Why people overseas wouldn’t understand Breaking Bad
Posted on October 10, 2013 6:55 pm Amelia Hamilton, Rare Contributor
Unless you live under a rock somewhere, you’ve heard of Breaking Bad. The show is, in a nutshell, the story of Walter White, a chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer. In order to secure his family's financial future after he is gone, he turns to making and selling meth.
Lately, Facebook has been inundated with an insane cartoon of what the story of Breaking Bad would be if it took place anywhere but America. The gist of this bizarro world cartoon is that Walter White is diagnosed with cancer, and worries that it will bankrupt his family. The doctor tells him that, as a taxpayer, his healthcare will be paid by the government, asking what kind of a “barbaric” country would base healthcare on wealth. Walter goes back to teaching chemistry, knowing his healthcare is taken care of.
Obviously, the message is complete crap. The government isn't paying for his healthcare. As a taxpayer, he paid for it. Under socialized medicine, there is a much greater disparity between the healthcare for the wealthy and the healthcare for the hoi polloi. [Yes, people actually concerned about inequality ought to oppose socialized medicine, where the masses all get crappy crowded public health center care (DMVCare) while only the wealthy get the cream of the private sector.] When a person gets sick in a country with “universal healthcare,” they are paying huge taxes to cover it. So, the wealthy have enough money left over to get treatment in America or pay for private doctors, but the average citizen does not. Most people simply can't afford to pay for healthcare twice.
What about the treatment available? A quick search of the internet will give you story after story of horrifying conditions in medical centers, of unacceptable waiting lists in countries with centralized medicine. Sure, it might sometimes be less expensive to get public treatment abroad, but you're also much less likely to survive it.
Here are some quick statistics for you:
Every year, 60,000-85,000 people from other countries come to the United States for medical treatmentIn Britain, around 11% of the population pays for private healthcare. Guess which 11% it is. The 11% which can afford it.Survival rates for cancer are significantly higher in the United States than in Britain.In the UK, men have an 8% chance of being alive 5 years after diagnosis. In America,that number is 16.3%. Yes, more than double.Hospital waiting lists are at a 5-year high in the UK with 2.9 million people waiting for treatment.I guess the comic was right about one thing. Those outside of America wouldn't understand Breaking Bad. Walter White would have died on a waiting list in the first season.
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