Some people don't know that and/or they need note for child's school to keep
them home or for them to stay home with child or for them, if they're too sick
to work.
Get in touch with your federal rep (to use some research funds) for educational
radio and TV campaign
And a phone line manned by nurses to answer questions for such problems.
J - hoping this nasty slamming of one or the other, will finally end.

Good grief!  How can you say that when you also just posted this:

-begin quote-
Ordinary Americans go to the doctor, pay a very small co-pay to the doc
and
the pharmacy. PLUS we have choices where we can get over healthcare, it
is
wonderful.  When I had cancer, the treatment itself  has no copays!
Ditto
for surgery....and I could choose from any hospital world wide ( that
was
the policy I had at the time). People who choose self employment, don't

budget for healthcare, if they did it is pre taxed dollars meaning that
it
reduces your taxes many times the deduction washes out the cost of the
taxes
you pay. Many self employed people don't pay taxes, since there is not
a
money trail. I figure it out last night the case posted the man makes a
good
living 80K.....probably doesn't declare all the money he brings in, so
his
80K is like 120k to some one who draws a paycheck like myself. Yet he
choose
not to pay health premiums.....I know my people with disabilities who
work
full times jobs with benefits.  If they were truly poor, the health
care
would be free.
I worry, my son is going to England for College, if the NHS is as
horrible
as Australia, I worry since my daughter was denied treatment for a
sprained
ankle and now has to have surgery. Luck, my health insurance will fly
him
home ( does the NHS do that for it's citizens?). Any injury how small
he is
going to hop a plane back to the United States.
-end quote-

True, I'm not following how medical payments made with pre-tax dollars
result in a deduction many times over.  And yes I do budget for health
care & very carefully I might add.  And my tax liability is not wiped
out by that by a long shot.  Most other employers, too, deduct
insurance premiums as a cost of doing business.  I operate as a C Corp.
just like IBM  & am subject to the same rules & audits.  It's a lot of
work.  Every dollar I bring in is reflected on my returns & every
deduction I take is legal & substantiated.

But more to the point, I fail to see how your negative views of
self-employed people or your daughter's sprained ankle relate to cancer
any more than Em's treatment & insurance concerns did.  When I get to
know people (through cancer or whatever brings us together),  I often
begin to care about them personally as I do for Emily & others here.
We are multi-dimensional, compassionate human beings & thank God for
that.

And if I happen to be the American you  mentioned obliquely, I hope you
are alone in forgetting that my husband died of cancer only 5 months
ago.  His life is still honored & celebrated here - & his death
mourned.

Figgertoes

I would say yes and no, it depends on your perspective.  It certainly is a
cancer support group and incredibly useful for finding help and advice but
it could also be a group that provides a useful distraction from dealing
with cancer.  I remember when my Tony had his GBM, he absolutely longed for
people to talk about every day stuff, he lived with his cancer every moment
of every day and if someone struck up a conversation about something other
than cancer it sidetracked him, if only slightly, from his pain.

You also get to "know" people on here and care about what happens to them so
you are also interested in what goes on in their lives and want to offer
help "as a whole".

I think that using the OT in the subject line is a good idea because it is
an indication to members about the subject matter.

Hugs

Alayne