[ExI] simple solution to health care

[Damien Broderick]

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