On Healthcare and the status of personal freedoms

[Vittorio Giurifiglio]

So how are we looking in space in regards to the Communist (Damn Reds) Agenda, Does the Sol Union revolve around a single payer healthcare service? The shitty American system? Or some unholy hybrid of Civilized World, and America. Also what is the status of personal freedom, Does the Sol Union have surveillance? Does it have full rights and benefits of Interacial marriage? Are people able to blatantly own the filth that is firearms, Discuss

[Guest]

It evident that healthcare in SA space is not *free* like it is in Canada, as NanoTrasen provides full medical insurance to pay for medical bills, so that much is clear.

[Vittorio Giurifiglio]

It evident that healthcare in SA space is not *free* like it is in Canada, as NanoTrasen provides full medical insurance to pay for medical bills, so that much is clear.

Could be interperated as how it worked in most parts of the world, where employers provide insurance for the things the Gov't doesn't cover, like Dental, Genetic Repair, Etc.... Optometry

[Erik Tiber]

So how are we looking in space in regards to the Communist (Damn Reds) Agenda, Does the Sol Union revolve around a single payer healthcare service? The shitty American system? Or some unholy hybrid of Civilized World, and America. Also what is the status of personal freedom, Does the Sol Union have surveillance? Does it have full rights and benefits of Interacial marriage? Are people able to blatantly own the filth that is firearms, Discuss

I'm going to guess that there's basic public health insurance that everyone gets but only covers absolutely basic stuff, importantly not including cloning and probably some of the more advanced prostheses. You can also get employer-provided health insurance or buy it yourself, if you want more coverage.

I'm basically assuming that you can get the equivalent of modern-day medicare, but for the more advanced/expensive medicine you'll probably need to buy a plan or get one from your employer. Oh, and basic genefixing (just like removal of most genetic disorders plus some basic general improvements in physicality/intelligence) could be said to be subsidized in a manner similar to vaccinations, but such policies aren't always implemented fully out in the boonies.

I'm going to assume it has full interracial marriage, rights for various self-aware beings and legal precedent for dealing with currently-undiscovered species.

I personally would like it if their society had a different view towards the barriers between humans and animals. IE, given that you now have synthmeat and that cattle have probably been gengineered into just being limbless blobs of meat, kept alive by a brainstem and rudimentary organs (basically a meat-plant), you'll likely see stuff about, say, additional protections for certain types of animals. You now have synthetics with culture and aliens with culture. Maybe they gave certain rights to some of the more intelligent Earth-bound species like dolphins or chimps (just say the monkeys from monkey cubes are gengineered to be brain dead in order to comply with Sol law). NT could also probably use some legal loophole or other to get around dealing with that sort of law; alternatively, just say that those animal rights are just system-level laws in most of the primary systems, but do not apply to Biesel; this would basically help convey that Biesel is a bit of an unregulated 'wild west' place with fast money that plays fast and loose with the rules.

As for surveillance, you should totally go all-out Orwellian surveillance. Huge supercomputers devoted to monitoring and processing astronomic amounts of information. Everything being electronic pretty much, and thus tracked. The government having access to pretty much everyone's internet use. They can track everyone everywhere. Their only limitation is in processing the immense amount of data. I'd advise modeling the Sol Alliance's security laws off of those of the United States, including the part where you can go and kill your citizens without due process in certain circumstances, or military detainment without trial. Then model the surveillance apparatus off of the UK (with CCTV's everywhere) plus the US intelligence community (ESPECIALLY including the NSA at its absolute worst). Explain that this comes in the aftermath of some terrorist attacks, where someone released gengineered smallpox and killed a few thousand before it was fully contained, or various other terrorist attacks enabled by the increasing proliferation of biotech, and something or other to actually justify having such a huge level of surveillance.

The Orwellian status of the inner system could be a big part of why people emigrate to places like Tau Ceti. And perhaps there's simply an expectation that privacy is no longer the norm at all.

[Guest Marlon Phoenix]

This is a good question, and I spent a few minutes skimming across related aspects of the lore and the general theme to see what could make the most sense and be most interesting.

I'm going to say that in the Sol Alliance you get basic free healthcare when it's necessary, like the UK system, but anything else you shell out credits for or get insurance. Cloning isn't covered.

Nanotrasen provides comprehensive healthcare that isn't charged for by basis of it being really annoying from a gameplay perspective, so let's lore justify this and say it's one of the many reasons Nanotrasen has enough good will to get along with shadiness.

In the outer colonies, in space not under Sol Alliance control, it's whatever really. Elyra doesn't have socialized healthcare, and the fringe worlds would probably operate under basic medical assistance or whatever the Interstellar Aid Corps brought for them.

[Erik Tiber]

This is a good question, and I spent a few minutes skimming across related aspects of the lore and the general theme to see what could make the most sense and be most interesting.

I'm going to say that in the Sol Alliance you get basic free healthcare when it's necessary, like the UK system, but anything else you shell out credits for or get insurance. Cloning isn't covered.

Nanotrasen provides comprehensive healthcare that isn't charged for by basis of it being really annoying from a gameplay perspective, so let's lore justify this and say it's one of the many reasons Nanotrasen has enough good will to get along with shadiness.

This sounds super gr8 to me.

Suggestion: Their health plan is a large part of why people bother to work for such shitlers. Maybe include something or other about using this employee health plan as an opportunity to 'field test' certain medical treatments or something, along with something about kafka-esque contracts.

I have a suggestion for cloning and how it is treated; use life insurance as a model, then probably increase the annual cost by one or two orders of magnitude. This could include the cost of periodic (like annual maybe) backups.

You could call it "death insurance" or something. You could also totally include, as an alternative, emergency long-term cryonic storage as the cheaper alternative to cloning, or borgification.

Maybe include post-death payment plans or something for certain plans. Not sure. But the cost structure seems ideal for this sort of thing.

[Rusty Shackleford]

I've always gone on the assumption that the Nanotrasen employee health benefits are fukken great.

Prosthetic limbs, cloning, organ transplant, hell, even dental.

Not to mention that the super healing medicines and ultra fast cloning pods on the station are completely free to the crew.

I sorta think of it as the reason that employees can turn a blind eye to certain, "unethical" practices.

Also, why would the Sol Alliance provide universal healthcare? What are they, space communists?