Does free health care work in those countries that have it

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We have never had any trouble. Sometimes we have to wait for things, but it had never been life-threatening.

I got hit by a bus a few years ago. A few months ago, I hit my head really hard and got a concussion - I had to go for a CT scan. My husband is continually at the clinic because he is always cutting himself, getting bitten by dogs, and other minor accidents in the course of his normal workday. My mother had breast cancer, and my father had to have a kidney transplant.

I’m sure we’d all be either homeless or dead if we’d had to pay for those treatments ourselves.

I thank God for the health care system; I have no idea what people do who have to pay for it themselves - I read messages on here and elsewhere about people having to take second jobs so that they can pay for the injuries from their kid’s accident (broken leg, or whatever) and wow, am I ever glad I live in Canada when I read about stuff like that - a simple accident can completely destroy your whole life, if you live in the US and you’re not one of the wealthy ones.
 
For those in “universal healthcare” countries…How easy is it to get a second opinion? How easy is it to get a second opinion from a specialst of your choosing? Must you go to a state doctor to get the state to pay for the medical bill?
 
gmarie21 said:
For those in “universal healthcare” countries…How easy is it to get a second opinion?
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Pretty easy. You can go to any doctor - you just make an appointment. You can see as many doctors as you want.
How easy is it to get a second opinion from a specialst of your choosing?
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It’s just a matter of getting the appointment. It’s easier to get the appointment if your family doctor recommends you. If you want a specific individual, it depends on that person’s schedule.
Must you go to a state doctor to get the state to pay for the medical bill?
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Yes, you have to go to a doctor who is in the system, to get the government to pay the bill. You can also go to Chinese and Native medicine men if you want non-traditional medicine, but these aren’t covered by the system, and there are no government safeguards - you are taking your own risk, if you use their services.

We don’t have any traditional Western doctors who aren’t covered by the system - it is not possible to just come along and set up a clinic or doctor’s office without registering with the government and ensuring that they actually have Western-style medical credentials. Once they’re approved and in the system, the government pays for all their services.

The Chinese and Native medicine men are unregulated.
 
It should be noted in Canada that the doctors cannot really be called “state doctors” They are independent business men. They decide their own hours, who will be patients, how much to pay their staff. What they do is bill the governement insurance plan at a rate that is agreed upon by the government and the provincial medical colleges, (not schools, but the doctors’ professional association).
 
SyCarl said:
It should be noted in Canada that the doctors cannot really be called “state doctors” They are independent business men. They decide their own hours, who will be patients, how much to pay their staff. What they do is bill the governement insurance plan at a rate that is agreed upon by the government and the provincial medical colleges, (not schools, but the doctors’ professional association).
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Good point.
 
When I got married, I moved to Canada from the US.
My first child was born with a minor birth defect and was moved from the hospital where she was born to a hospital down the street for minor surgery and a cast. Cost to get the wife out of the first hospital $6 (I paid for a six pack of baby formula and the phone in her room.) Cost for transporting the baby to another hospital $0. Cost to get the daughter out of the other hospital where she had spent a week $0.
My second daughter and I have had allergy problems and were on injections. Cost of testing and on-going visits for injections $0. Private insurance through work paid for allergy serum.
Two children were diagnosed with obscure bone malady and needed to see a specialist once a month for about a year. Cost $0.
Canadian health care covers everyone, unlike the situation here in the US where I now reside. Although I make a reasonable wage, I cannot afford the premiums for insurance and I’m self employed so there’s no group plan available. The wife and I have been without health insurance for about 5 years now. I’m being dunned for a couple of blood testings that I had done. I paid the doctor but there is still the lab bills.
I much prefered the Canadian system. It always worked well for my family.

Matthew
 
We’re retired military and our medical/dental insurance is second to none. (Although we wouldn’t go to the VA for anything.) Our prescriptions cost about $3 a bottle. We do have to pay premiums and have a 20% deductible but is worth it. Now that my husband works for the state, we have another insurance company that picks up the extra 20%.
But we are very lucky (of course, my husband sacrificed his life for 25 years for this country and put his life on the line several times).
There are those in our country who cannot afford insurance. However, if I’m not mistaken, doesn’t each state have a program for those who cannot afford health insurance? Correct me if I’m wrong.
 
