National would bring back $5 prescription fees

[Lilith7]

This reminds me of that guy - I think John Oliver interviewed him, who said he didn't want socialised medicine in America because it might mean he had the same doctor as poor people.

Sometimes the very idea of equity just escapes some people. I understand why the LoO prefers targeted social measures, but the reality is there are many folk who need assistance despite their on paper wealth. No matter where you draw the line for targeting, some will always suffer. Universal is best.

Oh my, how dreadful for him - the very idea, actually having the very same Dr as - shudder - poor people! Why the poor soul might become contaminated with something dire & irreversible, like an open mind or a glimmer of understanding.  


I think we do need to prioritise both education & health & preferably soon because both are vital especially in the long term & we've slipped behind more than we should have thanks to Neo Liberalism.

---

This twitter thread by 'Kiwi Kali' is so enlightening as to the value of yesterday's prescription charge change to the least advantaged in our population:

"I've been a doctor for over 20 years. As a new graduate in the early 2000s at Middlemore, it took a long time for us to figure out why patients were being readmitted when they'd been discharged with antibiotics for pneumonia or medication for heart failure. Turned out that they were too whakamā to tell us that they couldn't afford what was then a $3 prescription fee. So they quite rightly came back into hospital for a $700/night readmission. Middlemore started sending people home with packs of antibiotics & other common medications, preventing costly readmissions & improving people's health. If it was that obvious 20 years ago, there's no way it's not still a problem now. Health care is so broken, at so many levels, that reducing one barrier to care can only be a good thing."

It would be far more useful if we could have learned from that & fixed the problem at the time.