SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic

Posted: Sep 03 2011 09:10 pm

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/insurance-24-year-dies-toothache/story?id=14438171

Here's a fun story for all you liberals on the board. A guy died from a toothache because he couldn't afford health care. This is my gift to you.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

"When his face started swelling and his head began to ache, Willis went to the emergency room, where he received prescriptions for antibiotics and pain medications. Willis couldn't afford both, so he chose the pain medications."

LOL, jackass.

2011 SNES Champ Joined: Dec 04 2006 Posts: 1929

Uh, yeah, that was retarded. I don't know if the dentist told him what the meds were for. "This one helps you feel better. This one helps you not die."

Wisdom teeth are almost fucking impossible to clean though, so it's really easy to get infection there, especially if you can't afford seeing a dentist to clean it up for you.

Oh, and before anyone starts talking about Canada, dental care isn't free here either Surprised

Title: Naunie Joined: Dec 07 2008 Posts: 1026

Posted: Sep 04 2011 12:19 am

I blame Bush.

Joined: Jun 01 2011 Posts: 11

SoldierHawk wrote:

I blame Bush.

We all blame bush...

Joined: Aug 28 2011 Posts: 537

Shoulda gone to jail like the other guy.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 01:43 am

Wow what a shitty way to go.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 01:57 am

Blackout wrote:

Wow what a shitty way to go.

Yea, this.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 02:00 am

Well I hope it's incentive for anyone who keeps putting of dental work. I know people with broken stumpy rotten to the gum line impacted and infected nasty carnival worker meth head teeth who will not go to the dentist. I keep telling them it's gonna be less painful in the long run to get that taken care of than ignoring it, and you can actually die from those infections. I should print this story out and give it to them.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

If only the conservatives would vote to raise the minimum wage more often than every couple of decades. And this is why this forum is kind of crappy for politics. Any attempt to actually discuss issues is derailed by attacks and logicial fallacies.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 04:59 am

I'd love to debate this with you! If the powers that be lock it we can always argue over PM Smile

I don't know if raising the minimum wage would really show an increase of people taking care of themselves (at least in my neck of the woods). Keep in mind I'm speaking of my city and my area of influence and your state / city may be totally different, but I've seen too many stupid fucking ass "young people" (some of which are younger than me in the grand scheme of things) appear to spend all their disposable income on the latest Icellpad that makes pancakes and massages your balls and loud BOOMING sound systems that rattle their rusty shitbox cars to their component parts turn around and complain that they have to live with their parents because they cannot afford simple basic 500+ rent on a one bed room apartment, when I know they make more than enough to do so.

I'm talking people who are swiftly approaching their 30s if they are not already there talking opening of living with mommy and daddy like it ain't no thang, or at least not a big deal. I don't know about you but that's a major fucking setback in my book.

I make a shake and a wiggle more than a lot of the goofballs in my industry of choice and have been able to budget my income accordingly to have a nice apartment with a dishwasher an assigned and enforced covered parking spot and still have enough money to afford all my stupid man child bullshit, giant TV stack of games I'll never have the time to sit down and beat, music and table top gaming collections that I should sell off on Ebay to finance a new car or something, and I've managed to pay for most of my medical issues out of pocket CASH, and have been able to pay my bills on time for the rest.

I just think there are too many young ME FIRST morons clogging the system at this point, we took a wrong turn in the education of our up and comings at some point in my opinion.

When we get a ton of temps through the door in my line of work and some of them ask for under 40 hours so they can stay on the dole and have no moral qualms about the scam they are openly broadcasting their intent to pull, or we get people in their middle ages who insist on going part time so they can use student loans to pay for their umpteen kids while they never really finish their constantly shifting goal in "further education" and once again have no problem bragging about it like it's fucking smart or clever I don't think the problem is the government's fault, I think it's the people's fault!

