http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwLp2KJCLOQ)
Anyone find this video to be ridiculous?
I interact with people who believe this junk every day.
It’s absolutly amazing how oppressed and un-free they think you are.
The health system is definitively going in a spiral. I think any government if full of crap in BC. When they run their campaigns they promise this and promise that. 
Instead they do the exact opposite. For example. Health Care cuts! And school closures. Whatsup with that?
Oh save the economy now… I say screw the economy and start caring for the ppl who vote for those who are in power.
Typical half truths and complete BS from the corporate insurance thieves! I have a non-life threatening condition requiring surgery. My GP told be there could be up to a year wait. When things got a bit difficult for me, my GP suggested I call the surgeon’s office and speak to his nurse. She gave me an appointment for the next month. Surgeon approves my surgery for the next month, even while saying there is usually a 2 year waiting period. I told him I’d be willing to wait if necessary, but he wanted to do the surgery. (Still don’t really want to get carved up, but I must.)
That wiat list gose the same for the orthopod as well. If you are in pain you need to call the office and you will usually get bumped up the waiting list. I don’t care what the die hards in the US say, at least with our health care everyone can get looked after and not worry that your life savings and your house will be lost due to a hospital stay and surgery. Those against universal health care in the US must have a lot of money … and well able to pay for any medical issues/treatments that they have. Yes we need to have some changes to our universal health care, but what we have is way better than what is avaialable in the states. Claims are denied that should not be thru the health care providers that your coverage allows you to have. I watched a show on tv a while back by Michael … can’t remember his last name. The one that does all the controversial shows, the one on 9-11, the Columbine shootings etc, he did one on the health care ( or lack of) in the US, one father was explaining his battle with the insurance company on trying to get cochlear implants for his deaf daughter. After 18 months of appeals and millions of peices of paper etc, the insurance company approved one, it stated she only required 50% of her hearing to be able to function!!
Someone I knew got sick in Hawaii, they had travel insurance, and it was all approved while he was in the ER, his asked the Dr how much it would cost if he didn’t have any insurance. He needed 8 stitches for a gash on his head, Total visit would have cost him $2300 US! For a nurse to clean his wound and a med student to stitch him up, he was in ER for a total of 20 minutes.
Some questions to ask:
How much of our GDP do we spend on health care (and get 100% of the people covered)?
How much of the US GDP do they spend on health care (and how many people are covered) ?
What percentage of our health spending is administration & profit? How about in the US?
2 years ago I had surgery to correct a non-life threatening problem, in approximatley one month I was diagnosed, cut open, fixed, and after 4 days total in hospital, I was home.
Cost to me ,Zero, Zip, Nada,MSP payments covered under my union agreement, wages during recovery time off work was covered by my extended health benefits.
If I didn’t have a Union Job. I would have had to pay my own MSP,EI sick benefits would have covered (somewhat) my loss of wages.
I am, lucky to work at a Unionized job and have the health benfits I do. That being said, I shudder to think what I and my family would have gone through if I lived in the Newnited Mistakes and relied on their health care system.
I don’t know the answer to your questions MiG , but I can tell you this; the right wing idiots love to sacre people with the booger that “socialised medicine” will be rationed. Hence those dying while waiting and denial of care horror stories regarding your system you been hearing.
But really if they didn’t have their heads so far up thier selfish asses they’d see that our system is the one that’s rationed. You mostly get as much care as your insurance will allow and that’s it. And far too many working Americans are going w/o that insurance either due to employers dropping coverage or unaffordable premiums.
And it’s that group that is most vulnerable. Contrary to what some of you may think the poor recieve 100% free care. They can walk into any hospital and recieve care and never contemplate paying anything and Medicaid covers their preventitive care. It’s that growing class of working Americans who, if they lack insurance, choose between their home and bankruptcy court when faced with major medical expenses and just do without preventitive care.
Yet the selfish assholes that would deny them this (they don’t want the taxes involved) were all for invading not one, but two different contries for little in positive results and they call it 'money well spent". :x
Holy short-sighted, Batman. Screwing the economy bad enough means those people won’t BE around to vote for those in power.
Wikipedia has a very good article called “Canadian and American Health Care Systems Compared” that should answer almost any one’s questions. Some highlights:
Canada spent 10% of GDP vs 15.3% for the US in 2006.
2004 government spending was $2120 (USD) per Canadian and $2724 per American.
The article states that American administration costs are higher but cites no statistics.
Canadians on average live longer, have lower infant and child mortality, and have better outcomes. The differences are not huge, though. Canada also covers illegal immigrants while the US doesn’t.
I feel that the Canadian system gets way better bang for the buck than the US system, and personally am grateful that when queue jumping occurs here it usually has more to do with the size of the patient’s problem than with the size of his (or her) chequebook. The Canadian system needs changes but it seems pretty clear to me that Americanizing the system would be absolutely the wrong way to go.
[quote=“cranky1”]
Canadians on average live longer, have lower infant and child mortality, and have better outcomes. [/quote]
That ( and remember I favor changing our system) is actually misleading. The U.S. has a much larger impoverished underclass, who though they are provided with free healthcare often fail to take advantage of it until an emergency room visit while at the same time smoking more cigarettes, drinking more alcohol, and abusing more drugs.
And thus those same life expectantcy and infant mortality rates are actually used by the opponets of a government program as proof that “socialized” medicine is bad.
Are you talking about Medicaid?
Yes. And no. Confusing? 
Medicaid is really just a funding mechanism for 50 different state programs. It sets minimal guidelines but each state is allowed autonomy beyond that, and many have programs that go above and beyond Medicaid.
Here’s one Illinois example.
Ok, makes sense. Medicaid doesn’t cover everyone, though. A majority of “poor” Americans don’t qualify for Medicaid. Despite it being means tested, poverty alone doesn’t automatically qualify someone for Medicaid.
So it’s not really a good comparison to the Canadian system, which isn’t means-tested, and it applied universally. However, the federal funding and state-administered part is similar to Canada. Our federal government hands out a lot of cash to provinces, who administer their own health systems, under a federal act.
No, of course it’s not a good comparison, but like I said above, I interact with a bunch of right wing mopes (on an auto racing message board of all things) everyday who think you guys all live in some kind of Soviet Gulag.
You don’t even realize you’re not free, do ya? 
Dupes is the word. They dominate forums all over like gasbuddy, etc.
The gov’t tells me what doctor I get and if I’m in a car crash or have cancer I have to wait years only to be told all I get is two aspirins.
Is this an actual opinion of yours, or are you talking as one of those ‘dupes’ you describe? hehe