I am from the US. My family is still there. I live in Canada.
The crap you hear about how bad the Canadian system is...is a GIANT LIE. I have my family Doctor that I picked as does everyone else. At one point I had two of them...lol. I was moving from one end of the city to another so there was overlap. One was male the other female BUT BOTH GOOD PEOPLE and DOCTORS.
We have some of the BEST hospitals in the world and made some of the biggest breakthrough in medicine.
Google Sick Kids Hospital.
We have NOTHING to worry about should anything happen to us.
They send a firetruck and ambulance to help you. You have no idea as to that FREEDOM. Think about it. Your decisions for life and death is decided by your HMO. Mine is decided by my fellow Citizens which is a mutually assured protected self serving interest system.
Yes, we have some improvements to make to the system.
We do that based on the research. We do our best to ensure the money is being spent wisely and to not waste. Let's say for whatever reason you feel that you are getting shafted. Just send an email to any news outlet and watch how instantly it is fixed.
Politicians FEAR the results for messing with people's Healthcare but they grew up understanding he importance of it to the country and their family therefore they for the most part do NOT mess with it. Mess with health care and YOU and YOUR PARTY will SUFFER for YEARS of not a decade. See the built in safeguards to keep the politics out of it.
If I see my family Dr. for whatever "issue" WE decide what specialist I can go see for further help. I decide who I see.
Sure I may have to wait for a month for an MRI scan if it's something MINOR...big deal, priority BUT if they see or feel or think there is a serious problem then it happens ASAP as in right away or the next day.
True Story- Family friend, male 48 at the time, non smoker, non drinker, not over weight...went in for a physical, Dr. did not like the sound of his heart beat...sent him down for x-rays and blood work.
Result- he was being operated on the next morning because they found a blockage in his artery. I think he had a double or quadruple bypass. See that, no waiting, NO APPROVAL NEEDED FROM ANYONE, and NO FEAR of losing his house to pay for the surgery.
They said had he not come in for his checkup he would likely been dead within the month or two.
I am free to go see more Doctors for the 2nd or 3rd opinion.
Our Doctors (at least the 10 or so I have come across plus the 4 or so that I know socially) will do WHATEVER they can to help the patient. There is NO BOARD OR HMO to get approval from.
THAT is such a F'ing joke that you need an HMO to approve treatment. WRONG!
God forbid the crap I see people have to suffer from in the US.
It is sad that you have to choose losing your house or healing a sick child. That is just WRONG on every level of being a human.
If you pay for car insurance and or house insurance then you know all you are doing is spreading your risk amongst the pool of people to keep your rates affordable. Those things have a definite replacement cost, fixing a human does not. We have a SOCIAL MEDICAL SYSTEM. It is more of a moral and fundamental belief system and makes economic sense.
A nation has only 2 things to keep it prosperous and from being "conquered"1. Education - a stupid nation can not make anything to advance 2. Health - A sick nation will just kill themselves and just be too weak to work and easy to "invade". Think about it. Do you want a country that is smart and healthy or dumb and sickly?
Think about this.
Health care is probably the ONLY business where a company has to keep spending money to fix the patient BUT how or why would you expect that company to spend their money on you. You or your family member could be a "money pit" to them. They have share holders to pay and CEO's etc... They have to show financial growth every year so they DRAW the line which is YOU. YOU have a price tag to them and they have the power to just say NO or change the rules. Do you think that is a fair moral and ethical system?
btw if you are a prolife advocate then by default you should also be anti-HMO. At some point that HMO will make a decision to let you DIE.
TRUE STORY...A Dr. friend of mine asked me an ethical and financial question. They said a baby will be born BUT we already know it has a grave disease as it has no brain and will be dead in less than a month. Should we abort it, or kill it at birth, because at the end of the day we will spend THOUSANDS of dollars on immanent failure and that money could be saved for other people.
They asked me what would I do. It was a damn hard question to answer given the indisputable FACTS. I said I am a realist and like to save money wherever possible BUT this is a damn tough choice because whether you believe in God or not you are setting the standard to kill a life due to money. I said I would do what we can to keep it alive for as long as we can. We should do our best to treat the baby with dignity and respect and yes, spend the money.
Money can be replaced, human life and the morality of humanity can not be.
I hope none of you ever run into having a HMO tell you no, we spent the allotted funds on your kid, no more will be spent meaning they will die. Is that the country you want? So big deal, we suck it up and pay the extra 5 cents or $1 it would cost me as a tax payer to keep the defective baby alive in dignity. I will sleep better at night. It just means I skip buying a cup of coffee that month if I drank coffee...lol (damn 1 Starbucks coffee could save 5 lives)
Greed and making money from the sick and dying will NEVER work in your favor if you are the "sick" or your child is...at some point we will all pretty much be the "sick".
Your decisions today will provide the answer and result you need for YOUR tomorrow.
Got questions? Feel free to ask. I will be happy to try and answer them.
btw- The Canadian system was good enough when Sarah Palin sneaked her family in for treatment when she was poor as she stated but yet our system was not good enough for the rest of you...hmmmm