Canada Ping!
Posted on 02/23/2013 8:57:19 PM PST by Bryan
I'm vacationing with the wife and baby in Arizona. A small group of Chicago area conservatives has been coming down here to see the Cubs in spring training since before there was a Tea Party. It's an annual pilgrimage.
We meet out here at a reasonably priced resort in the middle of the desert, while the snow flies and the wind howls in Chicago. While waiting for the first game of spring training -- most of us do show up a few days early -- and during the warm evenings after the games, we hang around in the heated swimming pool and the jacuzzi, under the swaying palm trees and a clear blue sky, and we talk about all kinds of stuff.
Today we were joined by a Canadian conservative. Not the usual kind of Canadian conservative; no, this guy was a conservative even by Tea Party standards. He hates the Canadian health care system enough to speak candidly about it, and explain what's wrong with it, in a way that a left-wing Obamabot never would.
Health care is allegedly free in Canada, paid for with their high taxes. As it so often happens with left-wing propaganda, to a very limited extent it's true, but there's a lot that they're not telling you. Only the actual work done by doctors and nurses is free.
If you stay in a hospital, you have to pay for the room; if you have surgery, you also have to pay rent for the surgical suite and it's priced like a not-so-reasonably-priced resort. If you need medications or medical supplies, you have to pay for those too. The low price of medicine in Canada is well-known, but it isn't free. Our Canadian guest had a broken ankle a couple of months ago, and he had to pay $300 for the cast and the crutches.
That isn't free medical care. Not by a long shot.
It was revealed to us that Canadian health insurance is not an oxymoron. They do have health insurance, covering the cost of the hospital room, the medications and the medical supplies. And just like America, poor people get it paid by the government, working people generally get it as part of the fringe benefits from their employers, and retirees also get it from the government. And if you don't have it, paying for the hospital room and medical supplies and medications can get very, very expensive.
Food for thought ... as the hidden costs of Obamacare, the fees, the taxes and the increases in the deficit, are finally coming to light. Nancy said that we had to pass the bill to find out what's in it. Well, here we are, and we're finding out.
Thanks, Nancy.
And as we all know, they have a certain degree of rationing in their health care system. In Canada, if your doctor says you need knee replacement surgery, getting an MRI to confirm his diagnosis will take no less than six weeks. Here in the United States, the doctor orders the MRI today and you’re getting the MRI tomorrow.
Once you get the MRI, in Canada the knee replacement surgery gets approved, but then you land on another waiting list and this one’s a year long, or even longer. America, this is your future.
Two questions: Can you “keep your own doctor” and are there death panels?
In Canada, there really isn’t any such thing as “your own doctor.” There’s the doctor that the government sent out to practice medicine in a slightly larger town 40 miles away. Since the next closest one is 220 miles away, that one will have to do.
Death panels? When you’re seriously ill and you’re on a waiting list two years long, doesn’t that resemble a death panel?
I saw an interesting movie a while back called “The Barbarian Invasions” about a guy whose father has terminal cancer in Canada, and how he deals with it.
I have heard in the last five years (IIRC) Canada has been loosening the restrictions on opening private imaging centers because they simply couldn’t function because medical imaging had been cut so deeply.
Ok..so I have a question...
Retiree’s get health insurance.
Working people get health insurance.
Poor get insurance.
So who has no insurance? people under retirement age who have no job but enough assets? That is only a small percentage of population?
So if all these people have health insurance, they won’t have to pay all those resort price hospital rooms, right?
I am confused.
Unemployed who have assets don’t qualify for public aid, so no health insurance. People with crappy jobs also have no health insurance because their employers won’t provide it.
Bryan, my point is from your post it gave me the impression MOST people are covered by health insurance from somewhere.
So why is the hospital rooms cost an issue?
Your Canadian friend is misleading you. There is no fee for hospital rooms unless you opt for private or semi-private, there is no charge for a cast, and a pair of crutches is $30. I was injured in a motorcycle spill outside the city and my only out-of-pocket expenses were $30 for crutches and $45 for a 40-mile ambulance ride.
Not true. There is a shortage of doctors in smaller towns but in any decent-sized city there are plenty of options.
Canada Ping!
Canada Ping!
Reading all posts in this thread, I have to conclude that MOST people in Canada have health insurance. Unless you want a semi-private room or better, hospitals costs little to most people. Ambulance charges are very low. My daughter was billed $800 for a ambulance ride 2 months ago in Seattle area. Medicines are much cheaper in Canada.
The main problem I see is long waits for non-life-threatening issues such as hip joint or knee replacements, and long waits for expensive diagnostic procedures such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging).
Not sure why but Government seems to focus on insurance. Does that really get you better care or just spread the cost among others?
All of this discussion about health care and insurance is a bit mute. Health care has nothing to doe (directly) with actual health care. That will be abundantly clear shortly.
When the government gets involved, the prices go up, the Doctors demand more, and so do he Hospitals.
Not really sure why our government is so focused on insurance instead of health care - they are not the same! I assume that it is because the insurance industry supports the government so there you go... It has little to do with reducing costs - actually it will always increase costs when government is involved.
So why the exodus of Governors and States to support the current laws - Money! The States get 100% backing of the Federal Government for 3 years (Medicaid) - the following years are questionable but what the heck, they will probably not be in office or running. That is just another of our problems - Politicians always advance ideas until their next political election.
See any problem with this?
Health Insurance has little to do with good health care! When you finally realize that, you will be making great strides.
Barbra Streisand, more people go bankrupt due to lack of good health insurance than any other reason. Especially true for people with serious health problems and seniors.
Heh... Love the Streisand quote. 95% or probably more have never had a problem with bankruptcy! It is just the 5% or so that are suffering major sicknesses that overshoot their insurance.
Reality, if most folks had insurance but limited it to catastrophic only - would the costs go down? Does the Government intruding on what is required for insurance affecting the rates? Do any of you care?
Really, if you keep increasing the costs but limiting the charges that actual Doctors can charge (ie, Insurance companies and Government) you will get degraded services.
Note to self - stay away from Medicare or Medicaid!
You silly Insurance folks are missing the result of your efforts - by a very long shot!
We can agree on the whole insurance structure is cock eyed.
Obamacare has made it even worse because there is nothing, Zip, Zero Nada in it to reduce healthcare costs.
>> Why can’t we buy insurance out of state?
>> Why can’t we import drugs?
>> Why is there no policy covering catastrophic only?
>> Why there are no restrictions on increasing health insurance premiums such as rates on utilities?
Obamacare is simply wealth distribution from the have’s to have not’s, with no incentives for the have not’s to improve their situation.
I would have no problem with the Canadian health system. It has cost limits on everyday healthcare at least. One can always fly to Thailand or India or Costa Rica for catastrophic to avoid the delays if one has the means.
Yes.
and are there death panels?
No
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