Chicagoist: Will FEMA Round Us Up for the Swine Flu?

welsey

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:18:49 -0600

I've been on the NHS in the UK (still have my card!) and let me tell you, it was NOT a month-long wait to get a doctor. I was booked for a yearly exam that same week. In my US university I had to call 3 months ahead to get the same appointment. The quality in the UK was as good if not better, and everything was free. I can't find fault in it, and as a major hypochondriac I know my health care systems.

Bekki

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:39:37 -0600

Thanks for the reassurance, just what I needed to hear! It does seem to be more hype than substance. We just need to be smart and make common-sense decisions.

JessNevins

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:36:46 -0600

Your chances of catching the Swine Flu on your trip are about on par with getting hit by lightning. Mind you, don't go walking in the rain with a metal rod (or hanging around hospital wards taking deep breaths) but you should be fine. Mind you, the border is going to be more of a hassle than usual, and many public events and businesses are being shut down. The mayor of Mexico City was considering a shut down of all commerce for a period along with local quarantines. In short, too late, the hubub about the disease is worse than the disease.

Bekki

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:29:53 -0600

So, do I go to Mexico next week or not? I'm a mostly healthy woman in her early 30s. I'm planning on risking it and not going to work after a few days after I return. And I plan on taking cab or shared van to and from the airports, partly to limit exposure. (Sorry drivers of those vehicles.) It seems silly to me to not go, given that it seems like a small percentage of a chance that I'd get the flu, swine or otherwise. There's always the chance that someone near you has a highly contagious disease. I can rationalize my selfishness to go all day.... I say this until I sneeze, don't cover my mouth effectively and the person with the compromised immune system next to me gets the flu and dies.

Navin

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:21:18 -0600

True, I believe there's a limit on what they pay out though. I've heard stories of people still going into permanent debt because it only covered half of their actual costs unfortunately. In this case it was a serious injury, a stabbing.

matilda

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:17:02 -0600

I know, but thanks in any case.

Ingrid

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:07:09 -0600

There is something called The Crime Victim's Compensation Act that is specifically to pay expenses for people who have been victims of crime.

matilda

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:39:20 -0600

I have pretty amazing (and somewhat expensive) private insurance for a few years now, and while I've really experienced little hassle in the way of primary care and the only specialist I need, I've been fighting my insurance tooth-and-nail over a recent and relatively minor injury due to me being a victim of a crime. The struggle to get some payments has crossed over to the absurd. I can't imagine the hassles faced by those with a lower level of insurance. That said, I've had private insurance for most of my life, and the battles my parents and I have fought over the decades leads me to believe that partly-socialized medicine--probably the furthest the USA will go--could hardly be worse. For one, the whole "pre-existing" condition thing is vile and harmful to a lot of people, and calls for a better safety net, at the least.

smussy

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:21:32 -0600

LOL. i love the people who trot out the tired old idea of people waiting forever to see a doctor. guess what? i've been waiting YEARS to see a doctor. because i don't have insurance and i can't afford a doctor. so, i cannot in ANY way see how socialized medicine would hurt me. not to mention if you had private insurance you could keep going on with your bad self. it's just such broken logic.

Navin

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:54:59 -0600

^ Uh, no. Simply not true. And even if it were, I'd rather wait a month for a check up than not be able to afford one at all. I'd take comfort in knowing that if I got cancer I'd be well taken care of and not leave myself or anyone with a legacy of debt. 37th and spending more than pretty much all the countries above us. Oh and Mike, you said some of the best in the world not "better than Mexico". As I pointed out, 37th. *chest swells with pride*.

JessNevins

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:52:31 -0600

when an atrocious number of indiviudals are overweight or obesee, cardiovascular diseases will be a huge killer. Which would not be such a huge issue if people could get regular care, be monitored for illnesses before they necessitate major, invasive, expensive surgery. The French smoke like chimneys and have some truly bizarre dietary habits, and yet their health care is superb. Try again. You're lying about private insurance abroad, simply lying. That's mainly for optional procedures and treatment like ED and cosmetic procedures. As for waiting a month for a doctor, again, lies. People wait here in the US just as long or longer and wait to even book an appointment because of fear of cost/lack of coverage. The source in that article is the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATIOn. Clearly a bunch of socialists who hate freedom. I'm so tired of these idiots who think that a system as broken as the HMO/PPO scam is the best we can do and that any attempt to better it or better organize it or *GASP* cover everyone is some kind of conspiracy of nightmares. Go live on a compound if you're so damn scared. You're surplus.

