Quote:
Originally Posted by wyldblyss
No Healthcare is "free" you pay for it one way or another, through taxes etc. I live in Canada. What are the good things?
I choose which doctors I see, which hospitals I want to go to.
Wait times. My family doctor doesn't have appointments. I just walk in when I want to see him. I see him within 10 minutes to an hour.
Wait times can be on the long side for some specialists...BUT if your doctor feels you need to see them quickly, you can see them in a few days. If it is an emergency, you see them immediately.
I could not imagine worrying about a sickness or injury and wondering if healthcare will pay for it or not. I get the same healthcare as the billionaire and the same as the dirt poor guy.
I found a lump in my breast once. Saw my doctor that day, had an ultrasound within an hour. Had an appointment for a mamogram the next morning, a surgeon the next afternoon and I had surgery 2 days later. Both of my parents died of cancer and they both received amazing care. No complaints.
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My experiences are pretty similar. I have had 3 knee surgeries. two for torn cartilage and one for torn ACL.
For the torn cartilage injuries I saw the doctors immediately and they reffered me to a specialist which took about 2-3 weeks or so to see to confirm the tear and need to repair. About 3 weeks after that visit I had the surgeries to fix the tears. So about 6 weeks from injury to surgery for both of them.
For the ACL went to the emergancy right away, saw the doctor in about 15 minutes. They asked me who I wanted to see as she suspected it was the ACL torn. I choose a first class doctor from Banff and they called his office up for the referral. I saw him about a week later and he thought it was the ACL but wanted to be sure as the knee had reasonable stability still. He scheduled exploratory surgery for a week later. During the surgery he found it was a tear right at the bone and not in the middle as commonly found. At first he thought it was ok until he looked further.
He booked me a time to replace the ACL for 3 weeks after that to let the swelling subside etc. I pushed back the date a few times by choice due to scheduling conflicts but it would have been about 5 weeks after the injury to have the surgery done.
I ended up wanting a cadaver to replace the ACL instead of my own hamstring. They flew in an achilles tendon from Florida for me and used that in the surgery. Stayed 3 nights in the hospital. Had physio 3 times a week for 4 months and a few follow up visits with the specialist. Cost me just over a hundred bucks for pain killers and knee wrap to keep swelling down.
As all my surgeries were elective they got lower priority but the wait time was very reasonable. Seeing specialists takes longer usually here but if its a true emergency issue, the wait is almost nothing.