Is healthcare free in your country? Please post your experiences.........
 

So as everyone is watching the movie Sicko, and many taking a hard stand against Americas healthcare system, perhaps some of the non-american gfyers would like to share their experiences.

Michael Moore obviously shows only positive experiences from foreigners and negative from Americans, so maybe we can get some truthful experiences out here.

If healthcare is free in your country, could you tell us what country you are from and some of the positive/negative experiences you've had?

Have you known someone with cancer/heart disesase? How was their treatment?

Have you had long waits for anything? For treatment or tests?

We've heard alot of horror stories from the Americans, how about some real stories from you guys....both good and bad.

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.

Its nothing in canada like they said in that movie.

I dont think I've waited any less then 4 hours in ER in vancouver. I'm sure it would be faster if i walked in shot or something but like a broken toe i was there for 6 hours once

if its an emergency you can get treatment immediatley

yea that's pretty obvious...or at least it should be. everyone bitches about their taxes, americans dont really realize they don't need to bitch that much.

could you expand with some specific experiences? this isn't just for me....it's for everyone.

well i broke my ankle about a year ago, my friend took me and i hopped in, there was a guy who broke his arm who got immediate treatment who was next to me, i only had to wait 5 minutes max, then i got treatment....its as simple as that

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.

I fell while skating a few years ago and broke my right arm and hit my head. Because I had hit my head I was rushed in and got all sorts of scans to make sure I didn't have any bleeding in the brain - if I hadn't hit my head and it had only been my arm I would have had to wait anywhere from 10 minutes to 2-3 hours to get treatment, depending on how busy the ER was at the time.

Treatment is given based on each patients immediate needs and emergencies have priority. I have no real complaints about the way the Danish health care is run and I don't think waiting a bit before being treated is a problem if the problem isn't critical.

Also, GP's are available 24/7 and there is practically no waiting to get in to see them.

this isnt canada !

Since I started the thread and hope it will continue.....

PLEASE STATE WHAT COUNTRY YOU ARE FROM.


and not just that, but non-emergency care really is the big issue. if you got a cut sewn up fast...feel free to say.


But the important issue is Life Threatening ailments like cancer/heart disease






What is the treatment for those issues? This is what people actualy DIE from. I am completely neutral, I'd just like to see some details.




I know some details first hand but of course they are a small part of a big system. That's why I think it's really important that a universal board like ours seek some experiences that don't involve any agenda.

well what more would u like to know from my post

Free here in Russia. But commercial med. services are also available. At least if you get an appendicitis, you won't die here. The emergency service, hospital, surgery, food and drugs will cost you exactly NOTHING.

more specific experiences from you and your family and friends.

we've all had these medical experiences, i'm only asking you to share them in detail.

I am half English and half Maori. My girlfriend is French.

I get free treatment in all these countries but I would have to say the French Health care is the best in the world. No waiting times and amazing treatment.

my dad had a heart attack in the uk got immediate excellent care.

I have a unique situation compared to most Americans. I am 1/8 Inupiaq (Eskimo) so I receive completely free healthcare in Alaska. The hospital and clinics are top notch and everything is free unless you want something really specific, like if you want Zyrtec instead of a generic allergy med. If you have a prescription with refills they will just mail it to your house.

Natives who live in remote villages are flown for free to Anchorage if they need care they can't get in a village clinic. They receive room and board for family members. This is politically incorrect but the natives act as if the hospital is a social gathering place. They come in from villages and hang out in the waiting areas wearing stinky parkas. Its very surreal to see this happening in a well funded, state of the art hospital.

I am lucky and appreciate the quality of health care I receive but I think many people abuse the system because they have never had to pay for health care of health insurance.

Here in Australia, a trip to the hospital is free. I'm on private health cover as well but when I broke my wrist I was just down the road from a public hospital. Went there and was treated very well. Long wait time because they were understaffed, but the staff were more excellent. Just not enough of them, unfortunately. But it didn't cost me so much as a scent. A trip to your local GP will cost you 15 bucks via bulk billing or a bit more if they don't do bulk billing. But you get most of it back later on.

here some things are "free" (100% refunded by the national healthcare), other things are just partially refunded.

but we pay alot of taxes ... well the money needs to come from somewhere
never been able to get more refunded than the extra annual healthcare fee of like $100
I'm healthy :)

Ah... forget to tell about the taxes. Personally I pay 6% fixed scale from my monthly income.

Universal healthcare is not exactly free - it comes at a price, but generally people paying and using these services would prefer it that way - for many fairly obvious reasons.

I've been lucky and only used it once - but it was hard to fault the service.

Both parents have used it extensively and have little doubt they lived a longer life due to the care/treatment.

