Health Care: My personal declaration

[jmondine]

The current bill is far from the end. It is not our last chance. It will not take another generation before the next opportunity. The citizenry is now awakened to one simple moral truism:

Denial of health care for profit is evil.

I will not be placated, I will not be assuaged, I will not stop until this evil is abolished from our borders once and for all.

[Oregone]

1. But providing health insurance for profit is......?

American, despicable, costly, inefficient, open to corruption, permissible, capitalistic, archaic, institutionalized via mandates, here to stay, part of the problem....


Let's play fill in the blank

[FrenchieCat]

2. I think I understand you now.

You don't really care how fucked up things are right now....
you'd rather it stayed that way, than us getting any chances to make it better incrementally.
Somehow you thought that Health Insurance for Profit was going to be made to disappear
like yesterday, but not really....
and so since it won't, rather than you dealing with workable solutions,
you just keep repeating what the problem is over and over again,
day in, day out like a panicked pissed parrot without a perch.
To you, that's a solution, because it makes you feel better....
no matter that for millions of other, your lack of solutions won't do.

[Oregone]

3. Is that a Strawman in a stanza?

Neato. Can you do a Haiku strawman?

[Donnachaidh]

5. oh most definitely

you'd think the chorus director would take a day off. :eyes:

[mzmolly]

4. Has the Canadian system been perfected?

:shrug:

[Oregone]

6. In principle, I would say it has for basic medical

Choose any doctor, no copays, no deductible, free to use, never a bill in the mail. At the point of the end-user, its great, and the tax burden for the middle class family isn't overwhelming whatsoever.

But in practice on the structural level, the main flaws reside in the funding (or lack thereof). Low billing rates equate to more doctors moving to the US to rip people off. Less doctors per capita equate to longer queues.

It isn't as if the actual system of socialized insurance needs an overhaul at all. It needs to be prioritized, funded, and more emphasis must be placed on compensating doctors and ensuring there are plenty of health care professionals in the future.

But socialized insurance is just a step in the right direction though. Canada could go much further to make socialized health care delivery a priority and shift away from private clinics that deliver care for profit. In almost any society, and with changing times, tinkering will always be required. Especially when there is the lure of US compensation right next door that impacts the system directly

[mzmolly]

7. I've read that Canada (in spite of lower prices) has no reimbursement for drugs?

I've also read that Canadians must pay for transportation to the US if one needs treatment at say, the Mayo Clinic? I've spoken to expats who said they prefer the US system WHEN/IF they have access. But of course as a whole, Canada is better as of now.

Thanks for sharing your views. I don't think the US will ever be in the business of trying to keep Doctors in Canada. We'll simply use the shortages you have as an example of why we should never move to a single payer system. :(

[Oregone]

10. Some truth, some not

For drugs, you can grab a supplemental private drug for around as $50 dollars a month (most employers cover this). $100 a month in all for a family if you want dental included (again, most employers cover this). If employers do not cover it anyway, you normally get paid much more than plan cost in lieu of the plans.


BUT, my province has catastrophic drug coverage. Its free. I have a deductible of around $2500 out of pocket, and if I go over that, 100% of all costs are covered (it steps such that 70% are covered after a certain amount). Basically, if the system fails you, they pick up the tab, and its income based too (for some people, its only a few hundred out of pocket).

I couldn't be any more happy with the drug end, to be honest. Its called Fair Pharmacare:
http://www.health.gov.bc.ca/pharmacare/plani/planiindex.html#7 (would of been cool if the US did single-payer catastrophic in their "reform" as an incremental)



As for Canadians going to the US for treatment, Ill let health care tourism stats speak for themselves. Canada has very few actually. The US on the other-hand has massive health care tourists. I think that speaks volumes. On a statistic level, far more people proportionally seek care abroad who live in the US than those who live in Canada (I don't have time to reference info, but Google is your friend).

[hansberrym]

8. We already have that one covered...

Denial of health care for profit is evil.

But the current system already addresses that case. Those who can not pay, do get health care now. The rest of us pay more than is needed so that hospitals do not go broke when they serve the truly poor who can not pay.

The system in place right now is better than the supposed improvements which mandate payments to insurers rather than hospitals.


I prefer Lincoln's personal declaration: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master"


It aseems to me that those pushing the health insurance mandate BS wish to be masters.

[Greyhound]

9. Nailed it.

Scratch any authoritarian and you find guard that sees her(him)self as a commandant.

They seek to preserve the system out of a (false) belief that they will be on top of the system "someday".