In light of a recent medical question posted on the forum, I was curious to survey the American members on their feeling towards healthcare (you know, as a kinda light-hearted topic )


In Canada, we constantly hear American politicians arguing that our public healthcare is bad (communist at the worst, socialist at best). Admittedly, our healthcare is expensive and paid for through taxes, but it is also not for profit. There are wait times, but what good is no waiting if people won't go the the Doctor/Hospital because of cost? I know that as a Canadian, I can walk into the Doctor's or the Emergency not have to worry about pulling out the wallet while I bleed on the floor. If my 'Nut' hurts, its getting the best care my government can afford! https://montecarloforum.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=20985 :p

How do everyday americans feel about healthcare? Are you happy with a Healthcare for Profit/User-pay system, or would you like have a Canadian style system where everyone is covered and you could just walk in an yell "Ouch, my *****!"

 

lol i'd love to go in and say my ***** (or buddies) hurt, and not have to pull my wallet just the buddies out

lol

 

I like the third choice in the poll. But not for the problem with your "buddies". OUCH!

 

Were one of the only industrialized nations that doesn't have a public health care system of some form. Our politicians generally argue that this is going to increase wait times because the cost of going to a doctor is now nothing, and people who don't really need to go to the doctor or hospital will go just because they can.

Supposibly, many potential doctors are going into veterinary school or another field because they don't want government interference in their jobs. So another fear is that people with 8 year college degrees will never want to be doctors now, because if they can't make money at it, why do it? So they fear we will end up with less doctors.

The other thing is that all of the government paperwork involved will end up bogging the system and making it slower than next years Christmas (because it's already slow as Christmas) and get it to the point where nothing can ever get done.

Plus, we have a lot of illegal immigrant issues in this country. By offering up public health care, we are offering yet another service that encourages them to wade through the Rio Grande and gain healthcare and further burden our government system, with this on top of public education, roads, etc.

Feel free to debunk my case, but these problems are still there... do the benefits outweigh the costs? Well, you tell me.

 

Since the issue of Illegals was brought up. Let me add a little piece of info.

Here in Ontario, Canada all legal citizens have a government issued health card. Including children. It's very much like a driver's licence. In fact, the health card can be used as valid government issued i.d., just like a driver's licence.

Upon going to any doctor's office, hospital, clinic, etc, you must provide a valid health card. Anyone without a health card is billed for the visit.

If you're going to the emergency room, you receive the immediate health care you need without delay. But while you're being attended to, someone else has to give the hospital your info (name, address, etc, and valid health card)

Click the link below if you want to see what it looks like.

CLICK HERE

 

Good post Taz. That was the point I was gonna make.

As for Doctor's not making money, there are still a lot of really nice cars in the parking lot of the Children's hospital I work at. They make plenty of money. Perhaps not as much as in the American system, but WAAAYYYY more than a Vet.

As for wait times, in a public system you do get people going to the Doctor for the sniffles, but you also don't have people unwilling/unable to go for more serious issues.

There are wait times in Canada because people actually go to the emergency. What good is no wait-time if people don't go because of the cost? The bigger issues arise with things like MRIs, catscans, and some surgeries where there is limited availability/access.

 

One bit of information I do not see.

Here in the U.S. they like to mention the fact breast cancer is the number one killer of women in Canada. With our healthcare system the it is breast cancer is not a high a risk as claimed in Canada.

Personally, I do NOT want anyone running my healthcare who can not even run a food program without screwing it up like the U. S. government has.

 

You can make a lot of money in the U.S. as a vet, I think... heck the last time my cat went it cost like $60. The U.S. has a much larger population than Canada, you guys are about 1/10th the size of us in population. It's going to cost atleast 10 times as much to run the healthcare system and be harder to manage and control because of the people.

The card may help curve illegals getting into the health care system, but we have illegal immigrants who have obtained state drivers licenses, so.....

 

Duane, you brought up a great point. The size of the population would make it darn near impossible to fund. As it is here in Canada, we have really high taxes.

 

Population shouldn't matter, as cost is proportional to the population (and therefore the Tax Base). In fact, the combination or larger tax base and denser population (Canada is larger with 1/10th the pop.) might very well decrease the cost of delivery.