Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Er is a huge issue i once heard if people would go to clinics etc you would cut the wait time down by 40%.
A few yeas ago I had some serious health problems that landed me in the ER several times over a period of a few months. I always noticed how many non-emergency patients there were waiting to see a doctor. It boggled my mind that these people would come to the ER, and not visit one of the many walk-in clinics you can find just about everywhere in the area. I also noticed that a sizeable portion of these non-emergency patients were immigrants who may not have had a family doctor and probably believed that the ER was the only place they could go for medical treatment. I think more needs to be done to educate recent immigrants (and everyone else who overuses the ER) about our health care system, and the role of walk-in clinics in treating patients with minor health problems who don't have a family doctor. More should also be done to connect those people who don't have a family doctor with a GP who is taking new patients. In fact, many walk-in clinics accept new patients, and one can find themselves a family doctor at a walk-in clinic quite easily. If you must, visit a few clinics until you find a doctor you like and trust.
So I totally agree that the ER is overused, and that hospitals that have a problem with too many non-emergency patients visiting for chest colds or fevers or minor infections should institute a policy where they refer those patients to nearby walk-in clinics so that only those who truly require ER treatment receive it.
About 10 years ago i had my gallbladder out it was a long wait but if i was in the States there is no way i would have been able to afford it.
I'm sure that if, for some reason, it was an emergency situation and not having your gall bladder out immediately would have compromised your health, you would not have had to wait more than a week for the surgery. Canadian hospitals use a triage system to prioritize those cases that are urgent, and those that can wait. However, if you have the money and don't want to wait, you can visit one of the for-profit medical centres that have popped up here and there for minor procedures. Or you can go to the US if you have lots of money and want the surgery done right away.
In my experience, friends and relatives who have required urgent surgery have not had to wait more than a few days, and the care they received was always top-notch. And I live in perhaps the busiest, most overburdened region for health care in the entire country (other than those very remote areas where there are few doctors and no hospitals. Remote First Nations communities are particularly affected by this).
I'm sure that if, for some reason, it was an emergency situation and not having your gall bladder out immediately would have compromised your health, you would not have had to wait more than a week for the surgery. Canadian hospitals use a triage system to prioritize those cases that are urgent, and those that can wait. However, if you have the money and don't want to wait, you can visit one of the for-profit medical centres that have popped up here and there for minor procedures. Or you can go to the US if you have lots of money and want the surgery done right away.
In my experience, friends and relatives who have required urgent surgery have not had to wait more than a few days, and the care they received was always top-notch. And I live in perhaps the busiest, most overburdened region for health care in the entire country (other than those very remote areas where there are few doctors and no hospitals. Remote First Nations communities are particularly affected by this).
I did not need urgent surgery as the gallstones were not that big and were still in the gallbladder if there was a tear in the gallbladder then i would have needed surgery asap.
As far as reforms to Canada's system which reforms do you see as being more likely to come?
Quote:
More than half of those polled, 54 per cent, said they thought the health-care system would be weakened if private for-profit health-care services were expanded. Another 28 per cent said they thought private care could make the system stronger, with eight per cent saying they didn't know...
During the healthcare debate in the U.S back in 2008 many were talking about a public option. Well I'm under the impression that if the U.S did go the medicare-for-all route wouldn't there be a need for a "private option" to ease the wait times that are known to come with a large public system? So priavte health care services will remain a part of any new public U.S system to some degree.
My experience with our healthcare system has been excellent. I've never had to wait, but I've also never had a serious health issue.
My experience with the system was with my grandmother, mother and father, as well as a close friend. Dad fell ill in the U.S. while on holiday. They mis-diagnosed him. He had good travel health insurance so the air ambulance back home was covered. Unfortunately that week of mis-diagnosis was not in his favour and he died.
My grandmother had several health issues. She never waited for anything.
My mother has had 2 brain tumours, both hips replaced, and breast Cancer. Again she received excellent care and never waited for ANY treatments.
My friend had throat cancer. Again no waiting, excellent care and is now cancer free.
