I do not understand volunteer firefighters in America

[frenchie]

Me too, Jimbo.

Hope I haven't given the impression, that I'm out to offend anyone.


I just think that, as Americans, we can do better than what we have right now (and of course, better than what the English or the Canucks have).

But we need to look at what's actually there, not what we wish was there or what bought&paidfor politicians tell us is there.

I've spent a lot of time digging, on this, trying to find some actual facts & hard numbers, wading through the lies BOTH sides in Washington spread...

I'm just trying to share some of what I've found.



Bottom line, IMHO: both sides are lying to us.

The system is broken - and this "reform" won't fix it.


.

[Ian Gills]

Well, I am glad we all agree that volunteer firefighters are not the way to go.

[frenchie]

Originally Posted by Cookie

Frenchie, trust me, you get cancer, get it here in the states. There are far too many variables of why, to cite.

Sorry, I missed your reply, in-between my two posts, only just saw it. Don't want you to think the next post was my answer, or that I was ignoring it. Just missed it, guess you posted while I was typing.


Not sure what to say to that... except that it depends on the State you live in. I live in New York - we're the bottom of the heap for US survival rates. Close to the bottom for all of North America. Well below some of the Canadian Provinces, like British Columbia for example.

Still better than some other Canadian Provinces - Nova Scotia might as well be part of England.


no offence, Ian.

[Cookie]

Their are so many differences too many to number, but one of the biggest are the trials. Those trials are more important than one can imagine. We have access first off to drugs newly, on the market, our waiting time on treatment is much much shorter than other countries, research that is done in our country is really Frenchie one of the best if not the best, they are also, associated with universities that far outweigh most others in other countries; grants that are given for research are huge, very generous, and when you put all of this together, not to fail to mention, the US has the best cancer specialists it spells success. Too many think that the doctors order testing in order not to be sued, if you really know anything about cancer, you would see how much of an error this is. Cancer is a multitude of diseases and the constant testing, CT's every 3 months for a period of time, usually 5 years, MRI's once or twice annually,for years; PET/CTs every 3 or 6 months, blood work done routinely, their are very important reasons for this, medical reasons, in order to give the patient the best possible care so they can continue on living.

Treating stage one is so different than treating stage 4. Also, how many times the groups were treated. For instance, I have been diagosed and treated 5 times, spending 5 years, 3 months total out of 11 years on chemo. I am afraid to tell you this, but some other countries would had stopped treating me.

Cancer is a very complexed disease. Their are too many variables to cite here to convince you that the USA is the best place you want to be if you unfortunately, come down with it. New York, Frenchie? You have the best, the very best at your door... those survival rates you cited Frenchie doesn't mean to much, too much is missing to make it worthy. Frenchie, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is one of the best in the world.

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by Ian Gills

Well, I am glad we all agree that volunteer firefighters are not the way to go.

I actually agree with you Ian. I would pay higher taxes. It is clearly, one of the most important jobs and it is volunteer, even I don't understand it Ian, and I was born here.

[Scuba_Dave]

Originally Posted by frenchie

Leaving out the poor countries, looking at just the three we've been looking at... here's some relevant indicators, give us an idea of the availablity & quality of prenatal care:

percentage of births attended by skilled personnel (%):
100 for Canada,
100 for the US,
99 for the UK.

newborns with low birth weight(%):
6 for Canada,
8 for the US,
8 for the UK.

maternal mortality rate (per 100k):
7 for Canada,
11 for the US,
8 for the UK.


Gotta go, now, running late...

I'd be curiuos if they break it out by age group
A lot of grandparants having kids......like me

[frenchie]

Cookie -

I agree with you, completely, that we lead the world in research.

We also have the best quality of care in the world. Nobody can make a reasonable argument otherwise. When the world's richest & most powerful people need an operation, where do they go? USA. People apply to our medical schools, from all over the world... with good reason.

Hell, my dad came to the Mayo (in a last-ditch attempt), when he was dying of myelodysplastic syndrome.

We have the best medical care in the world - which is why it's so frustrating, that we have such a 2nd-rate delivery system.

We have the best medical care in the world, and we spend way more than anyone else... why don't we have the best outcomes?

We should be head of the pack, in all those statistics I gave earlier: longevity, infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate, cancer mortality rate... yet Canada manages to beat us, on all of those, year after year after year... while spending 2/3rds what we do per capita. HUH???




The fact that my State has the very best research & treatment facility, just proves it: how come we have the worst 5-year survival rate, and one of the worst cancer mortality rates, in the country?

