with bills still dribbling
> > in. Thank god at least I didn't have to suffer the metaphysical horrors and
> > shame of socialized medicine.
>
>Holy crap. You've got to get back to where the toilets flush the right
>way, before some really serious shit happens.
Can't. Luckily I had been paying an extortionate amount for insurance
in the three years previous, which just about equaled the
extortionate hospital bills (or that portion the insurer grudgingly
agreed to pay). I'm now eligible for Medicare, which of course I'd
have had in Australia routinely and paid the 1.5% levy for it; here I
shell out more than $5500 a year, roughly what I was already paying.
Eventually I'll come under the umbrella of my wife's eligibility and
it will be free. And of course all the tax I've paid in Australia for
decades doesn't count here, despite alleged tax treaties. But hey, I
decided to come here to live. Emlyn, a substantial 4 bathroom 2
storey house in downtown San Antonio near us sold for $US155,000, and
another $50K for repairs to make it very livable. In Melbourne or
Adelaide you'd get an outdoor dunny or chook run for that, without
the house to go with it.
Damien Broderick
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