I just don't think the problem is what we are paying people as a country, I think the problem is the people are fucking shit half the time. These are not isolated cases we get one of these yahoos every time we open the doors. Sure it's not all of them but it's far more than it should be in a society that I thought was made up of reasonably ration and moral adults, but more and more all I see are fucking grown babies.

I think the problem is people's work ethic and their ability to understand basic budgeting, not what they are getting paid per some government mandate on what the bare minimum is. I see people who make far above the bare minimum waste their money frivolously and constantly, and rack up debt spending money they don't have in a similar frivolous and constant manner.

That being said I have not read the story posted so correct me if I am wrong, but did he have a chance to refill his antibiotics and was he told by a doctor that healing is more important that relieving pain? I've had major oral surgery done and the lines at the pharmacy are full of deadheads looking for more painkillers, and getting a refill on the weekend when the issuing office is closed is a universal NO you are denied because you were told how long this RX lasted and when to refill, meaning you have been abusing it by taking more than the recommended dosage, period point blank.

However it is always possible and super easy to get a refill on an antibiotic RX which I know from personal experience. For what reason did he select painkillers over antibiotics? IF and IF he was not fully informed of the severity of his condition and the absolute importance of the healing process over the pain management process then his family has a lawsuit on it's hands, but from what I've seen in my corner of the world I doubt that is the case.

That being said I'd love an increased cost of living raise, I think I deserve it. Wink

*edit* as a sidebar I've been through severe crippling pain and it will not kill you at least as far as I can and have experienced so far, pain is the only sign you are truly alive and choosing pain meds over antibiotics is foolish to say the least in my honest opinion.

I think the reason that abuse of RX drugs is on the rise is that unscrupulous doctors are not correcting patients that erroneously believe that a pain pill is supposed to cure pain rather than manage said pain. When you are taking enough of X pills to make the pain nonexistent you are in severe risk of dependency because that is not managing the pain, that is getting high.

If there is some sort of rational or defensible reason he chose pain medication over antibiotics then I will withdraw my arguments and admit I am a hyperbolic jerk, and maybe I am too jaded from so many chronic drug seeking patients clogging the lines at 09:30PM because they know there is a new doctor on call who has not denied them another refill yet, despite the fact that they have not had a surgical or even basic medical procedure in years upon years. Neutral

Wow I really got off track there, uh where was I? Yeah I deserve more money because I work really hard, but all the lazy fucks around me do not. Duh.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

I wish i could properly reply to this but i am not aware of the situation in the United States with taxation, poverty, minimum wage and all that jazz so i can't really reply to this.

In an ideal situation i would suggest that everyone gets taxed and healthcare would be free but like i said i am not aware of the situation.

Based solely on what i know about the United States i imagine that there are significantly more people who are paid minimum wage than are rolling in money, at least compared to here. However there are significantly less people in this country than the United States and i know it has to take the things mentioned above into account but you would think that the cost of healthcare for each person would be less due to the number of people in the country. In reality it's probably not true, i don't even know if there is differences in prices of medicine between here and the States.

I had to visit the Doctor on Friday and i got an appointment quickly, was seen for free and when i got to the pharmacy, it turned out the medicine was all free (which i wasn't aware of cause a year or two ago it was like £3).

Irrespective, even if this guy lived in the UK he still may have died. Dental care is NOT free here so the attitude of:

"Dohohohoho if he had free healthcare he would have been fine" is a false one, for here anyway, but i often find that the NHS is the often cited example regarding healthcare.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 09:04 am

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

If only the conservatives would vote to raise the minimum wage more often than every couple of decades. And this is why this forum is kind of crappy for politics. Any attempt to actually discuss issues is derailed by attacks and logicial fallacies.