Obviously the weight of work on a universal healthcare system is going to be with the elderly - and they are fully entitled to have a quality level of treatment. I would expect the same when I'm a doddering old fool :)

- monday - didnt feel well
- tuesday - felt worse
- wednesday - noticed odd bruises on my arms
- thursday - went to local doctor, he ordered blood work
- thursday afternoon - results of blood work are very bad
- thursday evening - admitted to Vancouver General Hospital Leukemia section, private room...consult with Hematologists and and oncologist
- Friday noon - Surgeons insert hickman line in my chest
- Saturday morning - chemotherapy starts

thanks canada :)

In 1993 I severed through the top of my finger which in turn severed tendens preventing me from being able to control\bend the top of my finger. I was still at boarding school which was being part funded by my music scholarship which required me to be able to perform to a certain standard - diplomatically spoken - so I was rushed to a private hospital where in total, a bill of $3000 or so after private health had paid the shortfall. Since then, it has worked better than ever.

On the other hand, in 2000, I opted to have the win/win operation, whereas they sort of use you as a guinea pig for a $0 charge, and it was for a shoulder operation. It has dislocated more than 50 times since, and sees me hospitalized at least 6 times a year(on a good year). Do you think it was wise?

oh well, young, dumb and full of cum as well as some pretty whacked out parties = many painful years 2 cum.

56 bucks per month..manditory for everybody and you basically can walk into clinics/doctors to heal you anytime 24/7

100% free here if you are willing to deal with not such a nice room and probably longer wait times at a public hospital here In Argentina, you can also get a pre paid medical care service and go to the nice hotel style clinics.. but for emergencies you allways end up at public hospitals.. some years ago during the time of the SARS scare.. i had a terrible headache the night after i flew down from the US.. my private insurance was canceled since i had been away for too long so I had to go to a Public hospital.. there they asked me why i was there.. just a headache will make you wait in line for maybe 1 or 2 hours max.. but since i just had landed from another country and cause of the SARS scare they took me in inmediately.. withitn 15 minutes I had both an MRI and Cat Scan toghether with tons of blood tests.. they where able to rule SARS out, gave me an intramuscular painkiller that hurted my asss like there was no tomorrow and dismissed me, all of this in just 2 hours since I walked in, as per free NON URGENT care.. you can even get nosejobs here.. my mother got her nosejob done at a public hospital for free. the only thing she had to do is let a tons of medicine students watch the surgery and she had to wait for like 6 months.. for boob jobs you are supposed to pay for the implants but the rest is all free.. If you can wait like 1 year, you can even get Lasik for free..

yeah thats not too bad, when i was living in edmonton and i broke my arm, my hospital wait was 20 min to see someone

after i moved to vancouver the hospital wait was way longer...just depends on how big the city is and how busy the hospital is.

But hey i dont mind waiting, imagine paying just for someone to see you and then paying more to get you fixed up..that would suck

Healthcare isn't "free" anywhere. Somebody always has to pay for it.

The questions are:

1. Should the taxpayers have to pay for everybody else?
2. Is the fraud and poor care offset by the benefits of government management?
3. Can the government manage healthcare better than the free market?

I say NO to all.

Do you pop up in every thread uttering garbage?? *lol*

So far you are an "expert" on the technical aspects of Michael Moore's abilities as a film maker plus an authority on " Islamofascists" and explaining why the world should show more "sympathy" as though they don't know anything about terrorism.

You don't happen to do free brain surgery?? If so, operate on yourself...

You want something well done - you got to pay for it. You can get shit for free.

1) They already do. The question is will we save money by having everyone receive preventive care as opposed to the uninsured showing up in emergency rooms like they do now.

2) See #1. The poor are already cared for via medicaid. The rich can get whatever they want, it's the people in the middle who are at the mercy of whatever coverage their employers decide to offer or whatever HMO they can buy a policy through privately.

3) Yes absolutely. If the government was managing healthcare their job would be to....drum roll.....wait for it.....PROVIDE HEALTHCARE.
The free market is there to make a profit, the easiest way to make a profit is to collect your premiums and then deny you care.

If the government does a bad job of running healthcare, we get TO FIRE the people in charge, once every two years.
If your HMO does a bad job running your healthcare, guess what you get to do?
Take it up the ass. They're exempt from lawsuits, you have no recourse, they deny treatment and you die.

If the free market is so great for everything, then why is the government in charge of national security? The military? Police Departments? Fire Departments? Public drinking water? Why are utilities regulated monopolies instead of free markets like the one that worked so well in California a few years ago?

Why not just hire private contractors to handle all of these things?

Maybe because some things are too important to the public good to allow them to be run by a profit driven company.
Some things are so important that we, the people, insist on having the power to hire and fire those who run such things (via the democratic process)

Health care doesn't follow the rules of a free market because it isn't optional. If the price of eggs gets too high, people will start eating bagels for breakfast. That's the way the free market is supposed to work.

