Problems in Canada with Socialized Medicine?

I got no troubles getting health care where I am. Let me see, we have all needed care, premature son, kid hit by a car, brother passed from cancer, mother is terminal now. I have some serious issues, FIL had cancer, and you know what? No bills, no halssle and no worries. Where I live I even have drug coverage, each person is covered and I pay a max of 78$ a month for drugs, despite the fact they costs thousands. What I have noticed is a sharp increase on attacks regarding our health care system, and I dont much like it by the media and political intrerest groups. Perfect? Nope, no system is, but its been darn good to me. Oh, my machines, 02 converter and masks tubing and so on? All provided free under the home ventilation program. I to am real sick of hearing it called socialized medicine. We all pay, according to our incomes at tax time, and I am also sick and tired of people only talking of the mistakes or where care fell through, because they do it in away that it makes one believe it never happens in America. Human error in health care is on both sides of the border and here at least every one is covered. My mother presently gets top notch cancer care, which includes home nursing care, doctors coming to the home, physio, her drugs, and so on..........and the cost? Nothing. There is no bill except the bill for drugs which is a max of 78$ a month. Everything else is covered under our system of health care.

PST wrote: .....
I feel the greatest sympathy for raggedykat's and Muse-Inc's situation -- and also a sense of there but for the grace of God... It could happen to any of us. Tying the continuation of insurance coverage to continued employment by the same employer puts us one corporate bankruptcy or layoff away from a crisis. The current U.S. system has its greatest effect on all of us in the 50 to 65 age group. We're too young for Medicare but old enough that we probably have something wrong with us serious enough to be called a pre-existing condition. It's a bad time of life to be looking for a new job. Many of us have skills and experience what would make us valuable in a part-time or consulting capacity, and we may be empty-nesters happy now to work less and earn less than we did before, but we can't make that entrepreneurial jump because the one thing a big company can offer that we can't buy on our own is health insurance, at least not if we have a medical history.

PST, I am in a similar situation as you. My retiree health insurance (nonvested plan) is sponsored by my former employer who is near bankruptcy (Yeah, they should have kept me. ). Last week I had calls from some of their competitors speculating that the filing has become imminent. Now I have preexisting conditions, so I don't know what my family will do if the filing comes. So I am a target for scare tactics.

But I don't want to wreck medical care in the US because of my problems!!!!

PST, You are correct that employer-provided health insurance is an irrational system. If you don’t believe this, then imagine employer-provided automobile or home insurance.

Do you know who I blame for an irrational system of the employer providing your health insurance? Our Federal government. During World War II they instituted price controls which did more damage than good (as always happens with price controls). Manufacturers who needed more labor to support the war effort were not allowed to raise wage rates to attract the labor. So they added benefits, the major one being health insurance, to lure more labor. Now we have been stuck with that poor system ever since.

Government is at the root of so many of our economic problems. Watch them create more problems with whatever bill they pass or whatever party’s bill it is.

I think you can call it socialized medicine without automatically intimating that the entire society or the government is socialist.

Socialized medicine is medicine for the masses, of equal benefit to all citizens. The part that scares people in the US is putting the government in charge of your health choices ("This procedure/drug will be covered, that one won't. And we'll only pay the provider a pittance. No discussion."). We just don't trust the federal bureaucracy.

But, in reality most US insurance companies run our health care just the way the government would. The difference might be that, with private payers, you can buy the level of insurance you choose, so there is some choice about what's covered and what's not. A single payer system, financed by the government, doesn't give you that level of choice, unless it allows you to buy supplemental insurance.

Apparently, supplemental insurance is not legal in Canada?

The point is that in your country certain terminology means one thing, and in another country it means something else. I don't mean the dictionary definition of the word 'socialism' is different, but the way it's interpreted in one culture and the way it's seen by people in that country may be very different to how it's meant somewhere else. Are you aware, just out of curiosity, that right now Canada has quite a right wing Prime Minister? How does a socialized country elect someone like that, more or less a fundamentalist who interprets many things according to religion rather than secular philosophy? A country can have a particular system (such as healthcare) in place for everyone (just as your country does have ... federal laws, without meaning socialism is at work. It may incidentally be a socialist government, but not necessarily.

yes it is legal, for private MRI"s and the like. Husband has it from work, again another misconception. For example I wear hearing aids, the government pays the full amount for a certain basic good model, if I want the fancy cannot see model , then I can use my private insurance to pay for a percentage of that. Private insurance also covers things like dental and orthodontics.

