^^^ that sounds more like a problem with the doctors not the system. They could still take “charity cases” since we don’t have 100% insured population.
If there were people taking “charity cases” for surgeries, no one told me. And as a 19/20 year old, I wasn’t in a position of advocating for myself in a system I didn’t understand. Working and going to school full time left me really without the time to do it anyway.
But more importantly, in the early 2010s in the freaking United States, I shouldn’t have HAD to do any of that. Anywhere else would’ve put me on a schedule and I would have had the surgery done without the week-long hospital stay. It should have been an outpatient procedure.
But nope.
With a husband whose company was just sold I’m thankful for the ACA, without which I would have been denied coverage after COBRA ran out due to a pre-existing condition.
In Ontario the wait time for gall bladder removal was 6 months for everyone. Per the Sudburt Star 2013. That means the pain and vomiting etc. for 6 months. That is not a system I would want.
Three of the four people on this family would be uninsurable on the private market due to pre-existing conditions.
The health insurance and payment issue in this country is disgusting…and it’s not like there are other models from which to choose.
The ACA is a start, but even it needs some tweaking. I mean really…one of my kids is on his fourth individual insurance policy in as many years. His plans keep getting discontinued…and he needs to shop for a new plan annually. The twist this year is that all the individual plans not offered through employers in his state are HMO plans with very limited doctor networks.
Tatin do you have employer coverage? Have you always had employer coverage?
Why is it that health care is a bigger issue in the US than any other country?
As I posted earlier even Maggie Thatcher had to insure the Brits that the NHS was safe in her hands.
We have huge national systems already- Medicare, Medicaid and the VA. The paticipants in those sytems seek improvements but would fight any plan to end any of the 3.
We should go to a national system of some type. I like either the Swiss system or expanded Medicare.
People could still buy private coverage but everyone would have a base.
I would not wish the Canadian wait system on anyone. It is not fair or compassionate.
Ah yes, once again we have people who don’t live in Canada who tell us how bad the Canadian system is and how Canadians hate it or should hate it. Next your’ll be telling us that Canadians hate hockey because the Leafs suck.
Do you think Canadians like to wait months for Treatment?
People at the top of the food chain (the well insured) are happy. It’s those who don’t have great insurance who’d rather have cheaper or socialized medicine. In the US, in some states medicaid is great, but having private insurance with a big deductible is no good at all.
I have a friend who is from England. She hates English medical care and much prefers to pay for US care. Another friend had two babies in Toronto, and admitted that while she received top care, others didnt or had to wait for ultrasounds, had limited visits with a doctor, etc. That is probable fine edically, but US patients aren’t used to that. We want a picture every month, we want pampering, we want things when we want them. We do t like to be told no, or wait.
People have a different view if asked if the system is better for society (often it is) or better for THEM (often it is not)
I’ll echo other posters in that I have a number of Canadian friends who, while they will admit to some flaws in the system, would never trade their Canadian health care system for what we have in the US.
Growing up as someone who was frequently uninsured, I went through my childhood with really minimal medical care, and so did my parents. I had the experience of helping loved ones to lance infections in our kitchen because we couldn’t afford to go to the doctor or dentist. I once removed part of my father’s rotten tooth with a pair of tweezers. I saw a dentist for the first time in my life when I was 18 years old (and was turned away without treatment because I was unable to pay and didn’t qualify for a financing plan).
Recently, this delaying of care nearly took my mother’s life. She was uninsured, unable to pay insurance premiums of any amount because her unemployment insurance ran out while she was actively seeking work. While she waited for the next enrollment period at her new job, she nearly bled to death from the combination of an undiagnosed and untreated autoimmune blood disorder, plus a large (fortunately benign) mass in her uterus. Both of these conditions would have been detected much sooner had she seen a doctor. Further, because care was delayed, a mass that could have been removed by a DNC now requires a hysterectomy. Fortunately, the people at the hospital were able to get her retroactively covered by insurance. However, while she was initially scheduled to have the surgery weeks ago, it was cancelled and postponed by a month because some doctor in Texas decided that the surgery wasn’t medically necessary (which it very much is) and wouldn’t be covered by said insurance.
