As a citizen of a big bad socialist country to the north ( :greenpbl: ), I'll chime in.
I freaking love my health care system. And I do mean love it. I never need to be worried about insurance or the hospital bill when I need care. I've been taken to the ER before, and I was treated first, then kindly asked for my health care card when it was okay to do so. My home province pays all of the hospital costs, and I don't see a single bill from the hospital. (Now, I did get an ambulance bill because I'm an out-of-province student in BC, and the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) doesn't cover out-of-province ambulance bills; but that's a hole in our system that needs fixing and not a problem with the system itself. Had I been in Ontario this wouldn't have happened.)
Here, you're treated based on how sick you are. In the US, it's much more about how much you can pay. There are also fewer preventative measures in the US, because, well they cost the patient. Here, such things like vaccinations, minor treatments or surgeries, will always be covered. It prevents the problem of someone passing-up something that will prevent a problem from getting far worse.
Another example. My father recently had a heart attack. He had to be taken to the ER at the local hospital (we're in a rural area) for immediate care, and then transported to the nearest city because that hospital had better facilities (that is, a cardiac care ward). That transport bill alone was probably pretty damn huge. He also had to have surgery overnight (yeah, he was in pretty horrible shape) while there. Then he was kept for about a week and some for observation, being moved to less intensive care when it was appropriate.
The thing is, not once did we ever have to even think of what all this cost. The province covered everything. That relief—that you don't have to worry about the bill for saving your or a loved one's life—is priceless. And it's the reason there would be rioting in the streets if our government ever dared to privatize our health care system.
And on top of all that, strangely enough, the US spends
more of it's GDP on health care than Canada does of it's GDP. That just makes no sense, because it means US citizens are already paying through the nose with taxes for a system that doesn't provide the benefits it should.
well, considering most medical associations from other countries that do have socialized health care have put out public messages almost begging the US government to not socialize our health care i'd have to venture a guess and say that it's not so great.
Like cloudwalker said, anyone can say anything. I simply don't belive you, nor can I understand why governments would say that. I suspect you're being had (the distortion of this issue by the American media by and large is deplorable). As I said, most of us love our health care system.
like the actress that died from i believe it was a ski accident in Canada. everyone involved, doctors, lawyers, hospital officials, police, and even several government reps who were reportedly pro social health care all went on record to say she probably would have been alive today if the accident happened in the US.
just research case studies like that. that's what i generally do when policy change is coming about. research as many case studies as you can and make a decision based on the facts about what works best for you and what doesn't.
If you ever took a science course in post-sec, you should know a little bit about stats. Case studies are the worst, most innacurate method of research. They are small, limited, and do not prove anything because they can't be applied to the population being sampled. A single case study doesn't prove anything; a large random selection of the population does, if a strong trend with a low statistical varience can be found.
And again, anyone can say anything. Link?
EDIT: Bloody hell, I'm being ninja'd here.
If the government is paying the bills, then some government bean-counter hack decides if and when you see a doctor or have a procedure. And if anyone thinks there won't be any rationing, they are simply deluding themselves, put the kool-aid down!
Who told you that? It's not true at all. :lmao: Here in Canada, the doctors are the ones who decide if you see a specialist, and when you see them depends on the severity of your condition. Got a malignant brain tumour? You can bet the farm that you're going to be seeing a neurologist and endocrinologist, and any other specialists you may need, in very short order. Not to mention being monitored much more closely until said tumour is removed.
And just to let you know we are currently paying about $450/month for a couple of procedures (one for the wife, one for our 4yr old daughter) we chose to have done last year that were not covered by our insurance. So we decided to pay for it out of our own pocket. We have had to sacrifice for it, but if the government was in control, we never even would have had the choice of doing them or not.
What procedure? Sounds like ******** (edit again: wow! the forum's software recognizes British words too!!! :lmao: ) to me.
It's true that in a socialized heath care system purely elective surgeries won't be covered, but that's entirely fair. I mean, you don't want your taxes to pay for someone's botox injections 'cause they don't like their laugh lines, right?