[frenchie]

Originally Posted by Scuba_Dave

I'd be curiuos if they break it out by age group
A lot of grandparants having kids......like me

No, they don't. I can look at older stats, if you want, might tell us something - it's a relatively recent trend, right?

In the meantime... congratulations!


edit: the database only goes back to 1990, when the infant mortality rates were 7 for Canada, 10 for us. Nowadays they're at 5, we're at 7... looks like the relationship is pretty constant.

lemme dig around, see what else I can find, in other places...




2nd edit: the average age of mother at birth is 27.6 here, 29.7 in Canada, 28.6 in the UK.



3rd edit - I thought that might just a reflection of higher teen pregnancy rates, or something, maybe...? So I looked some more... Using numbers from the CDC and from Statistics Canada, and 10 minutes on Xcel...


Births to women over the age of 35 represented 17.05 % of Canadian births, 14.33 % of American births.

Broken down:

USA CAN

35-40 15.08% 11.69%
40-45 2.81% 2.47%
45-50 0.14% 0.15%
50 & up 0.01% 0.01%

[Cookie]

Frenchie, you got this all wrong.
The US has the best survival rates. Their is so much more to it than what you are reading and digging up, trust me on this Frenchie. You know plumbing, Frenchie, I know cancer.

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by Ian Gills

This is a big one and annoys the crap out of me.

Why aren't all firefighters in America salaried professionals like everywhere else in the world?

The amount of times I drive down a street and see people with buckets fund-raising for these guys. It makes me sick.

Step up taxpayers!

What am I missing here?

I got an idea, reduce the pay of the policemen and all politicians, and pay the firemen warmly. ( no pun intended, lol.)

[frenchie]

Originally Posted by Cookie

Frenchie, you got this all wrong.
The US has the best survival rates. Their is so much more to it than what you are reading and digging up, trust me on this Frenchie. You know plumbing, Frenchie, I know cancer.

Actually, I don't know that much about plumbing...





...point taken. I get a little obsessive sometimes.

[Peanut9199]

Originally Posted by Cookie

Seriously, most of the times so many different stations show up, from different locations, it depends on how bad the fire is.

I didn't know this until i was watching a movie depending on how many firehouses are called tells you what "Alarm" it is.
So if 4 stations are called to responed to a fire it would be a "4 Alarm" fire.
I though that was interesting.

Originally Posted by jimbo

Drug companies spend BILLIONS developing new drugs, and in this country, we pay through the nose for them, BECAUSE WE HAVE THE MONEY....and they are then able to market those drugs throughout the world at much lower costs.

Also in the US each of State's agencies purchases it's own drugs, in Canada we buy in bulk and save on the cost of drugs (kinda like Costco).

[Scuba_Dave]

Look to the Homeland Ian

http://www.voluntaryworker.co.uk/vol...e-service.html

[Cookie]

Originally Posted by frenchie

Actually, I don't know that much about plumbing...





...point taken. I get a little obsessive sometimes.

You are not obsessive Frenchie, I just think facts should be right no matter if they are plumbing, remodeling, toilets, health, water heaters, that is all.

[frenchie]

I thought you were basically trying to tell me, not to lose the forest for the trees. That I'd lost my perspective, so obsessed on the weaknesses of our system, I was losing sight of the good things about it.

...now I'm confused.



...You were saying I posted wrong numbers?

...Which ones?

or was it something else...?


?

[Cookie]

Oh, Frenchie I just paid you a compliment, in saying you were not obsessive.

I don't want to catch any crap here over this stuff so, I watch what I say and still get it, lol.

Frenchie, to me it isn't worth arguing over, it suffices for me to say, that regarding cancer, which I do know about Frenchie, which I honestly wish I knew more about plumbing than it, that your chances of survival are much better in the US. I am speaking about all cancers, too. Money wise, it is the best bet too. We got so much free care for cancer, Saint Judes is one of them Frenchie.

All I was basically saying are those facts.

So, please simmer down, Frenchie.

[frenchie]

LOL... sounds like I had it right the first time.

Thanks for talking me down, Cookie.

[Cookie]

Honestly, Frenchie, I am not doing a thing, here.

[Cookie]

Well, I got to do an evaluation on a little boy with spina bifida, has a vp shunt, is ventilator dependent, is fed through a g-tube, and is on oxygen therapy. So, I got my hot ovaltine next to me and will be working on this for the rest of the night.

Have a good night Frenchie.

[cpio]

Dude,

I was one of those volunteer firefighters, and we did it for the township. The town
itself only had about 175 people, and the surrounding area was nothing but farmers.
You volunteered because you were related to most of them - a lot of inbreeding
you know. So if someone's house was burning, it was at leas a third cousin.