RWMorris said:
We’re retired military and our medical/dental insurance is second to none. (Although we wouldn’t go to the VA for anything.) Our prescriptions cost about $3 a bottle. We do have to pay premiums and have a 20% deductible but is worth it. Now that my husband works for the state, we have another insurance company that picks up the extra 20%.
But we are very lucky (of course, my husband sacrificed his life for 25 years for this country and put his life on the line several times).
There are those in our country who cannot afford insurance. However, if I’m not mistaken, doesn’t each state have a program for those who cannot afford health insurance? Correct me if I’m wrong.
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my neighbors make just enough money to not qualify for medicare.

the husband can afford the insurance given through his work for himself and his sons. but the amount that he would have to pay for his wife is much, much higher. so, she goes without and hasn’t seen a dr in several years.😦

i have dental insurance through the military. i don’t know how it compares to other dental insurance. sometimes the dental coverage seems a bit arbitrary. when i had an abcessed tooth, it paid for part of the treatment but not the root canal or crown. i had to put off getting that done until i could afford it. i got the root canal. waited a few more months with a temporary filling and then paid for the crown. i’ve been told this is about average though for dental insurance, so i guess that i can’t complain.:o

i’ve got four kids that need braces, maybe i will visit canada:whistle:
 
SyCarl said:
It should be noted in Canada that the doctors cannot really be called “state doctors” They are independent business men. They decide their own hours, who will be patients, how much to pay their staff. What they do is bill the governement insurance plan at a rate that is agreed upon by the government and the provincial medical colleges, (not schools, but the doctors’ professional association).
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I would disagree.

They are State doctors in the sense that they cannot set up their own business indepently from State funding.

In other words, a doctor in Canada cannot open an office and choose to accept cash or private insurance only. He must accept governmental funding ONLY. They get paid by the State and no one but the State.

This is unique in the free world. In other socialized countries, like the UK, there is a combination of public and private financing. The National systems cover the basics, and it can be supplemented by private insurance.

Nursing is the same way. I’d say a good third of the nurses in Detroit are Canadian. They are paid substantially more over here than in Canada.

In Canada, it’s the state hospitals, or nothing.
 
Brendan:

I will tell my son about the MRI for dogs in Windsor:D He has a retired greyhound as a pet. Wonderful animal, but if it ever gets sick he’ll know where to send it.

Windsor is a small town, and MRIs are in London, Ont, Hamilton,Ont, and Toronto Ont, to be sure, and no doubt in many other places as well, all for human use.

Free health care as you call it started in the province of Saskatchewan, by Tommy Douglas, premier, and a former Minister of Religion. He was what you folks would label “socialist” but he wasn’t really one as the Church defines it.
Back in the sixties I believe he insisted on socializing medicine in that province and the doctors went on strike, so he advertized for English doctors to come over and work there. The government won and the doctors returned to work. Then, later on the Liberal government in Ottawa adopted the National Health scheme and it was very popular with the people. not so with the medical profession or the insurance companies or pharmaceutical giants.

I think there is a move afoot in some provinces like Alberta to offer private services as well as public ones. It is really against the law to do so, but they are trying hard to get around that.

I hope it never happens. Doctors who work for both public and private systems ( in England ) prefer to work privately as they get paid more, and as they are the same doctors who are public, the public system waiting time is increased.
 
My British Father-in-law was set in a corner of the ward and left to die becuase they deemed it was too expensive to continue treating him given his age(eearly 70s). My Father had a similar ailment at a similar age, was treated and lived almost another decade. Socialized medicien is great until you get sick.
 
There was a story on the news last night about a woman dying in a Los Angeles emergency ward - the doctors and nurses stood there and watched her bleed to death on the floor, but they wouldn’t do anything for her.
 