ricky

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:33:01 -0600

or if you're in Canada or Western Europe you can wait over a month until a doctor is available to see you. ther is a reason that private health insurance is one of the fastest growing sectors across the Atlantic. Also check your sources on your article, the main contributor to America ranking so low is due to our overall health, when an atrocious number of indiviudals are overweight or obesee, cardiovascular diseases will be a huge killer.

mike_thoms

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:32:41 -0600

Good thing I'm only comparing us to Mexico, where all the deaths have occurred. But way to get off point.

mikely1

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 11:09:02 -0600

Ah, OK I see. You got "turisma" the last time you went to Cancun so that means this whole flu thing was exacerbated by the filthy sweaty Mexicans. Nice. You can't drink the water in Naples either ... greasy Italians.

Navin

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:55:51 -0600

Say what you will about our health insurance but you can't deny that we have some of the best facilities and personnel in the world. A lot of good they do if millions can't afford them or will be financially ruined for life if they are given care. So yeah compared to Mexico we look pretty good, compared to Canada/Western Europe where everyone is covered and healthier than us---not so much. We're number one! We're number one!............wait no we're not....that's France, we're 37th... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/799444.stm

mike_thoms

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:51:32 -0600

Until you can go to Mexico and drink their water and not have explosive diarrhea for a week, I'm going to keep thinking that in some aspects we're better than they are.

JessNevins

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:41:20 -0600

I have a bit of a per interest in epidemiology. I'm not an expert, or trained or anything. Just some ass on the internet. In modern outbreaks more people die in the initial stages because they don't take the illness seriously. Until the end, Swine Flu is just a really nasty flu bug, but it wears the body down and can be deadly. The fact that healthy, young people have gotten sick and even died is alarming, but also understandable. What 25 year old goes to the hospital, or hell, even takes off work, for the flu? They stay infectious in public for longer (this swine flue variant has been seen to jump human to human) and you get what we have now. Simple caution and concern will save many people's lives. Well, until the unmarker helicopters come and take our blood for the illuminati.

mikely1

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:41:13 -0600

Ugh, give me a break. How far we've come since 1918. I think it''s interesting that no matter how much it's reported that health officials are baffled by the severity of the flu in Mexico versus cases in the U.S., there's still the ignorant sentiment that we're healthier because we're "better." This is a flu, it's not cholera. A Park Avenue banker is just as susceptible as a Ave de la Reforma street vendor. Further, this appears to be a flu that is MORE harmful to people with strong immune systems. I was in Mexico City about a month ago. It's a vibrant, chaotic but beautiful place. The people there are friendly almost to a fault, and very curious and open to outsiders. It's a cosmopolitan place, with transit we can only envy. It's larger than New York City, and right now I can't even picture the crowded streets, squares and markets empty. I feel very sad for the people of Mexico. I'm getting really tired of this "we're the best" attitude Americans have. Mexico is a poor place with plenty of problems, but it is not some third-world backwater wasteland that somehow "spawned" a flu. Your comment is just as obnoxious as those people on the Trib message boards, using this disaster to trot out ignorant comments about "porous borders" and "hygiene."

ophmarketing

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:37:45 -0600

In his blog yesterday, Steve Dahl said something to that extent. Basically, that there have only been x number or so cases in Mexico itself, and that place is a filthy cesspool.

mike_thoms

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:18:31 -0600

I'm pretty sure that Martin Landau was spouting all this FEMA stuff in the first X-Files movie. And now it's coming true! Swine flu is clearly an alien disease, the invasion for 2012 is beginning! Seriously though, I'm not going to be really worried until people start dying in the U.S. Mexico isn't exactly known for their superior health care are they? Say what you will about our health insurance but you can't deny that we have some of the best facilities and personnel in the world.

JessNevins

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:15:50 -0600

Well, if they show the effectiveness and preperation they did in NOLA, we should be safe. I'm more worried about the panic-crazy right-wingers who think Swine Flu is the Rapture bringin' home to Jesus or that Obama started it or some other babbling garbage teabagging glenn beckery. Really, can we just let them secede? Please?