When the price of life saving medicine or medical treatment is too high, what other choice do people have? They can either pay, or die.

Well said Lenny. :thumbsup

interesting stuff so far....

I'm from Argentina, and we have Public Hospitals 100% free. Either way, I pay for a private medicine plan, it's better to avoid long waits (not that much, though, either it's free or paid, you gotta wait anyway). However, other than luxury rooms and stuff, public medicine is WAY better than private, ie I take my daughters to public hospitals for a better attention and diagnosis, and if needed they go to a private clinic but only AFTER they've been diagnosed at a public hospital.

Either way, the best public medicine I know of is Cuba's public medicine system. My uncle has cancer and he had a medulla replacement for 1/4 of what it would have cost here. Of course, he had to pay since he's not Cuban, but he told me people there had exactly the same treatment for free. And I know quite a bunch of people who goes from here to Cuba for expensive or really difficult treatment, it's quite common here. As a matter of fact, Argentina made a deal with Cuba for 1000 or so doctors to come here to work and train local doctors, especially in remote locations.

Another places I was told are really good on this matter are Israel, Denmark, Sweden and Venezuela. Personally, I think Argentina's health system is quite good, Mexico, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil health system sucks ball (from my personal experience, even tho as a foreigner to those countries maybe we just had bad luck). btw, didn't see that movie, so no idea what it says

Nice post Lenny. That about sums it up.

1- let's put it this way: from your words I understand you think health is only what happens to you. Now imagine a place without a public health system, where all people who can't pay gets ill and unattended. That's the fastest way to an epidemic source. Bang, you're dead or severely ill, no matter if you can pay or not.

2- no idea so won't answer

3- of course, what kind of question is that? free market can manage money, not health (let's not even start with health policies, health education, long term plans and all those thing you don't want to pay with your taxes)

Now, just curious: what would you like your taxes to be used for? Weapons? Politician payrolls? Really interested in your answer.

health care is free and so is the 70% tax rate to pay for it.
70% of every dollar you make goes to the government.
its great.

Pretty much the same in Spain, although you don't chose your doctor, you get one assigned. Normally if you just go in for a check up it can take up to 2 weeks to see one. If you're sick you go at a time where they don't have an appointment (normally there are no appointments after 16:30, so anyone that shows up then get's to see a doc in max 1 hour).

Couple of times I'd had to go to a hospital, once for an infection in my eye due to contact lenses, get dealt with straight away. Second needed stitches in my chin, also got dealt with straight away, didn't have to pay anything either time.

.............bump

Part of the perception that the US gov' could never run healthcare properly, may come from looking at Military Health Care... which is essentially socialized medicine.

It may be reasonable to expect government managed health care to turn out like military medicine. I have no personal experience, but my father was in the Navy for 20 years, and has nothing good to say about it, at all, other than it was free.

Thats where you should be using democracy to demand changes and focus on quality of care. If the current admin doesn't want to do it, then elect someone that will. Don't let the government dictate what is what and just accept it as they have the power. The people have the power they just gotta get informed and unite to make it happen. In a me first society like the US that is harder than said of course. I fear Canada is slowly migrating that direction too but so far its good. Harper came out last week and set a date for withdrawal in the war unless the people want to continue. That goes against his nature but he knows that if he went with what he wanted, his government would lose the next election. They still fear the people and know that change can happen at any time.

any more stories?

lol we only pay like 3% more on tax and we get free healthcare.

FUCK YOU :321gfy:

:)

hey harvey !!! sos Argentino?

I feel pretty good about our system.. we had our baby in the local childrens hospital all through May and recieved pretty good care.. no costs at all.. had to wait a month to get access though, but had the option of selecting another hospital or be sent abroad (everything cost free)... we selected to stay since it was the easiest solution (we could sleep at home)...

Hard to complain when living in Norway these days... 28% tax isn't fucked up either?

bump for more.

Here are some stats from the WHO about costs of healthcare systems in some of the countries portrayed in Sicko:

Canada:
Total expenditure on health as percentage of gross domestic product ? 9.8 percent
General government expenditure on health as percentage of total government expenditure ?
17.1 percent

France:
Total expenditure on health as percentage of gross domestic product ? 10.5 percent
General government expenditure on health as percentage of total government expenditure ?
15.4 percent

UK:
Total expenditure on health as percentage of gross domestic product ? 8.1 percent
General government expenditure on health as percentage of total government expenditure ?
15.9 percent

US:
Total expenditure on health as percentage of gross domestic product ? 15.4 percent
General government expenditure on health as percentage of total government expenditure ?
18.9 percent

It looks like those of us in the US already pay enough for our healthcare compared to other countries. We just need to fix the system.