Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

On a basic level, cos I don't know the ins and outs of the whole system.


Everyone has a Carte Vitale, which entitles you to a certain level of care and determines the level of charges.


Basic doctor visit is (last time I used the service) €22, of which about 70% will be refunded by the state if you are entitled.

Hospital and chemist charges work in a similar way, you pays your money and the 70% gets refunded. It is probably different for major stuff, hospital stays etc.

No one gets treated simply by turning up, you have to be entitled and contribute to the system.


edit:

A lot of people insure themselves for the 30% that isn't covered, charges vary. but if you have a long term problem, it no doubt pays to insure.

Not sure what happens with retired people.

thanks Max
that system certainly has merits, but i wonder how the unemployed or those on the breadline are meant to pay upfront and then no doubt have to wait a long time to get reimbursed
perhaps there's some sort of safety net for their ilk

I'm not sure how the system works for the unemployed/very poor, but it's probably coded into the carte vitale system under a safety net.

What you cannot do, is walk into france and demand treatment for nowt, they'll turf you out on your arse.

that said, on one of our cycle trips, one of us veloistes came a cropper and was patched up by the local pharmacist who refused payment

It is grand time that safety slots !.. were added to train platforms so that there is a lip under the platform all the way along where passengers board, so that in the event of a trip or fall a person and helpers can just crawl into, so that they cannot be hit by passing trains and when the train has passed they can climb back on to the platform .....this is not too difficult to realise and could be integrated into new stations being refurbished.....for HS2 : this should be a must do.....

You have to have been a French resident for a while, and have contributed to their social security system, to get access to their health system via a Carte Vitale. I think it's 4 years, but I might be wrong.

It means that ex-pats (and immigrants to France in general) have to purchase top-up medical insurance until they qualify for the carte which typically costs around £3k pa for a middle-aged couple and pre-existing conditions are excluded.

On the plus side, GP visits are cheap (around 25 €) in most towns, although medical centre and ambulance costs in ski resorts are horrifically expensive. I had to be recovered off a mountain in Val d'Isere several years ago, and the ride on the blood wagon (that's a stretcher, towed by a pisteur) and the x-rays in the local medical centre cost 600 €. They confiscated my new Rossi twin tips as a deposit until we produced the insurance certificate.

€ 600 for that is damn good value if you ask me ..... the guy who took your skis as deposit would prob rather have kept them!

Cyners,

It wasn't so much the medical aspect that was expensive. From memory, that only represented about 200 € in itself, and that included a brace for my leg and some painkillers. It was the 5-minute jaunt off the hill, and the 2-minute ride in the ambulance, that cost the bulk of the money.

Pay for a 5 minute ride in an ambulance and some medical attention in the USA and you'll see expensive .

hils - you could always have walked - rotfl

Any fundamentalist investors on here use Stockopedia?

If so, what do you think to it?

Hils

When you stuffed your knee in France, why didn't you get it fixed on your Medical Insurance, (instead of coming home and having to wait a while and then having to pay for it privately outside of insurance)?

As well as the financial consideration, one way of thinking about 'it', might tell you that the 'knee experts' are near to the ski hills and more experienced at 'doing it', sorta kinda. And medical care from French hospitals is damn good too. In fact, it's tons better than that in the UK.

Because, Doc, an ACL reconstruction is not something to take lightly.

When I did it all those years ago, they used a different reconstruction method with a higher rejection rate. In addition, the rehab is long and very hard work (about 9 months). It also depends upon your lifestyle. 99% of people can lead a normal life with a torn or ruptured ACL - mine has actually been absorbed into the body over the years and there's no longer anything there whatsoever. And you can build your surrounding muscles up to do the work of the ligament - I do a lot of swimming and gym work to target my quads - and I use a hinged brace to ski and play tennis.

It was only when we started moving to Switzerland for the winter that I thought it would be good to have a reconstruction. I was due to have it done last spring, but I missed that and I might just forget about it completely now. You can't fly or take long journeys for about 6 weeks after the op (DVT), and it's finding the time to have it done that's the problem.

I see.

I stuffed my knee up skiing too, you see. This was about 6 yrs or so ago and done in Deer Valley, Utah. It was the end of the day and I'd finished my run and for once, from the top of the hill right down to the bottom. I rotated my body around to the left side and reached round to unclip my skis from my boots and 'POP!' - something snapped!

I never have found out what it was. It was on the medial side of my right knee. One day to go and then it was 'home on the plane' so I didn't even go and get any treatment of any kind. I just kinda hobbled home with a 'supermarket bought brace' around my knee. Once home, after a few months, I ended up having an arthroscopy to tidy up the meniscus and was told that this was the thing , which had torn. But I didn't believe the consultant, really. I believed myself, that something else had been damaged too.

I now have a distorted knee and lots of pain - just as though the meniscus is 'mostly missing'. I now have a bit of a 'Baker's Cyst' swelling but it's not too big. I take 4 grms of paracetamol and 120mg of codeine every day and get by just taking things steady. I guess I really need a new knee joint. The pain killers work and I can just about walk a couple of miles, providing I sit down every so often.

