My Canadian brothers, how is the Healthcare up North?
 

I don't give a rat's ass what your opinion is on the recent health care debacle, this is simply getting information from people who are currently on the same health care that is about to get forced upon us Americans. I have two young daughters and it absolutely terrifies me. But it terrifies me because I don't know what's coming.

Can someone from Canada tell me how you health care works and if it does indeed work? I have heard nightmare stories, I've heard heart warming stories, and I've heard mixed opinions. Since a very similar health care plan is about to be put into place in the U.S., please let me know the pros and cons.

Do they really walk people out of the ER if they don't feel they have life threatening injuries/illnesses? Do they really make you wait up to 8 months to see a doctor? Please let me know how you feel about your health care because this entire thing is scaring the shit out of me! It's almost to the point where I want to put a doctor on my payroll just so I can call him when I need him.

Is it really that bad or are the Republicans spreading a lot of negative propaganda?

Depending on your problems you can have a long waiting list for MRI's ,specialists etc.I pay 57 bucks a month and if I have any minor problems I can walk into a clinic and get fixed up that day.it has it's pro's and cons.My mom had a heart attack and was asked to leave the next day as they needed the bed

i had to wait a week for MRI, got blood work, xrays, cat scan, stayed over night in the hospital.

total bill $0.00

From what I read, the US isn't adopting anything near a Canadian system. At most, they'll make it mandatory to have insurance and make it harder for a company to drop its sicker clients. There may be extra subsidies to people who can't afford the going rates.

That's not a Canadian system. No need to worry.

I was actually starting to feel better based on the responses from our friends up North. Now I want the Canadian system. :winkwink:

I wish they would just put it all out on the table and say, here, here is the health care bill. Read it, dissect it, and then make a decision on what's best for you or your family. All this obstruction and blacked out media coverage is the worst thing ever. I like to always know what's going on and in this case, I have the foggiest clue.

Pretty Damn Good...

http://www.minnesotamajority.org/Por...anadaLarge.jpg

America can not afford a Canadian style heath care system.

People who have had life threatening situations will tell you that they didn't have to pay a dime for all the treatment they received, and are very grateful for the system.

People who didn't or have only had minor hospital experiences will tell you that the system is a massive pain in the ass, wait lists are long, and the "freeness" doesn't make up for the income tax rates.

i'll put it to you this way. if you don't have a canada health card you're fucked. i have a canada healthcard now, but prior to that i went to the hospital for a really bad cold, not sure what i had but it was bad enough to warrant seeing someone about it. told reception at ER i didn't have a healthcard yet because my immigration shit was pending. they would not let me see a doctor or trial nurse unless i paid them $420cad on the spot, cash or credit. i coughed right up outta there and suffered. the system is not so bad once you actually have a health card like 100% of the population there. but for foreigners there is no "send bill later" option, at least in thunder bay ontario

rich people and politicians sometimes go down to the U.S. when they need some medical issue taken care of

there is a big controversy in Canada now because of the top politician in one of the provinces flew to the states to get an operation because he thought that was a better choice than using the Canadian health care system

http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.c...article/972608

Long wait times. Longer than I thought.

Pretty accurate statement there. Anything life threatening, you'll be taken care of asap. Anything else, expect long long delays.
WG

The US news keeps throwing around words like "socialist" and "Canadian style" and "death panels" like they're informing the public, but they're just scaring them. It's nearly impossible to get to the facts with regular coverage.

There was a good article about the progress just yesterday:
http://www.alternet.org/news/145891/...th-care_reform

"Whither the Public Option?

Reconciliation would appear to give the public health insurance option a new lease on life. The House bill has a public option, but the Senate bill doesn’t. The public option was traded away on the Senate side to forge the original filibuster-proof majority. As a procedural matter, the public option could easily be reinserted during reconciliation because it has such a direct impact on the federal budget, i.e., it would save the taxpayer a lot of money. The White House claims to support a public option. Yet Obama didn’t propose one in his health care plan last week.

Some observers take that as a sign that the White House doesn’t think the votes are there. (Cynics say it’s proof the White House never cared about the public option in the first place.) Even Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told radio host Ed Schultz that he can’t support a public option for fear of killing the health care bill, according to Jason Hancock of the Iowa Independent. Harkin has been taking a lot of heat from progressives for refusing to join with other senators in signing a letter calling for a public option."

Believe what you want....I have rarely heard of anybody dieing from cancer from cancer who is under 40. US it is pretty common place. I dont know anybody who lost their house to pay for surgery.

Sure you have high taxation and lousy weather but the people are generally very nice. ..they might cheap but nice lol.

Also Dr.s dont get sued like they do in the US..either way of course there is a pro and a con but if you weigh it with just common sense of course having healthcare for everybody is a good idea. Sure somebody has to pay for it..but fuck you cant take money with you lol

There it is, the real problem with healthcare in the usa is the cost of malpractice insurance, which stems from the sue-happy nature of americans :helpme

When my first daughter was born, they put her in the NICU for 3 days. They took amazing care of her and saved her life. It cost me $62 in parking fees.

I read a similar store of a GFY'er in the US who paid over $100K for his baby to spend 3 days in the NICU in the US.

That is not the real problem, but just a talking point of the right wing media .. to make believe that that alone would solve the issue.

It barely accounts for 1% of the cost .

As for the system here in Canada, my dad had a heart attack 3 years ago. Went in right away, got operated ( unclogging of 3 artheries ) in the middle of the night ( teams of anasthesist/doctors were called in ), was put in a volontary coma.
Walked out of there 10 days later : total bill 0.00
Oh, before that, got operated for colon cancer less then a week after diagnosis
Regular visit to his cardio doctor, suffered another one 18 monts later . In a week , cost : 0.00
Last may, they found that a dark spot on his leg was cancer. Operated on it 4 days later, got out .
A month ago,heart problem again . They gave him a pacemaker ... Got out, but week .
Went back two weeks ago , got again blood transfusions, various tests/treatment.

This time, he did not make it and died Saturday the 13th .

His whole cost was 0.00 .... making it that me and my 2 sisters have a decent inheritance instead of a pile of bills ....

What is proposed/discussed/bashed in the USA has nothing to do with what we, or the UK, or France, or Australia has ....

I hope you have no universal healthcare system .. because you just don't deserve it.

I've been in and out of the system with several sports injuries over the years and I'm absolutely happy with it here. There's always room for improvement and our system isn't as good as some other countries but it's not too shabby.

I've had to get 3 MRIs over the years and the last one was purely diagnostic so I was put on a 5 month waiting list. Now the waiting lists here work in like a triage in an emergency room. If you need one because of a stroke or other serious condition you get in same day or first thing the next day. If you need one just cause you're a paranoid retard you wait. My wait ended up being 5 weeks out of the 5 month max.

One thing you have to pay attention to from the anti-universal health care camp is that they'll always use stats from a particular province like Ontario to prove their point or more specifically a hospital in Toronto which is the worst in the country. It's like looking at the shittiest hospital in the US and saying it's representative of the whole system.