Why did you wait to go to a place with UC to go to a private doctor? Maybe you are wooshing me?
[Bugs voice/] What a maroon [/end Bugs voice]
It’s worthwhile to look at endpoints, like life expectancy:
Canada (#14) USA (#45). But hey, that may not be the socialized medicine…it may just be the gun control.
If it makes you feel any better, socialized medicine was pioneered by Bismark, who may be more to your liking than (Saint) Tommy Douglas.
I’m pretty sure I remember a liberal Canadian poster around here sometime in the last year or two admitting that his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had to go through ten months of waiting before she could get the operation she needed.
Fortunately for him and her, the cancer was slow-growing and the operation still occured in time to save her life.
I don’t remember enough of the details to search for it, but perhaps that poster or someone who remembers his post can verify it.
No woosh - I thought it was a cosmetic thing - not worth bothering a doc for a first opinion. My point here is the difference in price and diagnosis. In fact that private doc didn’t even charge me for the consultation.
Well it wasn’t me, because it was my father who was diagnosed with cancer and it was only two weeks before his treatments started. This was before we were subjected to the Alberta Advantage, however, so the Conservatives hadn’t begun dismantling the health care system yet.
Y’know, we regularly delay cancer treatments here in the US as well if we know that the cancer is extremely slow moving. I mean sure, when it’s your mom you feel like waiting until next week is too late, but I’d trust the medical professionals to make that call.
If you didn’t think that it was worth the first opinon (though you went anyway), why did you then get a second opinion with a private doctor? Why not the UC doc? If it is all equal and all…
I would tend to agree, provided that the delay was due to professional medical judgement and not routine governmental red tape. My recollection, though vague, is that it was red tape and having to move up through the waiting list that were the culprits.
I wish I could take credit for it, but somebody once said in another thread “socialized medicine may work in practice, but it won’t work in theory!”
I have several Canadian friends and they would not trade with us at all. They can not imagine going through all that stress and money . Some Canucks bitch . But there are people who bitch no matter what they get.
One of my Canadian friends got a heart transplant. It did take a while to get approved. They spent a lot of time trying other things before they went through with it. It cost nothing.
You know, a vague recollection of something that someone said somewhere is not really selling me here. 
Screw ups happen in any system. If your GP is “pushier” than others, sometimes you can get quicker treatment for a serious diagnosis. It can happen.
What I tend to see with waiting lists is that the person who has lots of money is PISSED that they cannot get prompt treatment for a non-emergent condition (like a cataract surgery), because DAMMIT, THEY HAVE MONEY! They don’t give a rats ass about the unemployed guy having a heart attack, or the diabetic pensioner getting a kidney transplant. “I want my cataracts off and I am RICH DAMMIT. I should be able to pay for it!” Unfortunately for them, it is often the one time that their money cannot buy them a place at the front of the line, and it makes them angry.
And it makes the rest of us happy, because medical decisions are made by medical professionals, not by how fat your wallet is.
I like how as soon as socialized medicine is brought up there are always people who come in with “But, but but… wait times! In Canada you can’t see a doctor for months!”
a) it’s not really true
b) nobody is saying Canada’s system is perfect, just that it’s a step up. God knows it needs work, but the fact is that we pay 1/3 the price Americans do for health care (in taxes), so no matter how you slice it it’s cheaper.
Frankly I find it bizarre that people are willing to live with a system that allows you to go into huge amounts of debt if you have one medical problem - but hey, at least you’re not paying a tiny amount towards those scum-sucking poor people, right?
It seems absolutely absurd to me that my insurer or HMO could dictate which doctors (ee oo ee ahh ahh) I was allowed to see. It’s as foreign an idea to me as lining up for my monthly stipend of toilet paper.
I’ve lived in two countries that have degrees of socialised health care (Australia and Japan) and I can tell you that all of Rand’s fears are true.
When the guy down the road got sick, the government came to my house and twisted my nipples until I emptied my wallet into their sack. It was painful. Then, when I went to the hospital to get my nipples untwisted, I had to wait so long I died of old age before the doctor could see me. Then the doctor finally saw my corpse, and was so incompetent he diagnosed me with chronic and unceasing narcolepsy. They didn’t have any equipment in the hospital, of course, ‘cause that stuffs ‘spensive so he jabbed me with a needle full of water and sent me on my way. I got better by the way, but I put that down to good genes.
That’s just the way it is with socialized medicine.
I felt dubious about the first diagnosis in the States but since he said precancerous I though I would get it checked again. I was in London and passed a dermatologists office then decided to pop in. My doc is in another town and if the derma had given me the same precancerous idea I would have gone to my GP and got treated from there. As it was I was trying to get quite a lot acomplished in a short space of time and had the money to pay for the English derma - who - as I said didn’t charge me anyway. Even if I’d paid the ten quid it would have been cheaper than a return ticket to my docs office.
Conservatives don’t like socialized medicine because they think it will be run by people like them.
Yes, it will be much easier dealing with the Federal Government.
In Canada it’s the province, not the feds, and yes, it is.
U R dum.
As an aside, for those who bitch about the extra taxes involved in socialized medicine.
I pay less per month in income taxes than a standard family coverage plan insurance premium would cost me in the US. As a point of reference, I make well in excess of the national average family income.
I just don’t understand when folks talk about all the extra taxes - you know if you’re paying the extra taxes, you won’t be paying the insurance premiums, right?
I work at a Health Sciences Centre. We have one billing office. There are about 10 women who process billing. For about 1,000 physicians. I think I’ve spotted at least one place for money savings…
Moving from the US to Australia, I’ve had both systems.
I’ll take socialized medicine every time.
NSW has its hospital issues at the moment, but that has more to do with the state government being corrupt and incompetent and being in the process of being voted out.
I’ve never had to wait to see a doctor or wait for a procedure. I have private health cover (for the tax break) but you don’t have to have it. The main difference I can see between public and private care is a ward vs a private room. Mostly I have it for the dental coverage, and my hospitalizations and ER visits have been public, not private care and it’s been good, and free. My last emergency was 30 min from door to doctor, 2 weeks in the hospital, four days of that in intensive care, and extensive after care, all free. Oh, and my taxes aren’t THAT much more than in the US. If I add in what I paid for insurance at work (when I wasn’t self employed) I come out ahead in Australia. I’d pay it gladly anyway, because I can be insured and nobody will turn me down, and that’s worth it to me.
Contrast that to a hospital stay in the US during the time I was self employed and couldn’t get private cover (asthmatic), got pneumonia, got pushed out of the hospital because I didn’t have cover so they deemed me better (I wasn’t) and got a $30,000 hospital bill that my medical savings couldn’t cover, had to find a doctor to see me and when I did, he wanted to put me back in the hospital - couldn’t afford that . My health was affected for more than a year.
No thanks, UHC for me, please.
Cheers,
G