Pondero said:
I think there is a move afoot in some provinces like Alberta to offer private services as well as public ones. It is really against the law to do so, but they are trying hard to get around that.

I hope it never happens. Doctors who work for both public and private systems ( in England ) prefer to work privately as they get paid more, and as they are the same doctors who are public, the public system waiting time is increased.
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And that is the root of the problem with the Canadian system. It does not pay the medical professional what they are worth and there is no check and balance on what the government pays.

If there are private insurance companies that will pay more, it is a sign that the government system needs to pay more.

In Canada, there is no recourse whatsoever. A doctor has no choice but to either take what OHIP pays, or practice in the States.

Not exactly a good way to keep your talented doctors, or inspire talented students to seek practices in Canada.
 
jmcrae said:
There was a story on the news last night about a woman dying in a Los Angeles emergency ward - the doctors and nurses stood there and watched her bleed to death on the floor, but they wouldn’t do anything for her.
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Do you have a link to the story.

Hospitals are required by law to provide Emergency Room services regardless of the ability to pay.

So either threre is more to this story, or well soon see some doctors and nurses doing time in San Quentin prison.
 
Health care is a misnomer. Especially if it were to be socialized. Health service might be more proper - but care?

Back when hospitals were run by nuns you could call it care. They didn’t do this for profit - they did it for charity.

Nobody encourages their children into the religious life anymore - and we’re paying the price.
 
Brendan said:
OK found it.

latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kingdeath2jun02,0,5337242.story

She was inspected by a triage nurse and marked as dischargable.

The nurse has since resigned and the County prosecutor is investigating it.
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That’s good.
I also noticed that this was a County owned and run hospital, yet one more reason to avoid government run systems 😉
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If there were no government hospital, then where would she have gone? The private hospital would certainly not have accepted her.

If only your worst doctors and nurses work at the government hospitals, it’s probably because only the poor pay taxes to support them.

Everyone else has a private hospital membership, so they don’t pay anything into the public system. When only the poor are supporting something, it’s going to be underfunded - that’s just the way of things. But does that mean that the poor should just do without, altogether? Between bad and nothing, I’d rather take bad.
 
if you can’t afford insurance in the U.S. and you get seriousely ill, you die. End of story. Occassionaly sub-standard care from a public system is still better than no care. Those who can afford to still have the choice of going private.
 
cynic said:
if you can’t afford insurance in the U.S. and you get seriousely ill, you die. End of story. Occassionaly sub-standard care from a public system is still better than no care. Those who can afford to still have the choice of going private.
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it sounds like canadians don’t have the option of going private.

i have to admit, i have mixed feelings about the entire subject. in one way, it sounds very compassionate to have goverment provided health care. i have known people who could not afford health insurance. they were not among the poorest people though. instead they were the bottom of the working class. those people who work hard but just don’t make a lot of money.

at the same time, i really don’t trust the goverment to effectively provide something like health care. i worry that advances in medical care will slow down. also, i don’t want to pay very high taxes.
 
deb1 said:
okay, i probably named this thread badly. i was curious how most of the population in those countries that have free health care feel about their care.

I’ve always been afraid that if we adopted free health care in America that the government would somehow mess it up. that might be cynical of me, but part of my thinking comes from being married to a military man and dealing with a free health care system.

for the most part, the military health care system is not bad. i think that the doctors and nurses themselves are very good. but there does seem to be unnecessary red tape and rules.

an example would be several years back, i came down with a sudden infection because my wisdom teeth came in. i was in a lot of pain and was running a fever. the Dr put me on meds and sent me to an off base doctor. the military was willing to pay for my operation to have my wisdom teeth removed but wouldn’t pay for the anesthesia. i had to pay for that myself before the doctor would remove my wisdom teeth. its not like i could shop around for a different Dr. i had to go where the military sent me.

so, i am curious, how does free health care work in countries like England and Canada? are you satisfied with the care you recieve?does the government try to cut cost with your care? do both rich and poor get the same medical care?
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