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What a crock! If I had cancer, you can bet your butt I'd do whatever I could to be at MD Anderson in Houston or Sloan-Kettering in New York City. You don't hear about people around the world flying to Canada for their top-notch health care. Like in France and England, people die on waiting lists just to see oncologists.
It's expensive, but we have the BEST healthcare in the WORLD. Period.
Now, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies...they are a different ball game.
not according to the world health organization. link and link
It still costs in Canada. A family in BC pays about 1200 dollars, base, per year, for health care. Not including such luxuries as dental....
As far as the "premiums" in the US, I'd have to ask you where your stats come from.
Stilll better than the 4600.00 the ER thinks they are charging us when insurance drops off in the good ole US.... They leep charging- and I am sick of 25 pages of indecipherable bills.
If you have insurance in the US, you get gold plated Cadillac treatment, best of the best, no problems, no questions. Far and away blows everything ANYWHERE out of the water. MRI, sure. Want two? Specialists-no wait, and heck if you want to pay more you can even self refer. Bar none amazing care, at a price.
Actually, I would amend that to "If you have good insurance in the US" as I pay $600 a month out of pocket for a family of 4 (small business ins.) for the priveledge of fighting for several months for physiotherapy that I was entitled to. All the while in severe pain. And it was denied for months because my insurance company outsourced some of their underwriting and the underwriter read my contract incorrectly. And you can't get it fixed in a timely fashion, you have to follow a specific and orderly procedure which appears designed to get people to give up or die before they get the treatment they actually paid for.
Lovely system here.
By the way, grew up with socialized medicine in the UK, and would trade it in a second for the disaster that they have here in the US.
Actually, I would amend that to "If you have good insurance in the US" as I pay $600 a month out of pocket for a family of 4 (small business ins.) for the priveledge of fighting for several months for physiotherapy that I was entitled to. All the while in severe pain. And it was denied for months because my insurance company outsourced some of their underwriting and the underwriter read my contract incorrectly. And you can't get it fixed in a timely fashion, you have to follow a specific and orderly procedure which appears designed to get people to give up or die before they get the treatment they actually paid for.
Lovely system here.
By the way, grew up with socialized medicine in the UK, and would trade it in a second for the disaster that they have here in the US.
The NHS isn't as bad as people make it out to be and it's unfairly blasted by people who a) have never even used it, or been to the UK and b) people who see socialized medicine as one step down the road towards old style Soviet Communism and government control.
Socialized medicine only suffers when not enough money is pumped into it. The NHS suffered through years of Thatcher (Conservative) government. A predominantly socialized system is still fare more cost effective for all than having a private system, in which you have to factor in all those wonderfully huge profits the insurance companies / pharmaceuticals make (at our expense).
Socialized medicine only suffers when not enough money is pumped into it. The NHS suffered through years of Thatcher (Conservative) government. A predominantly socialized system is still fare more cost effective for all than having a private system, in which you have to factor in all those wonderfully huge profits the insurance companies / pharmaceuticals make (at our expense).
Medicare/Medicade's admin costs are vastly cheaper than the majority of private for-profit insurance companies in America.
The reason health care costs so much in America is b/c of the insurance companies jacking up prices. Research the cost of a broken arm or even heart surgery in any country in Western Europe and then look at prices in America. You'll be shocked. Add to this the prescription drug bill for Medicare passed under Bush that was essentially written by the pharacutical industry (not allowing the government the ability to bargain for lower med costs with their purchasing power) and it's no wonder everything is the way it is.
National Health care for everyone in America wouldn't be nearly so expensive as portrayed in the media if we had politicans who weren't getting their palms greased by lobby members in DC.
A predominantly socialized system is still fare more cost effective for all than having a private system, in which you have to factor in all those wonderfully huge profits the insurance companies / pharmaceuticals make (at our expense).
Agreed. I believe that around 30% of insurance money goes towards administration. Add in the insurance companies profits, CEO pay and all the rest and it has to be at least 50% going on garbage. I would rather that go towards more doctors, better nursing staff and affordable local clinics to take the pressure off of hospital ER's.
I believe Medicare costs are around 5%, so a universal system would definitely be more cost effective. Stop the price gouging by pharmaceutical companies and we could actually have a great system here.
the reason there tends to be more ppl on a waiting list for non-emergency procedures in Canada is because EVERYONE has Health Insurance! In the US there's 47 million without it and millions more that have Health Insurance but won't use it except in dire circumstances b/c of 2K, 4K or even 8K yearly premiums.
Don't believe that (Michael Moore) figure of "47 million." That "figure" includes illegal aliens, thsoe who choose not to have insurance and those who are between jobs and will soon have (company) insurance.
And where did you get those "figures" for the premiums?
According to the film, the Canadians are happy with the health care system. True?
Happy is a BIG word!
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They leep charging- and I am sick of 25 pages of indecipherable bills.