PeterC wrote:as far as critical care the Canadian system is hard to beat.

Sure it is! Having your fellow taxpayers all chip in for YOUR medical bills is a sweet deal...for YOU.

Not quite so good for the guy who has lived a healthy lifestyle, paid his own way; and is now forced to pay the price for those who do neither.

Is the current Canadian tax rate "hard to beat"?

Don't fool yourself, you are paying also for your neighbours unhealthy life style when you use private insurance. And by the way, not every one gets sick because of their life style. My mother never smoked, never drank, always ate healthy, worked all her life and is now dying of cancer. She never was sick in her life and always paid her health care as we all do at tax time, and now when she needs it, it is there for her. Are Canadians taxed alot? Yup, we sure are, but we all pay one way or another. When I look at the rates my family pay in the states for insurance, I can say we are not paying more. As I recall I had to send money to my cousin to help her pay for her insurance because she barly had enough money working two jobs taking care of three kids and a husband who had a stroke..........and they dropped her any ways............and then she lost her home.

Canadian here. Never had a problem or met anyone (in 62 years) who has had a problem. I think many Americans are buying hype instead of doing actual research.

Not quite so good for the guy who has lived a healthy lifestyle, paid his own way; and is now forced to pay the price for those who do neither.

How dare you insinuate that I have not paid my own way or brought my medical problems on myself. I never did anything to cause the loss of my health insurance. I have never asked the government for welfare, food stamps, childcare, medical care, housing, etc. I have raised four children on my own and worked two jobs for many years. Shame on you!

raggedykat wrote:How dare you insinuate that I have not paid my own way or brought my medical problems on myself.

No such insinuation. I don't even know you, nor was I replying to or about you. But it sounds like you are in the first category, not the second. Except you aren't in Canada, apparently...

dels wrote:And by the way, not every one gets sick because of their life style.

I neither said nor implied that "every one" does. Are you suggesting lifestyle has NO bearing on level of health?

dels wrote: never was sick in her life

Gee, I think "dying of cancer" qualifies. You have a flair for generalities, while expecting specifics from others...

LinkC - Did you ever stop to think that maybe the majority of people who need help with health care are people like me?

Sorry, but first of all, no one know one knows where some one is from. Yes an IP address shows where they are now, but no one has any way of knowing where some one comes from, where they normally live, if they are in one country temporary or what ever.

Secondly, there are few people with no bad habits at all. We are human beings, and I know plenty of rich hman beings with bad habits who pay a plenty at tax time for their health care. I am not FORCED to pay for any ones health care, I choose to live in a country where people can have health care. It is why many years ago when I was being recruited to the states, I did not go. I did not want to live in a way where for example because of my education or moeny I would have health care and some one else would not. That goes against my principals for a just society. I am not saying we have the best health care because we dont, but I am also saying that the American system is also far from perfect and leaves millions of working people with no health care except for maybe emergency;s when they show up in an emergency department. That is not in my view correct for one of the richest countries in the world.

I am sick and tired of the Canada bashing on the TV lately, and I think what makes me angrier than anything is it is private interest groups and companies making money with health insurance that are paying to slamm down other countries health care.

I have known to many people who have been refused by their insurance companies, have had long delays, I read on this site all the time about problems with insurance. I am not saying what we have is your answer, but it may be time to look at options to make it better for all.

And No linc, I would never say life style has no bearing on health, but I sure as heck am saying your not the one to judge this. We are hman beings, we all have fraility's, and I am also saying that you are also paying for risk associated behaviour every time you have a deductable and a premium as these companies are there to make money.

And Linc, what I was saying about my mother is that for 72 years, other than having kids, my mother never needed health care other than normal check ups. She was never sick. She never complained about paying for health care through taxes, and never said she was paying for others bad life styles. She always felt one day I may need it, and now she does need it. We are grateful she has excellent care as she walks through the last weeks of her life, and she is more grateful that through this whole ordeal she has never had to worry about one thing financially.

dels wrote: .........
I am sick and tired of the Canada bashing on the TV lately,
.........

Now that I can understand. Here we are having a debate about U.S. medical care and Canada is getting a bashing they don't deserve.

You have a beautiful country. Just enjoy it and ignore us for the time being.