Attn: All Canadians

[sodamntired]

have you ever had a problem with the health care system in Canada?

 

I grew up in Canada and don't remember receiving any less than excellent care. I now live in America, and What I have been hearing from people south of the border is how "socialized medicine doesn't work! you have to wait too long and the lines are ridiculous!"

 

John Stossel of 20/20 had a news special, comparing free health care to giving away free food. people will line up and for anything free, and at the end, nobody gets what they need.

The help I got from Dr. Black at the Children's Hospital in Winnipeg ensured that I have developed as healthy as possible.

 

So anyone else?

[Lauren]

the problem with what john stossel said is that we usually do get what we need, we just don't have to pay and arm and a leg for it.

 

i've never had an issue with canadian healthcare.

[sodamntired]

yeah, well, John Stossel also said on a report that America would be safer if everyone could carry concealed weapons.

 

 

what a moron.

[Lauren]

however, i am so attracted to him. maybe it's the mustache?

[sodamntired]

he's like Geraldo light. i have liked him in the past, but he's turned ultra-conservative. lame.

Edited September 17, 2007 by sodamntired

[hum-an-ole]

I haven't been impressed with the health care in Moncton. I was left on a bed in the hall of our city hospital for three days, with Demerol being injected into my ass every 4 hours for the pain in my abdomen, waiting for an ultra sound, only to find out that my ovary had twisted and rotted over those three days and I had to have it surgically removed. If they had done the ultra sound when I got there and saw the cyst that caused the twisting, I may not be missing an organ right now

[Sparq]

John Stossel also said on a report that America would be safer if everyone could carry concealed weapons.

 

what a moron.

Maybe not. A different issue, though.

 

I dunno....we do have lines for things like MRIs, but uh...not the cliche image of a soviet gulag food queue.

[spring90]

I haven't been impressed with the health care in Moncton. I was left on a bed in the hall of our city hospital for three days, with Demerol being injected into my ass every 4 hours for the pain in my abdomen, waiting for an ultra sound, only to find out that my ovary had twisted and rotted over those three days and I had to have it surgically removed. If they had done the ultra sound when I got there and saw the cyst that caused the twisting, I may not be missing an organ right now

Edited September 17, 2007 by spring90

[Crusader]

my entire family and i have never experienced any problems with the health care system. always had what i needed/wanted whenever i went to a doctor.

[Lauren]

my entire family and i have never experienced any problems with the health care system. always had what i needed/wanted whenever i went to a doctor.

me too.

 

and i'm not trying to explain away the mistreatment of patients (there is no reason to be in the hallway of a hospital for three days) but as far as diagnoses go... there are a million and one things that can go wrong with the human body. no one is perfect. doctors don't want people to die either... they will do their best.

[Guest Prosis]

Yeah I saw that show as well. Where he is right is when he says that people will go to the hospital for no valid reasons and that happens a lot. But on the other hand, when my wife and I decide to get a kid, it won't cost us a thing, if we're sick, it's still free.

 

So it's a double edged blade really. Because yes our healthcare system is not of great quality and you have to wait a whole lot (my wife had a cerebral concussion last year so she was considered as urgent...she saw a doctor 6 hours after we came in and I had to stay awake beside her to wake her up every half hour so she could sleep without danger)...but it's free.

[Ravenous megin-sane]

i've had a problem with the health care system. my family doctor got a job at a hospital so her practice was shut down, so all her paitents had to find a new doctor. that was when i was 12 and still no other doctors will take us.

 

i've had many, many medical problems since then and because i'm not with any doctors they've often prescribed me a medication that doesn't help or makes things worse and they say "we don't know why that didn't help" and then give up. i'm stil living with those problems now so you can say i'm pretty bitter towards the whole field now.

[Guest Prosis]

Yeah I understand what you mean. When my depression started, I had no family doctor. I had to go see an emergency clinic and get the doctor to prescribe my medication. Now my psychologist has arranged for that doctor to follow me because I need the medication for at least a year. So I sorta had to force my way in. That is a huge downside to our medical system.

[matrix]

Being that I've lived in both countries and had both health care systems, I would love to go back to a free health care. As any health care, you're going to have wait times anywhere, don't think because you pay for it, you get better treatment. Paying for my health insurance, I still had to wait three hours to see a doctor before they would see me when I had chest pains and couldn't breath properly, and then I had to ask for a x-ray.

[Guest Prosis]

See topics like that are good because you get to see both sides of a coin.

[Ravenous megin-sane]

i think free healthcare is great and i wouldn't have it any other way, it just doesn't work all the time.

[Lauren]

nothing works all the time.

[heyrabbit]

I don't like free(someone-else-pays-for-it) health care. free health care is useless when you're dead. The system is so slow that it can take months to DIAGNOSE patients. you might have cancer, come back in a month for your pre-pre-pre-pre operation appointment. we'll operaate on you in 2010, woo it's "freeee!"

[Guest Prosis]

Sure but how much does it cost to get a diagnosis/treatment/operation for cancer in the US? Maybe you'd be better off ignoring the growth so that your family can eat while you're dying...

 

See that's what I mean when I say double edged dagger.

 

And it's not a "someone-else-pays-for-it" system but rather a "everyone-pays-for-it" system. The taxation system in Canada works differently than the US.

[Azalroth]

nothing works all the time.

took the words out of my mouth

[heyrabbit]

Sure but how much does it cost to get a diagnosis/treatment/operation for cancer in the US? Maybe you'd be better off ignoring the growth so that your family can eat while you're dying...

 

See that's what I mean when I say double edged dagger.

 

And it's not a "someone-else-pays-for-it" system but rather a "everyone-pays-for-it" system. The taxation system in Canada works differently than the US.

yeah but what's "it"? "it" is everyone else's health care. everyone pays for everyone else's health care... What are the chances that someone receives medical treatment proportionate to the amount they pay in taxes? it's a ridiculous questoin.

 

The U.S. system is more moral, but with a bullshit economy, nobody can afford to live.

[matrix]

The US system is more moral? Healthcare should be available to everyone. Choosing between going to the doctor because I have a chest pain and paying my mortgage is not something I like to do. I don't know how you can sit there and say the US system is more moral. Yeah, it's more moral to the individuals who can afford it. The same way US taxes are more moral to the wealthy and give them bigger tax cuts.

[silentshadow]

When I was in the Canadian Mounties we just saw indian witch doctors and that only cost a chicken foot.

 

 

Ok, I lied. Both systems seem to have some major flaws. I'm kind of undecided.

[ToadMan]

Ah, a Neo-Classical Liberal argument vs a Welfare Liberal argument.

 

In terms of wait time:

 

USA average wait time 3.7 hours (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/44453.php)

 

Canada average wait time ~51 minutes (http://www.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page=media_14sep2005_e)

 

Though the data doesn't lend well to comparison.

 

I'm a huge fan of socialized health care. It would suck if you got told that they won't treat you because your HMO doesn't cover xyz.

[hum-an-ole]

I'm definitely happy that I didn't have to pay for my surgery. It was just an unnecessarily extremely shitty experience.