Universal Health Care

[Hoser]

But it's not a right.

Nor have been many rights we enjoy and would die for now.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

No I would not. I don't believe effective state run healthcare is possible. It's been shown time and time again that people do not get the services they need in a timely manner, if at all.

Well my experience would beg to differ. Living in Ontario Canada my wife has had several sudden medical issues over the past 6 year. Once we were away on vacation and after getting her into the local hospital they decided she needed to be flown down to Toronto so they got a helecopter and took her down.

Other times she required a MRI and was able to get one within an hour of the decision being made.

All of this without being billed a single cent. Now that's what I call my tax dollars at work and a good system. Sure it has room for improvement but it's one hell of a good system even as it is.

Thanks for your comments. I'll try and find some opposing views on the Canadian system.

 

[Daedalus12]

If you want to understand health care's problem in the U.S. you MUST read this article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all


It's important for everyone to read it, I think.

Indeed it's a very good article. Though I already agreed with most of the points it made prior to reading it. Most of those points I've garnered before from various CATO (libertarian think tank) studies and even Milton Friedman's essays on fixing health care. The only difference between them (CATO/Friedman vs the New Yorker article) is on how to reduce the over-treatments.

 

[Sledder]

No I would not. I don't believe effective state run healthcare is possible. It's been shown time and time again that people do not get the services they need in a timely manner, if at all.

Well my experience would beg to differ. Living in Ontario Canada my wife has had several sudden medical issues over the past 6 year. Once we were away on vacation and after getting her into the local hospital they decided she needed to be flown down to Toronto so they got a helecopter and took her down.

Other times she required a MRI and was able to get one within an hour of the decision being made.

All of this without being billed a single cent. Now that's what I call my tax dollars at work and a good system. Sure it has room for improvement but it's one hell of a good system even as it is.

Thanks for your comments. I'll try and find some opposing views on the Canadian system.

I tend to find the people complaining about the Canadian system are having to wait too long for less than serious services. Fortunately I've never had to have a cast for a broken arm or anything fairly minor like that, but it's my understanding that the wait times for those non-critical things tends to be too long.

However I can live with that while we work toward fixing it if it means we have a system like we do to.

 

[SeerSGB]

No I would not. I don't believe effective state run healthcare is possible. It's been shown time and time again that people do not get the services they need in a timely manner, if at all.

Well my experience would beg to differ. Living in Ontario Canada my wife has had several sudden medical issues over the past 6 year. Once we were away on vacation and after getting her into the local hospital they decided she needed to be flown down to Toronto so they got a helecopter and took her down.

Other times she required a MRI and was able to get one within an hour of the decision being made.

All of this without being billed a single cent. Now that's what I call my tax dollars at work and a good system. Sure it has room for improvement but it's one hell of a good system even as it is.

Which is what pretty much jives with what my wife has told me about when she lived in Canada. About the only time I've heard of any of my in-laws waiting in Canada is one of my wife's cousins whose on a waiting list to get a corn removed and that's because her family doc. is on vacation and she doesn't want to see another doc.

Now compare this to my wife's Manager elderly mother-- fully insured through private carriers-- who laid in a hospital for 3 days this week-- pumped full of antibiotics and on oxygen-- waiting for Bluecross to decide whether or not to authorize a MRI on her heart to determine if she needed surgery or not, and then they called the woman in the hospital and bitched at her daughter cause the mother didn't get a pre authorization before going to the hospital.

My father in law-- Ontario-- went for a work physical, complained that his chest felt tight the last couple of days but he was sure it was a cold, and they had him in the hospital running checks on him right then. Didn't even let him go home, his ass was in the hospital getting the full work up. Saved him.

My uncle's family was socked with a big bill after he died of cancer due to the fact that "Upon review" his chemo wasn't considered medically necessary since he day 2 months into it so they weren't going to pay for the last several treatments. Last I heard-- last year-- they're still fighting that in court.

 

[DiSiLLUSiON]

(The) Most developed countries have Universal Health Care, as far as I know. If it wouldn't work, they would've gone over to some other system by now.

 

[Daedalus12]

If you want to understand health care's problem in the U.S. you MUST read this article:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

As mentioned before and now I provide a link. A CATO study published at the beginning of this year that addresses the same questions.

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa632.pdf