I am sorry to hear that Lizzie, in previous decades the US was the land sought out by most refugees, whether it was those escaping persecution, or any sort of intolerance, or just economic migrants, but nowadays the queue to get in the UK seems to go right around the globe and it confirms what HanauMan suggests. Health care that's free at the point of delivery is a huge magnet.
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Say what you will about healthcare in the U.S. but it's better than most other places.
It's curious how you & Lizzie extract different appraisals from the same book, curious because, when Eric Arthur Blair, was getting ready to publish his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, he decided to use a pen name so his family wouldn't be embarrassed by his time in poverty. He chose the name George Orwell to reflect his love of English tradition and landscape.
And most likely you'd go blind because you'd be on a waiting list a mile long for surgery. I know a few Canadians who come to the U.S. for any kind of serious health issues they have. According to one of my aunts-in-law who's British, it's the same thing in England. At one time in GB there was a 4 year waiting list for women needing to have surgery for ovarian cancer.
And most likely you'd go blind because you'd be on a waiting list a mile long for surgery. I know a few Canadians who come to the U.S. for any kind of serious health issues they have. According to one of my aunts-in-law who's British, it's the same thing in England. At one time in GB there was a 4 year waiting list for women needing to have surgery for ovarian cancer.
Regarding growing old gracefully, I asked Elsie who's seventy-four.
The frustration that we have with our health service is that free at the point of delivery causes abuse of the system and therefore additional cost. There's waste that could easily be avoided such as the aids a patient needs after surgery. Things like crutches, long handle shoe horns, raised toilet seats that fit over the existing one and so on, none of which seem to get returned. It adds up to millions and there's waste in our hospitals and doctor's surgeries that need addressing, but the biggest cost to our health budget is the fact that up to 25% of patients fail to attend their appointments. A classic case was that of a woman who didn't arrive for her operation because she thought that an ambulance would collect her. When the ambulance failed to turn up she thought that her operation had been cancelled. When pressed, she admitted that she only read the appointment part of the letter that they had sent her, all the do's and dont's she had ignored.
You know you are getting old when you mis-read "popnography," then remember the photo of Madonna in the press and do the classic two pus two equals five. I must get my prescription checked.