I know that codeine lines your gut and so i go and have a 'colonic or two' every so often. I wouldn't want to end up like 'Elvis' did! ;-)

The qualifier for some kind of operation, is to do with 1. 'quality of life' being spoiled or alternatively, 2. pain.

Tip me off the cliff and I'll go and have 'whatever it is' done. The trouble is, I suppose, is that I don't go anywhere near to any cliffs, if you get my meaning. In fact, metaphorically speaking, I stay well away from them! And also a day turns into a week, turns into a month, turns into a year, etc.

But anyway, that's why I'm interested in your knee problem and also your attitude to effecting a repair.

I'm not too fussed about 'health professionals' either, if the truth be known.

I certainly wouldn't want to live off painkillers everyday because my lifestyle was being affected in the manner you describe, Doc.

Personally, I'd get an MRI scan done on it so that I knew precisely what was wrong. At least then you'd be able to make a balanced decision on how to future manage the situation, rather than being reliant upon self-diagnosis and internet remedies.

Cameron outside No 10 reminded me of Tom Brown's School Days with Dodgy Dave playing the role of Flashman in his adolescence.

His denigration of Miliband will appeal to his camp followers, but not to any of the non-committed voters who will see him as arrogant and self interested.

The sneering belongs to himself and cohorts.
=======

Just watched Osborne twist and turn in an interview.

I am not sure which is nastier piece of work, or I think is the most consummate liar, but think George is a perfect acolyte for Cameron and the NASTY PARTY.

========

How low will the tories sink to in order to stay in power?

Fred.

Where do you get the nasty party tag from?


I'll let you into a great truth.


None of the party leaders would cross the road to piss on you if you were on fire, none of them!

ANDREW WHITAKER
12:22Monday 30 March 2015
45
HAVE YOUR SAY
GORDON Brown has accused the SNP of being “willing accomplices of Tory austerity”, as he hit back at the nationalists at the start of Labour’s election campaign in Scotland today.

Mr Brown launched a dramatic pledge by Scottish Labour to spend an additional £800 million in Scotland on the NHS, in an attempt to reclaim the social justice mantle from the SNP.

The former prime minister said the election “not only about constitutional change”, as he set out a pledge from Scottish Labour to tackle youth unemployment and poverty.


In what he has dubbed “the social justice election”, Mr Brown said when Scots look at which is the best party to tackle inequality they would see that Labour is the party of social justice and fairness.

Mr Brown, speaking in Glasgow, revealed Treasury documents, which he said showed the SNP government has accepted Tory plans for “zero additional spending” to tackle austerity over the next year.

Mr Brown said: “This election is not only about constitutional change but about the social changes and the economic changes that are urgently needed to start the day after the election – the desperate need to create more jobs, improve the NHS, tackle the scandal of poverty in our midst and reduce inequality now.

“In the coming year, the Tories and the SNP have exactly the same policy. At a time when the need is urgent and action to end Tory austerity is required now – and despite all the SNP promises - they will both - Tories and SNP together - do absolutely nothing more.

“Far from being the fearless defenders of Scotland, these documents reveal the nationalists as the willing accomplices of Tory austerity.”


46 comments

Has anyone (including Brown) actually seen these "Treasury documents" he refers to, or are we expected just to take his word for it that they exist?

Did he explain exactly how he has obtained any such documents from the Treasury and should we be concerned regarding the security in that establishment?


I see another enormous round of cuts to the Armed Forces will take place AFTER the election, bringing the total down near an astonishing 50,000.

This brings them into line with the other European Lands who are preparing to form a "Euro Army". The Germans and French have already begun amalgamating units.

Why is the Scottish media so quiet on the matter?

What will the Scottish unionists make of it?

Will they expect their Labour heroes to object? I suppose they will have to wait until London HQ tells them what they are supposed think of it.


Has the Scotsman forgotten just how discredited Gordon "Bigot" Brown is?

This imbecile brought the British economy to it's knees.

The first thing he did was sell off our Gold reserves, costing the country Billions, while destablising the Gold market at the same time.

As for a labour "Pledge", even the most cringing of forelock tugging Scottish unionists don't take that seriously, do they ?


We've heard it all before Gordon. Your party had the opportunity to bring "social justice" to the country but your greed got the better of you.

YOU sold our gold reserves below market value. YOU presided over the Bank collapse and merger fiasco.

Stop treating us with contempt.


Word is that Scottish Labour have given up and are concentrating on saving their "safest" seats.

So, Mother was right. People who tell lies get found out eventually.


Another sermon from "No more boom and bust" Brown

Nor would you, if you knew what I look like.

==-=-=-=

Theresa May described the tories as the Nasty Party some years ago.

I think it was at a party rally and it didn't go down well with some at the time!

Ask the waiter!

Good advice , when you feel the urge to comment on Fred's postings or the paid morons on the ADVFN bb

George Bernard Shaw's advice. The playwright, journalist and founder of the London School of Economics once said:

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."