Quebec healthcare legalizes "private care?"

Mr. Clutch,
My wife is Canadian and so is her mother. I have never seen unreasonable healthcare...just the opposite. I'm sure in any system you can find problems...and journalists do a real good job of blowing things out of proportion (like runaway brides). Before you form your opinion about Canadian healthcare, try asking a few Canadians first.

The American health system routinely outperforms the rest of the world in leading edge technologies because of the capatilistic model. Thats the upside. So for those that can afford it, its great. The downside is that those that can't afford it, don't get proper care, if at all. Hopefully someday we can find a middle ground.

My mother worked in advertising for 30 years paying SS and Medicare. At 60 she moved to Florida to persue a dream to start her own business which utlimately failed and left her w/out insurance. She then got eye surgergy rendering her legally blind (so she can't drive...so what work can she do?) Then it got worse, she got heart problems requiring open heart surgery...then got breast cancer...all in just over ONE year. It's very sad.

At 60, she was a model American citizen. Amazingly, she is surviving but had every procedure covered without any insurance so that ruined her credit. This is EXACTLY reason why your insurance rates have increased because of people like my mother. At least she got decent care but YOU paid for it. In the end, how is that different than Canada? All that did was make her feel like a begger and increases your insurance rates. It continues because she has credit agencies hounding her. How does she pay over 100k in medical bills when she can't work? Now she basically can't afford all her medications so she picks and choses which ones SHE thinks are important. What is that?

I don't know the answer but its a damned shame that honest hardworking Americans can't get proper medical care. My mother would have gladly waited in a "long line" to get her procedures taken care of. For her, its better than the alternative. It could happen to you too. In this day of no pensions and retirement plans, it could happen to anybody.

 

I'll agree with that.

Put another way, if a country can afford health care and education to the upper and middle class, a country should ensure the poor are not being excluded.

America is essentially depriving the poor from decent healthcare. In that context, it IS a breach of basic human rights.

 

Yes, this is the way I see it too. And even from a strictly financial standpoint it makes sense. A country’s citizens are its assets. The better trained and productive they are the more the country will benefit. Uneducated and sick or otherwise debilitated citizens are not as productive. Education and good basic health care are investments a country makes in its citizens.

 

I'm pretty familiar that when government runs something there is generally a lot of waste. You are arguing that these things aren't systemic, yet the Canadian health system that you think is so great is having exactly those problems! You are saying that the shortages and long waiting lists are no big deal, I think you could be wrong there.

How many multi-payers systems are you familiar with? None I suspect. You’re just regurgitating rhetoric that you’ve been fed somewhere along the line. A lot of the waste doesn't have to do with multi-paying. There is lots of red tape in the American system that has little to do with the multi-payer aspect. I bet there are a lot more malpractice lawsuits in the US than in Canada as well, which adds a tremendous amount of waste.

Of course there is research done in Canada, but I bet the amount of research done in America dwarfs it. We would never have a shortage of doctors or nurses here, because we don't have to wait for the government to do what the market does naturally.

 

Mr. Clutch, you conveniently did not respond to my previous post. My wife is Canadian and I do not recall hearing anything about long lines. Just the opposite. The system works but any system has its flaws...including ours. Just because one news source (who also writes incessantly about runaway brides and shark attacks) says there are long lines, doesn't indicate a larger problem. Have you spoken with any Canadians about these "long lines?"

 

There are long lines.

It's the biggest challenge facing the canadian health care system. The debate between allowing private care is big here. Does it supplement a public system, or drain resources from it?

But don't let the challenges faced by the Canadian system stop you from getting your act together with regards to the millions of uninsured Americans. The UK, France and Sweden (and others, i'm sure) have private and public care. Draw from the system that makes most sense...but get on with it. The US has some of the greatest medical care in the world. It's shameful it's unaccessible to some of your own. And that it means economic ruin for others.

 

You’re not paying attention to the thread. You’re contradicting things that have already been explained and you’re misrepresenting what I said. You clearly have a position you’re holding on to and you’re not letting facts get in the way so, I don’t think there’s any point in carrying on with this.


Re: the lines.
There are lines in some places for some things. It differs from province to province. The reasons for this were discussed above as well as the fact that funding is being increased and lines reduced. This has been the #1 issue for Canadians in recent years and governments are responding. That’s democracy at work.

 

Maybe it isn't perfect (and either is the US system) but my wife and mother and law both had surgical procedures (in Ontario) without a hitch.

Hell, even Costa Rica has universal health care. Yet, my mother who has worked her whole life can't get insurance now. Nice.