Bad Fucking
There’s an entire book on Bad Fucking (rhymes with booking), but it’s neither a treatise on awkward sex nor a recap of the horrible buggering PZ Myers gave to Michael Shermer. In reality, it’s a crime thriller set in a real life town in Austria. For the record, the good folks in Fucking are aware that their name causes some consternation in the English speaking community, but to quote their mayor, whose devotion to Fucking knows no bounds:
“everyone here knows what it means in English, but for us Fucking is Fucking—and it’s going to stay Fucking.”
An understandably popular book with foreign tourists, the title also succinctly summarizes the state of American health care. Just how bad a fucking the citizens in the US are getting from the medical services community, even in the wake of the much vaulted Obamacare “improvements”, are highlighted in the pictures shown below.
Beyond Bad Fucking
These pics were grabbed from Al Stefanelli’s Facebook timeline.
The picture above was accompanied by an explanation that this is an unidentified bug bite (spider?) of a friend of Al’s who didn’t see a need to go to the doctor. In lieu of actual healthcare services Al decided to post this picture as a call to the Facebook community in an attempt to secure a proper diagnosis.
The Truly Fucked, Day Two
This is a followup picture from Al Stefanelli’s anonymous friend, taken a day or two later, showing the advancing infection. The fellow in question has STILL not sought medical evaluation at this point, but makes a statement to Al that he might go to the emergency room later if it doesn’t get better.
Socialized Medicine in Europe
My European readership will likely not understand the situation this poor guy probably finds himself in. Your average European would immediately go to their local doctor to have (what is a suspected venomous spider bite) looked at by professionals. Everybody has good insurance and isn’t worried about losing a day’s wages or paying the thousand dollar minimum charge a doctor in the US is going to slap on you for anything more debilitating than what a $25 pharmacy prescribed aspirin tablet will cure.
Socialized Medicine in America
As documented in the photos above, Facebook is the first line of defense in the new paradigm of “socialized” medicine in the US, and even that assumes you have a friend with internet access, a camera, and the compunction to go out of their way to assist you. It’s a good thing all Americans have another “option” at their disposal should Facebook fail to offer a cure.
The Emergency Caveat
Spider bite guy might not have that $1000 laying about and there are better than even odds he doesn’t have insurance at all, which is where the EMERGENCY SERVICES figure into the equation. The only place in the US where you can’t be turned down for services due to lack of money or insurance is the emergency entrance.
Before they have to admit you (by law), there has to be plenty of evidence that you are truly and seriously fucked. They only have to admit you if there is a true emergency, so spider bite guy has to wait until gangrene sets in before he can get it taken care of. From the look of the rapidity of the progression of that infection, I’d give it about a week before they need to clear a room for him in ICU or the morgue.
Enjoy.
The Tim Channel 
Yeah, you could get an appointment with the British National Health Service for a spider bite, assuming you could convince them first that spiders bite people. Probably, if you complained enough, you could get one within the same calendar month.
That sounds a helluva lot better than in the US, where you’d literally (and legally) have to wait until you were on death’s door to see a doctor if you’re one of the majority of folks with no health insurance at all. OTOH, I don’t really consider England to be European. They were swinging off George Bush’s Fake WMD balls like spider monkeys on crack IIRC. Not the brightest bunch. Enjoy.