Is Canadian health care really free?

[Oerwinde]

Canada doesn't really have free health care, its just that its more of a convienience thing. Basically, everyone has health insurance through the government. Some provinces charge a monthly premium for this coverage, such as BC, where my mom was paying 30 bucks a month to cover her, my dad, me, my brother, and my sister. Your premium is based on income. If you make less than 18k per year, you don't pay for your health care.

 

And I think canadians tend to have higher life expectency and general health than americans because Canadians can think "Hrmm, I don't feel well, better go to the doctor to get checked" and they can go to the doctor, get checked over, and not get a bill in the mail for 150 bucks in a week.

 

One example why I'd hate to live under the US system: My girlfriend. A couple years ago she was diagnosed with MS. How this came about was that her limbs were going numb. Once she was unable to turn a doorknob she went to the doctor. They diagnosed her with an anxiety attack and prescribed her some xanax. Now, she had to pay for the Xanax, which did absolutely nothing. She also got charged 180 bucks for the doctor visit. So after a week of taking the xanax and getting worse she went to another doctor. Another $180 fee. They diagnosed her with MS but sent her to a neurologist to make sure. The neurologist cost her $2000 and wouldn't return her phone calls. So now she's $2400 in the hole just so people could tell her what she had. That doesn't even include treatment. Now, if she had been a Canadian citizen, at her current income, that would have cost her approximately $0, instead of $2400

[Fenghuang]

Doesn't matter to me, I have free insurance.

 

<happy dance>

[Judge Hades]

As someone that lives in Canada, I can safely say I don't see many lazy bums that are high school drop outs lining up for health care.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Then why will there be a problem if everyone pays for their own healthcare?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Because not everyone in Canada, like here in the US, has $50,000 a year job to afford it. Damn greedy ass doctors, medical corporations, hospitals, and insurance sh*tbirds.

 

If you don't have medical insurance you are screwed in the U.S.. Hospitals don't care about the well being of their patients. Only how much green they have.

Edited May 2, 2006 by Judge Hades

[Hekate]

Looking at the health care system in a vacuum is an inacurate depiction of how the Canadian economy functions. To suggest the Canadian people lose out somehow by having an across the board healthier citizenry is illogical. The main problems with the Canadial health care system include undercoverag in less populated areas, lack of students being trained as doctors, not enough skilled immigrants allowed to work in their fields of medical expertise, the corpratization of fundamentally public health domains, and the outdated model of how health care is provided. Globally the statistics prove privatized medical systems do not provide comprable health care to their citizenry, and still with uneqal access, the privatized systems pay more per service, per perscription, per patient.

 

Using fundamental economics, a public system, one run by a government, has a huge advantage over any privately run system in so far as regulations, purchasing power, credit rating, and credibility are concerned. A government has: purchasing power with the established credit rating to back it up, is entirely independant of the changeable fluctions corporate entities are stuck dealing with, has the ability to make use of various ministries, ie: education, to do research and development, training, and providing acess to the citizenry, as well has the advantage with being able to organize and control the infrastructure from the design plans on to the actual administration of health care. All these benefits reduce the cost of health care.

 

Yes, the government's money comes from taxes and various other sources ie:exports, bonds, etc.. however; to argue these taxes spent on health care are wasted is erroneous. The healthier a population is, the better off the citizenry is as is the government that must support that population base. Not only is this common sense as a well as a basic concept of social responsibility, it also makes fiscal sense for the government. In a privately run system, the government still has to pay for the citizens' health care. It is a myth that the government of a privatized health care system does not need to pay for health care (or, better known as "your tax money"). Goverments employ a very large amount of people, and all of them have health insurance. Where does their coverage come from? Who pays for the politicians' health care? Soldiers' health care? The government. Only now, instead of paying those costs in a more efficient system that the government controls and has a vested interest in running to best serve the people; it has to pay private businesses to provide health care to those it employs.

 

So instead of having a system that is based on cooperation between the various ministries needed to provide a cohesive and efficient medical system, you've got a private system with profit as the bottom line, and the factions that should be working together to provide health care, are now competing with eachother and driving up the costs of health care as acess becomes more and more limited and restrictive. That is the nature of capitalism. And a capitalistic health care system is very vulnerable to failure from many sources. The argument competition is better for the consumer and all that only works when there are serious government watch dogs in place to prevent monopolies from having carte blanche to charge and do what they will, and to ensure health care standards are maintained for those who recieve services. Those regulatory boards, health inspectors, etc cost money as well.

 

There are many other factors involved, but i'll leave it at those. And besides, i would rather pay my taxes and know that money is going into the health care system, to social assistance, to infrastructure, and all that, than to have a smugly superior feeling that at least my tax money went to the production of biological warfare agents, military machinery, bribery, and all that other lovely stuff the US government is so well loved for instead. In other words, when i am lying in a hospital bed i want to be seen as a patient, not a customer.

[metadigital]

Looking at the health care system in a vacuum is an inacurate depiction of how the Canadian economy functions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Understatement of the year.

Using fundamental economics, a public system, one run by a government, has a huge advantage over any privately run system

...

Yes, the government's money comes from taxes and various other sources ie:exports, bonds, etc.. however; to argue these taxes spent on health care are wasted is erroneous. The healthier a population is, the better off the citizenry is as is the government that must support that population base. Not only is this common sense as a well as a basic concept of social responsibility, it also makes fiscal sense for the government. In a privately run system, the government still has to pay for the citizens' health care. It is a myth that the government of a privatized health care system does not need to pay for health care (or, better known as "your tax money"). Goverments employ a very large amount of people, and all of them have health insurance. Where does their coverage come from? Who pays for the politicians' health care? Soldiers' health care? The government. Only now, instead of paying those costs in a more efficient system that the government controls and has a vested interest in running to best serve the people; it has to pay private businesses to provide health care to those it employs.

...

There are many other factors involved, but i'll leave it at those. And besides, I would rather pay my taxes and know that money is going into the health care system, to social assistance, to infrastructure, and all that, than to have a smugly superior feeling that at least my tax money went to the production of biological warfare agents, military machinery, bribery, and all that other lovely stuff the US government is so well loved for instead. In other words, when I am lying in a hospital bed i want to be seen as a patient, not a customer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think that just about sums it all up.

 

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