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gmonkey42I was talking on the phone to my mum yesterday. My grandma, who lives in Stockport (in the north of England), fell and got hurt and she's in the hospital. She's OK but she has MS and has trouble walking (that's why she fell) and they want to keep her around for a few days to see about treating that. Meanwhile, my grandpa has been almost bedridden, relying on my grandma to take care of him. You know what's happening now? When they first called the doctor, he said he'd be happy to come over to their house but she ought to go to the hospital so they should just call an ambulance. At the hospital, they checked her for injuries but she wasn't seriously injured but, as I said, they want her to stick around to see if they can help her with her other health problems.
My grandparents were scheduled to have social services come over in March to see about putting safety features in their house, like a sturdier rail for the stairs (they're very narrow and can't have a chair lift thing.) But when my grandma told the hospital about that, they said they'd call and get social services to come and get it done immediately. They also said that if my grandpa needs it, they can get an assistant to come in to help him, and they can continue to have someone come, just to help them out and to bring them free food, every day after my grandma's out of the hospital.
You know what's really amazing? All of this is absolutely free.
I'll say it again: all of these services are provided free of charge.
Imagine having this in America. My grandparents, whose only source of income is the British equivalent of Social Security, do not have to pay a penny for any of this; the government pays for it all. This is how a society is supposed to function. We're supposed to take care of ill and elderly people. Why should so many people be opposed to America being like this? Why is it more important to people that they should have their new SUVs than it is to make sure we'll be taken care of when we're too old and sick to work? Why are people so opposed to having something like National Health here? There are still private hospitals in England, so rich people can still get higher-quality care but everyone can get the basic care they need. What's so wrong with that?
My grandparents were scheduled to have social services come over in March to see about putting safety features in their house, like a sturdier rail for the stairs (they're very narrow and can't have a chair lift thing.) But when my grandma told the hospital about that, they said they'd call and get social services to come and get it done immediately. They also said that if my grandpa needs it, they can get an assistant to come in to help him, and they can continue to have someone come, just to help them out and to bring them free food, every day after my grandma's out of the hospital.
You know what's really amazing? All of this is absolutely free.
I'll say it again: all of these services are provided free of charge.
Imagine having this in America. My grandparents, whose only source of income is the British equivalent of Social Security, do not have to pay a penny for any of this; the government pays for it all. This is how a society is supposed to function. We're supposed to take care of ill and elderly people. Why should so many people be opposed to America being like this? Why is it more important to people that they should have their new SUVs than it is to make sure we'll be taken care of when we're too old and sick to work? Why are people so opposed to having something like National Health here? There are still private hospitals in England, so rich people can still get higher-quality care but everyone can get the basic care they need. What's so wrong with that?