This is on top of people who have been financially ruined by medical expenses. Shortly before my grandmother retired, they discovered an aneurysm in her brain, and she blew through most of her lifetime of retirement savings on uncovered medical expenses. My best friend from high school is making payments on $12000 of unpaid medical debt from her childhood that was rolled over into her name when she turned 18 (and yes, this is how at least some hospitals operate because the same thing happened to me when I turned 18, but it was fortunately only about $700 in my case). So those of you sticking your fingers in your ears saying you don’t know anyone who has ever had to delay care in America, or has otherwise been harmed by this system, really need to do some reevaluating. Our system works really, really well for the very privileged, and quite poorly for everyone else.
As some old-timers here may remember, I had a completely nightmarish experience in the emergency room of a Montreal hospital, where I was kept for more than a week back in 2009. By far the worst out of a whole lot of medical experiences in my life, in every respect including the doctors, the nurses, the staff, and the general quality of care. And one which resulted in a $40,000+ medical bill (because I was an American), which took months – and innumerable written demands from the hospital to me – for my insurer to pay.
But from everything I’ve read, I’d still take the Canadian system over ours – especially the way ours was before the ACA, given my pre-existing conditions and the fact that I’ve been unemployed for almost 18 months, so my COBRA coverage is about to expire. (For most of which I’ve entirely avoided seeking medical care and having necessary tests, because the deductible is so ridiculously high, not to mention that most of the medications I take are so ridiculously expensive here before I reach the deductible – one of them costs more than $1,600 per month – that I end up ordering most of them from Canada anyway, at a fraction of their U.S. cost.)
I did actually laugh when someone above complained that the Canadian system is insufficiently “compassionate.”
Tatin we have the Canadian system for anyone over 65. Do you want to get rid of it?
Compared to Canadian’s system, the reason why we have what we have now is that more people in the US do not trust a more socialist system? More people in the US may consider that the have-nots try to “steal” money from the pockets of those who have by political means whenever a more socialist policy is proposed. This is what the US citizens (or more correctly speaking, those US citizens who have more indluences on the direction of this country is going) want and they get what they want.
And we are more religious. Pope Francis is not right: being more religious and being more capitalism can co-exist in the most powerful and the richest country on Earth. (Maybe he has more passion than brain, or “too young” so too unrealistic/idealistic /sarcastic.)
No we don’t have a Canadian system in Medicare. MIL got a knee replacement promptly. Other older relatives have gotten prompt treatment for all their disabilities and illnesses. There are no waiting lists for necessary treatment for Medicare patients.
And yet you seem to think it was fair and compassionate that romani had to wait for more than a year for her surgery here in the US. Of course, she didn’t have insurance at the time, so maybe that made a difference?
But that’s always the way, it seems. Obviously, you haven’t had significant problems negotiating the American health care system, because you’ve always had good insurance. I’ve noticed that in these discussions: People who’ve never had the problem themselves believe that the problem doesn’t exist. They seem utterly incapable (or unwilling) to put themselves into the shoes of someone who hasn’t been so lucky. And luck is what our system boiled down to, before ACA.
We have a two-tiered health system, as @twoinanddone and others mention. If you have good insurance, you get your health care in a reasonably timely way, and without crippling cost to yourself. If you don’t, you’re out of luck. Many people in the first group seem just fine with the problems faced by the people in the second group.
I’ve never heard a Canadian say that their system is perfect. But I’ve also never heard a Canadian say they’d rather have the US system. And in fact, they wouldn’t rather have the US system:
And, lest you think that’s just Canadian bias, Gallup asked identical questions of users of the American, Canadian, and British systems. Guess which system flunked, badly – according to its own users:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8056/healthcare-system-ratings-us-great-britain-canada.aspx
There are plenty of doctors who won’t take new Medicare patients. Still…I’m thrilled that I will start Medicare in March. I’m so done with private health insurance, and even employer sponsored plans…just done with it.
I was able to choose the Medicare supplement I wanted in addition to my Medicare plan. And best of all…this is accepted in all 50 states unlike the crappy HMO plans offered to individuals in many places.
I would 21…which was when I got booted off my parent plan…a full year before I graduated from college. It was a huge headache!
@TatinG With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Hey, we’re not planning the parade but they sure are playing better than last year. Baby steps. 
New research also suggests that wait times for medically necessary procedures may be associated with increased mortality. A recent report concluded that between 25,456 and 63,090 Canadian women may have died as a result of increased wait times between 1993 and 2009. Large as this number is, it doesn’t even begin to quantify the possibility of increased disability, poorer quality of life, and mental stress as a result of protracted wait times.
Tatin, ok, no Canadian system for us. How should uninsured Americans get medical care in a timely way? Whether you’ve personally experienced it or not, this is a very real problem for millions of people.