[rescue] SparcCenter 2000E on Ebay

[Mike Meredith]

On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 22:42:07 -0400
"Patrick Giagnocavo +1.717.201.3366" <patrick at zill.net> wrote:
> They get the best they can in the country they are in of course; then
> if needed they come to the USA.  One of the biggest Islmaic mullahs
> who preached about the Great Satan, the US, died recently.  He'd spent
> his last years in Boston, undergoing treatment not available
> elsewhere.

Ah! You've changed your argument or possibly didn't make it plain that
the reason the rich go to the US for treatment is because of treatments
not offered elsewhere. Yes the US does offer treatments that aren't
available elsewhere; in all likelyhood the UK does too (and
probably many countries in Europe) although the only evidence I can
offer is that a number of Iraqi children were flown to the UK for burns
treatment(and I'm sure the US could offer treatment for burns).

> > > when your soldiers come back from a war in Iraq, they don't have
> > > to join a waiting list to receive treatment for their injuries
> > > like they do in the UK.
> 
> news.google.com, search "nhs soldier"

<snip evidence of nhs waiting lists>

Yes there are waiting lists for *some* forms of treatment and the UK
needs to increase the level of spending to improve the situation.
Unfortunately, stories about nhs patients receiving timely health care
don't get printed. Your original comment implied that injured soldiers
would not receive timely treatment for possibly life-threatening
injuries ... which is most certainly *NOT* the case.

Is the UK health service perfect ? Don't make me laugh. Is the US health
system perfect ? Of course not ... there's no such thing as perfection.
As the US is spending roughly twice the percentage of GDP on health
care, it should be twice as good as the UK ... is it really so ? I don't
think so.

As to anecdotal evidence, my dad has rather more experience of the NHS
than anybody would want to (to give you an idea, he probably has a
hospital appointment at least every 2 months (or more frequently), is
delivered by ambulance to hospital at least once a year, and has had
operations at a frequency of 1 every 2 years for the last 15). His most
serious complaint about the NHS ? The shoes provided on pescription are
slow to arrive and aren't always suitable.

As it happens he has private health insurance because he's still
somewhat employed by IBM. Although he made use of a private hospital
(once), he prefers to use the NHS and receive cash payments instead ...
and it's not as if he desperately needs the money.

(Hopefully I've redirected replies to Geeks)