Unprofessional Leftist checking in here. Does anyone know what the Canadian

[madinmaryland]

HealthCare System is like???

[BrklynLiberal]

1. From wha tI have heard from my Canadian friends...it is excellent.

[eleny]

2. Someone on MSNBC just said that Canadians live longer than Americans by about 3 years

They might be doing something right.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

3. Professional Leftist here

I'm sure it is better than the one in the US.

[madinmaryland]

5. Welcome to DU!

Do I know you from somewhere?

[SocialistLez]

10. You don't have to be a professional to make that assessment

Welcome to DU.
I'm a leftist as well, if you couldn't tell. =]

[valerief]

4. If you're a Merkan, enviable. nt

[HipChick]

6. I've had Canadian like (UK) healthcare most of my life..

If I ever got really ill, I'd ask them to fly me back to the US..

NHS isn't the uptopia it is made out to be..

[Grey]

8. As a Canadian, That has to be

One of the DUMBEST comments I have heard in a LONG while. Ask Whom?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. The NHS is totally different from the Canadian system

NHS = the government runs the health care system and most doctors are government employees, funded out of general revenues

Canadian system = most doctors are in private practice and the government pays their fees, funded by a combination of general revenues and modest individual premiums

The only thing the two systems have in common is that there is no payment at the point of service.

I've heard good and bad things about the NHS. It seems to depend on what part of the UK you're located in, because it's directed on a day-to-day basis by local boards.

[asdjrocky]

7. I hear if you're sick, you actually get to go to the doctor.

Really, that's what I heard.

[HipChick]

11. Eventually...

[me b zola]

12. It took me about a year to be treated here in the States

--and I'm fortunate enough to live in an area where there are free health clinics. I was seen at the clinic for a year, each time by a different doctor that allowed my illness to go out of control until my life was in danger.

If you're Dick freaking Cheney, yeah, US health care is swell. For the rest of us, not so much.

[HipChick]

13. My SIL passed away 18months ago...she just turned 35

Neither system is fool-proof or without issues..in her case..NHS failed to treat her..in the end, they more or less left her to die...hard to explain to the 9yr old daughter she left behind..

[Posteritatis]

9. This Canadian has had few complaints

Our health care varies by province rather than a national standard, so I'd assume its nature and quality does. I'm in one of the more economically hosed provinces, though, and stand by what I said in the subject.

[GliderGuider]

14. Well, I'm still alive...

I've had absolutely no complaints, nor has my family. Every time we needed health care of any sort it was available. The only waits we've ever experienced were for non-critical issues -- things like MRIs and surgery have always been available immediately.

There are problems with insufficient numbers of family doctors, especially in remote or rural areas.

[joeybee12]

15. I'm an amateur leftist...

...I guess the point is that Gibbs gets his talking points from Faux because Canada is the right's boogeyman.

[madinmaryland]

18. Heh! I'll leave that one alone!

:evilgrin:

[Lost4words]

16. Its like, AVAILABLE!

unlike some other systems. "soft enough for ya, authorities?"

[Festivito]

19. In Canada you might have to wait FOUR WEEKS, here, US, only one month.

Living in Detroit, I used to have a friend, a nurse in Canada. When my mom would go for a procedure, hip replacement, protruding intestine, and such, I'd ask how long is the wait for this in Canada and it was usually about the same wait.

Both have died since, mom would have been 99 this year.

The only pictures we've been allowed to see through our media was during Canada's changeover when a flu epidemic hit. Canadian ERs were full then.

I imagine they fixed that by now since we haven't seen any pictures since then.

Canadians now live longer than US. This statistic changed recently in the middle of the Bush years from US living longer to Canadians living longer.

Government run HC is a cheaper way to distribute HC and it gives a better statistic. But, there are good sides to both methods. If you like a doctor that loves the money you hold in front of him, paying twice what Canada pays means we attract the good, albeit, money-loving doctors. The bad side of that is when those doctors figure out how not to cure us, but to keep us just healthy enough to continue buying treatments.

The big government way puts doctors on salary so they spend time at work doing nothing sometimes. The Mayo clinic does this. The doctors end up talking to each other about their cases and get peer review the US doctors don't. I'd think the docs end up being paid muchly the same since here they treat some deadbeats while others here forgo treatments altogether, and there everyone goes and it's all paid. Note that our insurance companies take a hefty portion of our twice-as-much for health care paid here.

Some people just like the idea of privatization. They don't care how much more it costs them in money or life expectancy as long as no one calls them a socialist.