In theory, minimum wage should only ever be raised to cover to issues:

1) An increase in the cost of living
2) To cover inflation

Does this happen? I would guess not. And unfortunately, the idea of minimum wage being able to sustain a person is sort of a doomed idea. When you raise the minimum wage, the price of goods and services start to creep up, resulting in an increased cause of living, resulting in the need to raise minimum wage. And yes, there are ways around this cycle, like if every CEO was willing to take a pay cut to cover the costs of raising minimum wage instead of passing the cost onto customers, or if they were willing to settle for lower yearly profits, but those things aren't ever going to happen.

As for the story itself, I think this is what's key. Liberals are going to see this death as a failure of medical care, while conservatives are going to this more as a failure of individual stupidity. A case can be made for both answers, and neither answer is exclusively correct.

As for discourse, there are very few places on the internet where serious discourse can be had. Memetic culture has absolutely DESTROYED intelligent conversation. No one wants to be the guy with an intelligent point anymore, they want to be the guy who comes with the best snarky David Caruso one-liner or the best trollface to post in response to a story. And it just keeps getting worse.

Wizard Joined: Jun 12 2009 Posts: 4209

Syd Lexia wrote:

As for discourse, there are very few places on the internet where serious discourse can be had. Memetic culture has absolutely DESTROYED intelligent conversation. No one wants to be the guy with an intelligent point anymore, they want to be the guy who comes with the best snarky David Caruso one-liner or the best trollface to post in response to a story. And it just keeps getting worse.

Unfortunately... this.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Syd you can't start a thread with THIS IS YOUR FAULT LIBERALS and then bemoan the state of the internet.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 12:01 pm

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Syd you can't start a thread with THIS IS YOUR FAULT LIBERALS and then bemoan the state of the internet.

I didn't take it as him attacking liberals. I saw it more as throwing some meat to the libs and then seeing what would happen. I decided to ignore it because it's futile discussing politics with the uneducated, ignorant morons on this board who rely almost entirely on anecdotal evidence to back up their irrational beliefs.

Nooch. Baiting

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Sep 04 2011 12:22 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

As for discourse, there are very few places on the internet where serious discourse can be had. Memetic culture has absolutely DESTROYED intelligent conversation. No one wants to be the guy with an intelligent point anymore, they want to be the guy who comes with the best snarky David Caruso one-liner or the best trollface to post in response to a story. And it just keeps getting worse.

I'd like to think I don't fall under this.

Anyways, yeah, this guy is an idiot, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the availability of health or dental insurance. Antibiotics and painkillers are some of the cheapest drugs we make, and even if you can't afford them, Wal-Mart had $4 generics. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn't be able to afford most medications nowadays if you're within 10 miles of one. And you are.

And even if he could only choose one, and missed the whole "bacterial infections can kill you" thing in school, you can get painkillers over the counter.

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Also most of my dentists tell me to supplement my pain killers with over the counter medicine.

Joined: May 22 2008 Location: Goshen, VA Posts: 6544

Relax guys, this is just Syd's way of saying "Neener, neener, neener, the guys you like didn't fix the health care system that was already fucked up, teehee."

Posted: Sep 04 2011 03:34 pm

Klimbatize wrote:

Optimist With Doubts wrote:

Syd you can't start a thread with THIS IS YOUR FAULT LIBERALS and then bemoan the state of the internet.

I didn't take it as him attacking liberals. I saw it more as throwing some meat to the libs and then seeing what would happen. I decided to ignore it because it's futile discussing politics with the uneducated, ignorant morons on this board who rely almost entirely on anecdotal evidence to back up their irrational beliefs.

Nooch. Baiting

Klimb is exactly correct. I'm sorry that you took it that way, OWD.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

There are so many arguments in there, like Syd said, and they'd all be right. The man was obviously not very intelligent if he took pain meds over, well.... meds. Then you can say Health Care is fucked up if people can't afford simple medical help (leaving his kids without a father). Somehow, though, it feels like we're not getting all the information about this particular story from this article.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

Blackout wrote:

I don't know if raising the minimum wage would really show an increase of people taking care of themselves (at least in my neck of the woods). Keep in mind I'm speaking of my city and my area of influence and your state / city may be totally different, but I've seen too many stupid fucking ass "young people" (some of which are younger than me in the grand scheme of things) appear to spend all their disposable income on the latest Icellpad that makes pancakes and massages your balls and loud BOOMING sound systems that rattle their rusty shitbox cars to their component parts turn around and complain that they have to live with their parents because they cannot afford simple basic 500+ rent on a one bed room apartment, when I know they make more than enough to do so.

