The Snow is Always Whiter...
I don't understand you Americans. Here you are, complaining about your costly healthcare system, wishing you had "free" healthcare like they do in Canada. But yet whenever nationalized healthcare is proposed by a (democratic) politician, nobody wants to accept it, because you don't want to have to pay more to the government upfront. What did you expect? Did you think Canadian healthcare funds were a gift from the Queen? Canadians pay taxes through the nose, as well as via other orifices! This is so Canadians of all economic levels can have equal access to care. So yes, you have to pay for nationalized healthcare, and it just might mean you are also paying for the care of someone a little less privileged than you. If you have no desire for this type of system, I don't want to hear any more complaints about your crappy insurance bills. I, being from Canada, do maintain the right to curse Aetna/Chickering for the $1,500 bill I continue to receive for my MRI of two years ago, for which I sent in a minimum of 2 referrals. Seeing any doctor back home was as easy as the swipe of a card....
posted by LizeCR @ 1:14 AM
3 Comments:
guyinhockeymask -
I'm posting as anonymous because i can't remember what the hell my password is.
A few points:
Socialized medicine=lower costs=reduced quality of care. Canada and plenty of Europeans have adopted this model. Do we want this in America? Many Americans say no. I say no. Just for the hell of it, why don't we try something different from the herd? Socialism sucks when applied to most enterprises, why should health care be any different? I like my taxes nice and low and my hospital charges separate where I can see them.
I understand that. I just think a lot of Americans are unclear on the concept of socialized medicine-that it is not at all "free".
A cathartic midday rant by your (now) former roommate.
I also think a lot of Americans practice a funny math when it comes to "getting what we pay for."
We pay through the nose for our health care--in both premiums and out-of-pocket costs. For those of us lucky enough to work for a large corporation who gives us the gift of health insurance as part of a basic benefit package, these costs may not seem so large. They are. Health costs eat up more bottom line than any other expense. If it didn't, employers wouldn't spend millions of dollars on consultancies like mine to reduce these costs. Trust me, your company would be paying you a lot more if they didn't have to pay every time you run to the doctor for antibiotics when you wake up with a stuffed nose-- or better yet, everytime you run to the doctor for an MRI for that nagging lower backache-- for which your doctor can do nothing but look at it with some fancy machine that costs a ton to run--- when shedding a couple of pounds and doing a couple of sit ups would take away that pain- and then some.
For those of us not so lucky (and that's most of America), premium costs in the individual insurance market are untouchable for many.
I'll bet if you were one of the 44 million Americans without health insurance, your math problem would clear up, quickly. One night in the ER from food poisoning or an asthma attack would fix it for good.
We're all paying for it, folks.
And by what measure have we determined the socialized or hybrid models of these other countries have yielded lower quality of care? By their similar or longer lifespans? By their smaller waistlines and basic understanding of a "healthy lifestyle"? By their commitment to preventative medicine and general care? Who decided that just because we have big machines a big pills made by big companies to which we have big access(provided we can pay for it) means we have better health care?
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