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- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4These horror stories only happen to the regular middle class... if you are wealthy there are ways to expedite the service that you get... you can find that in Canada and UK.
- onemidnight, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Don't for one moment believe the lying assertion made recently by a certain "prominent" individual that Canadians can receive medical care in our emergency rooms with only a forty-five minute wait. Having just sat in a Canadian hospital emergency waiting room for four hours with a son who was having a rather frightening reaction to an immunization, I can vouch for the dishonesty of that claim.
Another recent example of our "timely" Canadian health care was last month when a friend was actually prepped and on the operating room table, awaiting cancer surgery, when he was told the machine had broken down and they had to reschedule him for two months from now. Great news for a guy with only a few months to live.
Whatever you do America, don't adopt our system of socialized medicine. Where would our rich and our politicians go if you adopt our system? - onemidnight, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2So what? That's a short wait up here, where in most Canadian cities you can't even get a doctor, period.
Just check the stats for any major Canadian city and you will find that many of our doctors have gone to the USA.
Just had to reschedule a doctor's visit myself and the wait was until September. It's sure not roses up here either.
Oh, and by the way, you can schedule an MRI for your dog during the off hours, if you're willing to pay, but not for yourself or a family member. That would contravene the Canada Health Act, where everyone has the same right to wait. - Taquoshi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Albionshores has a point about the malpractice insurance. A dear high school friend is now our family physician. I know for a fact that he pays more in malpractice insurance than my husband yearly salary. In Philadelphia, there are a number of hospitals that will no longer deliver babies because of the high cost of malpractice.
However -- a friend of mine in England was born with a hole in his heart and a leaky heart valve. It was noted immediately. The corrective surgery for this didn't happen until he was four years old! An acquaintance here in the USA had a little boy about two years ago with the same problems. The first surgery was done at two weeks, the second at six months and the final third surgery at a year and a half.
Our state is considering providing health care for all children from prenatal to eight years old. There already is a plan available for newborns to five years old. The difficulty is finding practitioners willing to accept the state insurance because it involves alot of paperwork. Another problem that no one will talk about openly is the fact that the state doesn't have the financial or the medical resources to support such a program, but they are going to force the bill through anyway. Theoretically, it sounds wonderful, but practically, it's going to be a nightmare. - Swannie52, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Well said. Surely we can refine and improve our health care system to really be the best in the world?
- johnlabmonkey, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3I just tried to make an appointment for my kid's school physical and the next opening isn't until in October. Thank God we don't have an of the Canada-style socialized medicine in the good old US of A!
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3"As for the presidential primaries, it is also immoral to be talking about making 260 million people who can afford their own insurance suffer potential health care hardship so that 40 million can be signed on to a big collective waiting list. "
Well stated.
It is curious that G_dless liberals constantly try to guilt the rest of us (87% of the pop.) into thinking we should be supporting the remaining 13% of uninsured people. While I do believe in providing equal access, as well as at least basic care (even to the uninsured, which we already do pay for, BTW, thanks to the many emergency rooms across the country; the costs get passed along to the other patients, so ultimately we DO pay for the uninsured) to suggest a universal system is to ignore the pitfalls of such a system. It is also a slippery slope from there to socialism / communism which we know, as a system, simply does not work.
As for the new movie 'sicko', here's a little tidbit you might not have heard: the US is ranked 37th in the world as far as quality of healthcare. MM mentions that this is “just slightly ahead of Slovenia”, which comes in at 38.
Sounds pretty bad for the U.S., right?
Care to guess what country comes in at 39???
CUBA!!!!
That's right, Cuba! The same nation MM takes the veterans in order to get them the healthcare they supposedly cannot receive here!!!
To suggest that Cuban healthcare is superior to what we have in the states is not supported by the facts.
Google it! - scottvandam, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0 It's time people took the time to take care of themselves rather than the Government.