I'm talking people who are swiftly approaching their 30s if they are not already there talking opening of living with mommy and daddy like it ain't no thang, or at least not a big deal. I don't know about you but that's a major fucking setback in my book.

I make a shake and a wiggle more than a lot of the goofballs in my industry of choice and have been able to budget my income accordingly to have a nice apartment with a dishwasher an assigned and enforced covered parking spot and still have enough money to afford all my stupid man child bullshit, giant TV stack of games I'll never have the time to sit down and beat, music and table top gaming collections that I should sell off on Ebay to finance a new car or something, and I've managed to pay for most of my medical issues out of pocket CASH, and have been able to pay my bills on time for the rest.

I just think there are too many young ME FIRST morons clogging the system at this point, we took a wrong turn in the education of our up and comings at some point in my opinion.

When we get a ton of temps through the door in my line of work and some of them ask for under 40 hours so they can stay on the dole and have no moral qualms about the scam they are openly broadcasting their intent to pull, or we get people in their middle ages who insist on going part time so they can use student loans to pay for their umpteen kids while they never really finish their constantly shifting goal in "further education" and once again have no problem bragging about it like it's fucking smart or clever I don't think the problem is the government's fault, I think it's the people's fault!

I just don't think the problem is what we are paying people as a country, I think the problem is the people are fucking shit half the time. These are not isolated cases we get one of these yahoos every time we open the doors. Sure it's not all of them but it's far more than it should be in a society that I thought was made up of reasonably ration and moral adults, but more and more all I see are fucking grown babies.

I think the problem is people's work ethic and their ability to understand basic budgeting, not what they are getting paid per some government mandate on what the bare minimum is. I see people who make far above the bare minimum waste their money frivolously and constantly, and rack up debt spending money they don't have in a similar frivolous and constant manner.

In regards to you talking about budgeting and those temps asking for under 40 hours. They are idiots. The past two weeks I've gotten 8 or 9 hours (The reason being they hired too many people and we went over our labor hours). I need to have $9000 by late January early February in order to go on my mission.

I get paid 7.5 ( a quarter above Utah min wage) an hour bi weekly so let's do a bit of math.
7.5 * (8+9) = 127.5
and after taxes it's a bit shorter than that.
I don't know the exact tax rates so I'll go off an old pay stub and say it's about $20
which means I get $107.5
and that's for two weeks... So the one bedroom apartment is still out of my reach, and yes I have applied for work all over my town. My town is just messed up as far as zoning and business go. All our business is all along main street. Surrounded by miles of land zoned for housing. So jobs are hard to come by

The only reason jobs in my town stay open is because it relies on people going off for college. They hire teens hoping that sometime within a year after they turn 18 they'll go move out of this horrible town

Got a bit off topic there, but yeah, if I had the opportunity to work 40+ hours a week, I would so take it, and I would LOVE an increase in minimum wage.
I have a consistent job now, but it's still only 24 hours per week and I'm still on bi weekly pay.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 10:05 pm

If there were no liberals, there would be no internet, hence no Syd. So shut up, write a thank you letter to Al Gore and call it a night.

Posted: Sep 04 2011 11:29 pm

Hack, you realize that minimum is only supposed to provide a living wage for full-time employees, right? If you're only working 8 or 9 hours a week, no reasonable minimum wage in the world can help you.

Also, what part time job pays you bi-weekly? That's fucking bullshit.