TOPIC:

It is. Tragic really. They are so aggresive here too with getting money from you, it seems we have to fight for everything and the powers that be make so many errors.

The Gvt are currently attacking junior adrs who went on strike yesterday for the 1st time since the 1970s, they are demoralised and leaving the NHS in droves.

I wonder if we will be insurable age 50+ with HepC on our record?

There will be a two-tier system, basic health care for the poor with long waiting lists etc etc and the rich will just pay for private health insurance.

LG - Actually, there has been a two-tier system for a long time now. You won't discover this unless you want treatment for something which has a long waiting list, ie. rationing except that you are given an end date ( which can be put back as the date approaches).
For example, try getting a knee op or a hip replacement.

I did one time get a knee op via private insurance because of the long NHS wait list, and it was a real eye opener. It was all done and over with within a few weeks. The day that I first met the private consultant I also got all the tests, xrays, etc at the same time. No running back and forwards to the hospital for multiple appointments for tests. Just like going through a well-oiled machine with tea and biscuits as well. This same consultant also worked within the NHS, so ultimately my operation would have been the same on the NHS, but the overall ease of the experience was like night and day.

For our American friends I probably should explain that UK health insurance does not normally include the cost of drugs self- administered at home, which is different to the US. There are some exceptions, notably cancer drugs, but not hepC. So UK private health insurance is not much good for hepC. It will of course work for treatments you might need in a hospital, for which the underlying cause is hepC.

As far as UK private health insurance goes, it is getting increasingly expensive to get the kind of coverage that would be any good to you. When I was researching going to an Indian International hospital for hepC treatment I also got an eye opener, re the state of the art facilities, the superb training of some of the doctors, and the very affordable prices for all this. I think there are some instances where going to India might be the best option for treatment rather than either the NHS or UK private insurance - dental treatment for example, or anything which has a long wait list for which you feel you cannot wait. Of course, you need to be well enough to travel.

dt

Yes, I agree DT, except the gap between the two-tier system will become wider and wider with less and less treatments and medicines available for those on the lower tier.

Also agree re India, although affordable to many of us, not necessarily affordable for all in India. Inequality looms darkly here, there and everywhere but when it concerns accessible healthcare it is more of a crime.

Inequality looms darkly here, there and everywhere but when it concerns accessible healthcare it is more of a crime.

Inequality is a crime, period, and nowhere more than India which still practices the caste system, condemning people of low caste by virtue of their birth to be on the bottom rung of society.

Now we have the world economy struggling and the ones on the lower rungs struggling the most, such that this issue is front and centre with the US electorate in the run up to the presidential election, which will have vast repercussions on all of us in the rest of the world.

I think you are right LG. The current trends in healthcare in the UK are going nowhere good.

dt

Life isn't fair. It never was, and never will be. Unless we go to a one-world government, then it still won't be because of corruption. There would be the rulers, and the peasants. Good luck sourcing meds then.
The government CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT.
In the US we have
1. Govt schools.
2. Amtrak
3. Public housing. ( and there are still multitudes of homeless everywhere).
4. The US mail.
5. The DMV.

Yeah, the LAST thing I want the government to control is my healthcare.

Like I've said all along to the government: If you let people charge anything they want for life-saving medicine, I mean you pay or die kind of medicine, then let me import an alternative and don't try to stop me because you say its not safe for me to take. Dead people don't need drugs.
M

Medical treatment should not be denied to poor people.
The fundamental question: What is more important, corporate profits or peoples' lives?
If the government can't afford to treat it's vets and poor, then the price of the treatment is too high.

When a discussion like this is started, it is very difficult to avoid going down the road of questioning the system wherein it can happen in the first place. It is right to question that system, but I note that it is also how these discussions seem to get bogged down in the mire of political disagreement. Political organisation has been discussed since the time of Plato's "The Republic" and we still don't have a Utopia on this earth, so we are unlikely to find the answer here within a few posts. It's difficult. I agree with all the points of view expressed. That's how difficult and contradictory the subject is. Meanwhile there's still the matter of getting the meds to the people who need them. I don't know how to square that circle but I think some people here are doing a pretty good job of it. I usually like to try and see the big picture but sometimes the big picture just ain't helpful.

dt

A UK study has reviewed data from other trials to investigate benefits of increased coffee consumption in relation to cirrhosis risk. A significant participant number of >400k and shows a strong correlation between increasing coffee consumption by 2 cups per day and reduced risk.

hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com.au/2016/...sk-of-cirrhosis.html

.......off to grind some more beans!

Damn! Something I enjoy that I CAN drink!!!

Now this is enough to make me want a stiff drink.....

www.wzzm13.com/news/investigations/13-on...to-get-cure/43871938

Excellent report.

So here we have it again. The hepC cure is $900 in India, on the news. I can understand if a lot of people have not heard of fixhepc, but is there really anybody in a first world country who still has not heard that the cure is $900 in India?
So where are the fleets of medical charter flights going out to India? I am at a loss to understand it.
dt

America:
Land of the timid.
Home of the brainwashed.
What happened to us??
I'm right there with you dt......These people need to get their collective heads out of those dark, smelly, humid, hot holes. Clean the dingle-berries out from behind their ears and get their butts in gear. If they're are waiting on the government, insurance or Gilead to come to their rescue, they will be waiting for a while. Hell, people are shipping great quality generics to peoples' doorsteps for $1-2000.
I just don't understand.
M

I think there are people behind the scenes working very hard to get media attention - Not so easy to get mainstream media time when authorities like (eg) the Department of Health who would rather portray all HepC sufferers as ill due to a 'lifestyle choice' and therefore undeserving of any sympathy. Each little TV interview and press report has been achieved and won with the sheer hard work and efforts of those advocates that care and mainstream media is what gets public (and therefore patient) attention. The good news is, more influential & powerful people are now working behind the scenes, so there 'should' be more publicity.

Keep an eye out for Newsnight in the UK tomorrow night, hopefully there'll be one such example. I say 'hopefully' because with Newsnight, even if something is scheduled to go out in advance, that days news could cancel it out if they think it's deserving;
and lets face it, this Gvt have a penchant for bossing the BBC about to suit their political aims, so let's hope David Camerons 'adventures in Europe' don't scupper well laid plans. Fingers crossed hey

2/17/16

hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2016/02/...se-uncommon.html?m=1

hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2016/02/...possible-by.html?m=1

hepatitiscnewdrugs.blogspot.com/2016/02/...g-community.html?m=1