Isn't it interesting that as a culture we want to choose everything from the car we drive, clothes we wear, type of television or home we buy, but when it comes to our health we insist that we rely on the most inefficient organization that ever existed which is Big Government to handle our health. - vstecyk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It's not true that 40 million Americans do not have Medical services. They are just not insured, in the same way a number of people are foolish enough not to insure their vehicles. As for Medical services, it is illegal in ALL 50 States to deny anyone needed medical services (usually in Emergency Wards...hence the high cost of Emergency Ward medicine in both countries) It is however true that over 1 million people in Canada do not have access to a family doctor and those able to get admitted often spend considerable time in the Halls ( Hallway Medicine)
- notpc, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0As another Canadian has mentioned, our Canadian system is full of holes, controversy and extreme red tape pushed into place by bad management. The waiting times are so bad in emergency rooms, that I have become quite adept at first aid treatment and will do everything in my power to avoid hospital or doctor visits if I really don't require it.
In some parts of southern Ontario where I'm originally from, one cannot even get a family physician, as they are booked bell to bell and cannot accept new patients. Where does that leave the overtaxed citizen who is in need of help? Essentially, without health care.
Now that I live here in the US of A, yes, there are huge expenditures but we can get 1st class treatment and a family physician.
Insurance companies are notorious at reducing or rejecting claims which can be curbed by individual State legislation and an adjudicator to ensure citizens and residents are being fairly treated.
Perhaps a blending of the two systems is required. The situation will not correct itself in its current state and going in the opposite direction (Socialized medicine) will force taxes on all levels to increase wildly as in my native country.
Bottom line, do NOT let politicians or bureaucrats decide the best method; they'll only wreck any potential for improvement for all people. - Albionshores, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1They spend much less, get better, have private health care if you so wish....but why would you model yourself on Canada anyway?
Use the French system if you are going to pick a template...best in the world and they spend approximately half of the US spend per head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada#Canadian_health_care_in_comparison
Spend less, get more and if you like you can still go private - but if you do the policy will be significantly lower. The pharmaceutical-insurance company alliance is currently ripping. you. off. - Albionshores, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3The reason why healthcare cost s so much in the US is because insurance and pharmaceutical companies drive up the costs. Take the power from them and they will have to remain competitive. Take the man in Sicko who lost his finger tips. In a universal healthcare system that would get immediate priority. He'd be tens of thousand of dollars better off and have both his cut off fingertips back on his hand instead of just the one. It would have cost him nothing.
Hypothetically if he needed a hip replacement sometime in the future, yes there might be a waiting list, he may have to wait 6 months. 6 months is too long. But if there is no universal healthcare he might not get it at all. That's putting a man in a wheel chair, no more playing with his grandchildren in the park, for the rest of his life because he chose in his life to earn less money and to spend more time with his family. Under a universal system he at least gets the operation. BUT if he has money he can get the operation in less than 6 months and it will still cost him LESS than it would if the universal healthcare system weren't in place.
Simple rules of economics...provide a competitor for the private healthcare sector and they have to remain competitive and they no longer have the power to drive up prices. If you want to get better healthcare AND PAY LESS stop pharmaceuticals and insurance companies dictating costs.
Better still, remove corporate personhood and make them pay themselves for the vast majority of costs alongside other industries that damage your family's health, remove their subsidy, and create a truly free-market at the same time. - Albionshores, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1Thats the point....you get better healthcare if you're covered but you can have your cover removed at any time, insurance companies can just deem you unprofitable. 50 million Americans don't have health insurance. For those 50 million Cuba has a much better healthcare system. That is not saying the other 250 million Americans will receive less service but that they will have a safety net. You lose your job, you get ill, your business fails, your company cuts benefits....you will still get cover. For what you already spend you shouldn't be even in the same league as Cuba.
The title reads we all wait [in Canada]. They wait because they will eventually get treatment and if it's life threatening they will get it as a priority. If someone doesn't wish to wait for a few months for a cataract or a cartilage operation they can go private and be seen straight away, their choice - Americans don't get that choice. If you can't afford it, you don't get it - that's barbaric.
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