Posted on 07/31/2009 6:09:45 PM PDT by Libloather
Canadian Health Care: A Viable Model?
John Stossel discovers some dead-serious drawbacks to socialized medicine.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
What a ridiculous statement.
I started my own business from scratch almost 20 years ago.
Maybe you've heard of something called a blackberry? Invented in Canada by Research In Motion.
Java software? Invented in Canada by James Gosling in 1994.
Imax theaters? Canadian.
Etc., Etc.
Zippers? Robertson screwdrivers?
I am Brit living in Canada...all of my life I have lived under some form of government Health Care...first in the UK then 8 years in the Air Force followed by 30 years under the Canadian Health Care system. I consider myself far more of an expert on Medicare than most people on here.
I am 80 years old and in pretty good health apart from diabetes which can be annoying at times. I had a bout with colon cancer 6 years ago..I was taken into hospital on a Thursday and operated on the next day..pretty much the same thing when I had a battle with gall bladder...in one day and out feeling great 4 days later.
All in all I have had very good treatment from all aspects of the various health care systems I have had to use. All the scaremongers who come on here and talk about Canadians dying in hallways ond on sidewalks...waiting 20 years for a hip replacement etc..are full of it! Sure there are waiting lists..sure there are occasions when people drop through the cracks...but this stuff happens in any walk of life.
Trust me when I tell you Canadians for the most part are well treated by their Health Care system. I don’t think that many of us feel that our government is trying to bump us off. Except the moonbats who think the sky is falling every five minutes.
Now I will tell you what is wrong with Government Health Care. First of all we don’t produce enough doctors and nursing staff to fill all vacancies. There are doctors from India and Pakistan working here but the majority of them are legal Canadians who are very fine physicians..(we are a multi racial country after all).
Doctors who graduate and go south to the States soon return after they learn the horrible cost of insurance against certain lawsuits. Working as a doctor in the greatest country on earth must be a hair raising experience..when you think that every move you make could bankrupt you for life and ruin your career. If I was a doctor the US would be the last place on earth I would want to work in.
If I could make changes to Health Care I would try to work out a system of part government and part private health care. We have a sort of system like that here in Alberta but not quite worked out properly yet.
In short...don’t go off on a tangent vilifying every other country that is trying to work out a decent and fair system of Health Care. Try and get sensible and come up with a system that will work for everybody in the USA.
Just remember you can’t please all of the people all of the time...and when you read about governments trying to kill off the elderly take a deep breath and consider it carefully. It is never going to happen..partly because I am armed and dangerous when someone is trying to deep six me!
You get a grip.
You said entrepreneurial spirit -- it's just lacking, not in their mindset.
Maybe you only know losers and looters?
I’d like to see Nancy Pelosi laboring in a room like that. rofl
unfortunately the language written in the bill calls for just that, but couched in such as way as to make it appear like the patient asks for it. Are you being counseled every few years to end your life? How would you feel about that?
and it's not just the elderly, it's babies, and sick children, and because it's eugenics, where does it end?
You aren't going to be armed and dangerous when you have had a stroke and lying in a bed helpless.
Canada has lost its doctors over the last 40 years, and I don't think very many of them went back, the opprtunity to make huge sums of money in the US is just too appealing, which is why you have all those foreigners now looking after you.
As for malpractice insurance, doctors, lawyers,dentists and I'm sure other professions pay it too. I personally know how expensive it is,and my spouse's business has paid it for over 30 years now-- but that's why people are professionals-- it is what it is, you can't waste time worrying about it. Someone is always going to sue you when you become successful.
Thanks - nice to hear your take on things. Congratulations on surviving colon cancer and for living to be 80!
And for being armed! LOL
Public and private healthcare are what we have now with Medicare and Medicaid and the rest of our healthcare industry.
Agree that the threat of lawsuits in the US is a huge negative in our healthcare system which is why Republicans throughout this country have proposed over and over tort reform but which cannot be passed as long as Democrats control Congress and state legislatures.
The Democrats will never allow tort reform because one of their largest groups of supporters are the lawyers who make the tons of money suing doctors in this country.
And most lawmakers in this country - are - attorneys!
Am very glad you have had good healthcare!
86% of Americans are happy with their healthcare also -as it is. No need to throw it away and surrender our healthcare to government bureaucrats.
The euthanasia threat is what is written into the House bill 3200. It is not something contrived or made up.
Why have pages and pages of this bill been devoted to end of life care????? Because Obama’s people WANT to be in control of those decisions.
In this country, we don’t agree with the government being involved in end of life decisions.
When that changes, America will have changed fundamentally.
Thanks for that information. 12 weeks! That’s 3 months wait when the illness is cancer?
God bless her.
God save America from this threat!
In a year that's 365x 10,000 people, and what? half of the population has a job to support them?
Thank you Brit. The pure bull being spread here by some about the Canadian health care system is just that pure bull. Makes me wonder about other issues.
I am a dual citizen American and Canadian and have lived in Canada for decades.
There are problems with Canada’s nationalized health care and there are problems with American health care. If I lived in the US (which could be in the near future) I would be concerned about the democrat health care the Dems and Obummer are proposing. The corruption from their quarters is massive.
I also favor a two tier system so no one loses everything because of a health emergency. Anyone with good private coverage may not have it tomorrow.
I have had good health care in Canada, the waiting times can be frustrating but the care was first rate. There have been times I would not have been able to afford private health care for an emergency that would have been very expensive, I assume under that scenario I would have lost everything to pay for it as has happened in the US to some.
My Canadian Doctor is a Canadian born Jew, great doctor....I mean great.
I am with you all in thinking Obama is a two faced piece of work...but you have to remember one thing...half of the US voters put him in power. Now, he either is a superb con man ( which I believe by the way)...or half of the country is inherently stupid...(to use the Obama word.)
But Canada has also had its share of dingbats as Prime Ministers...heck we even had one who ruled according to his spirit medium adviser. (Spirit medium as in ghosts and etcoplasm.)
For nearly a century we were ruled by Libs who while not as far left as your lot..nevertheless tried to impose a lot of communist style thinking on us...a la Trudeau with his “tax Alberta Energy to the limit proposal.” Fimally he got voted out of power along with his minions.. just as Obama will get his just desserts in due time.
Here in Alberta we have lived under Conservative governments for donkeys years...and as it stands now we are the richest Province in Canada with a rainy day nest egg of about 16 billion dollars tucked away. We also do not have any sales tax except that foisted on us by the Feds.
We live a good life here..a few bumps along the way of course..but these happen in any family. Our Health Care needs more docs and nurses..but we all get medical help when needed. Small busineses flourish here and are not taxed to death. I doubt this would have happened under a spend it and tax it Liberal government.
There is 100 years of oil under our feet along with about 400 years of coal. We welcome any ethnic groups who want to come and work to share our good fortune. Most times we get along with them fine..some of my best friends are Asian and Eastern European.
I wouldn’t dream of putting my oar into your problems..although I do enjoy it when you talk about “locking and loading.” ;-)) Just remember that nothing stands still it either goes forwards or backwards...I think you will go forwards maybe all the better for going through this misery you are now stuck in.
I also think you have to find some way of getting along with your black Americans..this seems to be the sticking point with most anything you guys try to do. Verbally blasting each other at every chance you get will take you nowhere and never unite the country. How you do it I have no idea...but somehow it has to be done!
Hang in there...better days will come and common sense will prevail..as Glen Beck often says.
“Most doctors in Canada are now some other nationality than Canadian, mostly immigrants from India and Pakistan.”
Do you have some evidence to back this statement up with?
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