One thing a lot of people forget about our system is how easy it is to use when ill. Very few forms, follow up care at home if needed ( this was the case after my mother's 2nd brain tumour, the friend who had throat cancer did get a couple of visits to check on him since he lives alone ).
In all these cases no one had to worry about what is covered what isn't. What specialist is with what insurer etc. The energy was focused on getting well.
Can this work in the U.S. It could, but it won't. It's too late for the U.S. I think. The brainwashing and lies told about the Canadian system have taken root down there....then there's this evil SOCIALIST thing they've got stuck in their brains.
As far as America's 45 million uninsured. I don't think the media and politicians do a good job of breaking down that number and giving clarity to it.
Here's a breakdown of that 45 million uninsured:
Quote:
Claim: Many of the uninsuredare young people who think they're invincible. The National Review Institute writes: "More than half of the uninsured are between 18 and 34 years of age, a group which has relatively few expensive health issues and for whom self-insuring (paying their own medical bills) makes sense."
Actually, only about 40 percent of the uninsured are between 18 and 34, according to the Census...
Claim: Many of the uninsured already are eligible for public coverage. That's true – NIHCM found that in 2006, 12 million of the uninsured were eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (formerly SCHIP) but were not enrolled...
Claim: Many of the uninsured are not U.S. citizens. About 9.7 million of the uninsured are immigrants, both legal and illegal. The National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation estimates that 5.6 million of these are undocumented...
Regarding the comments by some here in the US that they don't want to pay for the care of others, that is really incorrect on so many levels. We would all be paying for our own care with the taxes we pay in, that would replace the money we pay now in premuims, so really it's not much different than what you have now.
And it's also false for most of us to say we are paying for our own care. We pay premiums and some out of pocket expenses with deductibles, etc, but our employers generally pay a huge part of our health insurance coverage. In most cases employers are paying anywhere from 50%- 80% of the premiums for us. So when someone is paying a couple hundred dollars per month for their coverage, they don't realize that actual premium is more like $500- $600 per month, it just happens to be that the employer is paying the rest of that.
So people need to realize that if we could put in place a system like Canada's, you would also take employers out of that mix, remove the HUGE burden they have right now in paying for medical coverage for their employers. Imagine how much more competitive they could be without that burden? They could maybe even raise pay for their employees if they didn't have to pay these premiums!
One argument I hear from people against a "healthcare for all" program here in the US is "I already have good coverage, why would I want to give that up and pay in to a government provided system?" These people need to realize that coverage is gone if they lose their job- if they get fired or laid off they are suddenly stuck with no coverage. Imagine losing your job, and within that month or two that it takes to find a new job, some medical emergency comes up requiring some sort of surgery? Suddenly you are on the hook for potentially 10's or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. So just having a bit of bad luck in having something flare up when you are between jobs could cause you to go bankrupt. It's that type of situation that we need to look at- we are not just paying in to fund the "bums" who may not pay enough in taxes, this would truly be beneficial to ALL of us- even those of us who currently do have good insurance coverage through our employers.
My experience with our healthcare system has been excellent...........
..............
In all these cases no one had to worry about what is covered what isn't. What specialist is with what insurer etc. The energy was focused on getting well.
Can this work in the U.S. It could, but it won't. It's too late for the U.S. I think. The brainwashing and lies told about the Canadian system have taken root down there....then there's this evil SOCIALIST thing they've got stuck in their brains.
they have been brainwashed to the point that a significan number of them in the professional fields would even see to it failure was paramount.
You cannot take a country of well over 300 million people brought up from birth being fed, and actually embracing, the fallacy of "universal medicine bad" while willingly accepting the concepts of Social Security, welfare, EBTcards, Medicare, Medicaid, Veteran's Assistance medical care, and Universal education among a host of things the government provide/oversee.
To be able to justify that disconnect in their frontal lobes takes an amazing amount of prejudicial ignorance that would almost guarantee they'd resist regardless if it even proved to be working for them.
Like the old saw:"why do you keep hitting your head against the wall?" ~ "It feels so good when I stop".
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
