UK Healthcare

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Anyway, yes I was scared of US dentistry costs as I thought they might take a K off me if I lost a crown - but apparently it isnt any more than the UK and so I am quite prepared to believe its often cheaper...

Oh I'm not sure about that! I had a terrible experience with an NHS dentist so went private the last time I needed treatment in the UK. I had a crown put in for 200 English pounds. My husband recently got a crown put in over here in the US - $600. Maybe his was some sort of ultra-platinum deal or something but it definitely was more. This also did not include the initial $7000 estimate to bring his English teeth to standards acceptable to the American dentist.

[Captain Oates 911]

At least as a Brit, if you needed a new ticker or something and your insurance company finds a way of ducking out, and wont pay a quarter mill, you can always come back to the UK and get fixed up. I have seen posts about the immorality of that, ( a lot of moralising goes on) and they say I should volunteer to stay in the U.S and lose my home and pension and savings in those circumstances. However, my past dealings with the NHS are miniscule and I have been paying into the system since 1964 so I am due a few sticking plasters I reckon....

I think we are of a very close age and I'm with you on that one. I've paid my NI since I was 17 for 42 years and whatever I might need from the UK health system I have more than contributed for.

Wondered why you talked so much sense - you are an old git like me !

actually we are a heck of a lot younger than clint eastwood and I am many years younger than mick jagger and even younger than david bowie so some fresh fruit and veg in florida and all that health care provided by my young wife's employers should keep me bugging people for some decades yet hopefully - unless I get shot for suggesting that the earth is more than 6,000 years old -oops there I go again.

Alan

[Captain Oates 911]

Anyway, yes I was scared of US dentistry costs as I thought they might take a K off me if I lost a crown - but apparently it isnt any more than the UK and so I am quite prepared to believe its often cheaper...

Oh I'm not sure about that! I had a terrible experience with an NHS dentist so went private the last time I needed treatment in the UK. I had a crown put in for 200 English pounds. My husband recently got a crown put in over here in the US - $600. Maybe his was some sort of ultra-platinum deal or something but it definitely was more. This also did not include the initial $7000 estimate to bring his English teeth to standards acceptable to the American dentist.

$7k for nashers ! jeez, I think I would spend that on a nice motorbike and gum it through my remaining years....

The salary of dentists plus liability insurance must be driving up prices - plus the demand of everyone wanting that special 'sparkle'...

Different standards indeed ! I can believe it.

I knew a lady in Colorado who insisted on showing me her teeth when they had just been done - they were fantastic teeth but she opened her mouth wide and pushed them as close to my eyes as possible so I could admire them... They were absolutely perfect ! Never seen nashers like that outside the US. It was like being attacked by a hungry grand piano . If thats the only culture shock I am going to have then I will be ok but I was quite taken aback

7k ? hum, 7k = 3500 gbp -- at £3 for fish and chips thats say 1167 times fish and chips - 52 weeks in a year - thats free fish and chips and mushy peas every friday for 22 years !

and you dont really need teeth to eat em... or a pint of Timothy Taylor's fine championship ale every friday night for 30 years !

Now do I want to sit at home for 30 years flashing those sparkling tussy pegs and making the cat blink, or go down the black bull and get my free pint for 30 years...

its all decisions

[Lansbury 19]

$7k for nashers ! jeez, I think I would spend that on a nice motorbike

Teeth or a HOG without a shadow of a doubt a nice used HOG

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

and you dont really need teeth to eat em... or a pint of Timothy Taylor's fine championship ale every friday night for 30 years !

Now do I want to sit at home for 30 years flashing those sparkling tussy pegs and making the cat blink, or go down the black bull and get my free pint for 30 years...

its all decisions

Well, I did suggest we extract them all and replace them with a wooden set to save money........

[Captain Oates 911]

and you dont really need teeth to eat em... or a pint of Timothy Taylor's fine championship ale every friday night for 30 years !

Now do I want to sit at home for 30 years flashing those sparkling tussy pegs and making the cat blink, or go down the black bull and get my free pint for 30 years...

its all decisions

Well, I did suggest we extract them all and replace them with a wooden set to save money........

Yes but it would have to be a nice wood - Georgia white oak. When I was in Boston looking round the 'USS Constitution' battleship, they explained that it was made from Georgia white oak and it is springy and the British cannon balls bounced off. At the end of the tour, the guide said - 'Do you all know why we were able to beat the British ? '

I shouted 'because their cannonballs bounced off ?' and he said ' NO ! it was because we loved freedom and we were fighting for it ' and the crowd applauded

Carolyn dragged me away before I said something else like 'cheating Georgia white oak' .

Anyway bike versus teeth ? we now know why hells angels have no front teeth - it was a choice thing.

Well I have my blocked left ear appointment on Friday - they said they would not see me unless I had been pouring oil into it for 2 weeks.

I reckon it was an infection as every time I poured oil in it got painful and worse (my detractors would say it was pouring out the other side). It's a lot better now - they know they can save 80% of appointments by putting you off a couple of weeks until it mends itself.

When I was a kid, my mother would 'send word' to the doctor, and a couple of hours later he would walk into the house without knocking and treat you in 2 minutes and walk to the next house.. We still had ration cards for food then, but the Doc was able to do that - now in the midst of our affluence, it is not longer possible.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Yes but it would have to be a nice wood - Georgia white oak. When I was in Boston looking round the 'USS Constitution' battleship, they explained that it was made from Georgia white oak and it is springy and the British cannon balls bounced off. At the end of the tour, the guide said - 'Do you all know why we were able to beat the British ? '

I shouted 'because their cannonballs bounced off ?' and he said ' NO ! it was because we loved freedom and we were fighting for it ' and the crowd applauded

Carolyn dragged me away before I said something else like 'cheating Georgia white oak' .

I think I need to go find something to clean off my morning tea off my monitor

[Lansbury 19]

Yes but it would have to be a nice wood - Georgia white oak. When I was in Boston looking round the 'USS Constitution' battleship, they explained that it was made from Georgia white oak and it is springy and the British cannon balls bounced off. At the end of the tour, the guide said - 'Do you all know why we were able to beat the British ? '

I shouted 'because their cannonballs bounced off ?' and he said ' NO ! it was because we loved freedom and we were fighting for it ' and the crowd applauded

and there's me thinking it was because the French pulled their butts out of their fire and saved them when we had them almost beat.