Free health care

[Idaho]

Okay as we know in the great United States of America, some of our well meaning politicians are trying to buy votes by "giving" us free health care. I believe that some of you on this site live in countries that enjoy socialized medicine and I was wondering if you could give us some feedback. Canadians, English and any others that I'm not aware of, please tell us what you think of your health care system.
Thanks,

[ringadingh]

It has been pretty good up until a few years ago. It seems now the government is slowly taking things away that were once covered, such as eye exams,and certain tests. The waiting times to see doctors, especially a specialist are getting increasinly longer. They want to have"for profit"clinics here so you have a choice, pay and don't wait, or government health insurance where you do wait. The longer you wait, the more appealling for profit clinics become. I have found personally that if you go to the emergency room with minor problems,such as a sprain or cold you will wait for hours. However if you are having difficulty breathing or chest pains, they rush you in immediately and take a look at you. Part of this is because they feel a lot of people run to the doctor for common ailments that really don't need to be there. An aging population is also taxing our system here, as the elderly are usually suffering with more problems and spend more time visiting doctors. Many years ago our provincial insurance here covered everything, even sex changes where reported, now it seems the pendulum has swung the other way and we have to pay for certain procedures. When you here of people going to the states for treatment , most times its because they can afford it and don't want to wait here.

[unwind2]

I hope some folks reply this would be interesting.

Opps - Rigadingh did not see your reply in I wrote this. Thanks for you observations. :-*

[Idaho]

Ringadinga thanks for the reply. We keep hearing confusing stories here in the States. Those who advocate socialized medicine paint a rosy picture and those who like our free market health care tell horror stories. There has to be truth somewhere in between. Sounds like you guys are headed toward some combination of the two systems because the government system is breaking down. I would like to hear from our friends in England also.

[dantama]

I had this conversation with a nurse last week who lived in Sweden for 2 years. Her opinion, coming from a medical background, was that if you fit the middle of a bell curve, you had great care. Doctors even made house calls to see her kids.

But if you needed very specialized care, it wasn't as good. She felt that there just wasn't enough motivation to push the boundaries into new areas, like there is here.

[blowndodge]

Every world leader that has a very serious medical condition seems to come to the United States for treatment. I wonder why that is???

[misunderstood]

Every world leader that has a very serious medical condition seems to come to the United States for treatment. I wonder why that is???

Good point.Never thought of that.

Nothing is for free folks, Yes here in Canada you can go to the Doctors, have medical surgery, etc. But where does the money come from. HMMMM.... TAXES folks so even here in Canada and don't get me wrong we have a system where you can walk in and get treatment but it's the tax payers that are footing the cost for health care. IMHO.
Cheers now lets get this flipping snow out of here I have had enough.

[trip]

I work in the Healthcare field, have for the past 20 years or so. I'm in IT, so I don't have direct contact with patients. But, I do have direct contact with our finances. I probably don't need to answer this, because I'm a little biased......but I have always been amazed that people come to hospitals in the US for healthcare and won't settle for anything less than the best Doctors, Nurses, support personnel and equipment......but they don't want to pay for it.

They want the best for nothing or next to nothing and that's just not the way it works. Also keep in mind that healthcare in the US is high in cost, partly due to the fact that we provide free healthcare to those that either can't pay for it or won't pay for it. You'd be surprised how much we write off every year at my hospital due to lack of payment.

This makes it tough on those that do pay because we have to spread the healthcare expense around.

Just my 2 centavos worth.

[jmorrow]

The other day, I needed to go to the emergency
room.

Not wanting to sit there for 4 hours, I put
on my old Army fatigues and stuck a patch
that I had downloaded off the Internet onto
the front of my shirt.

When I went into the E. R., I noticed that
3/4 of the people got up and left. I guess
they decided that they weren't that sick
after all.

Here's the patch. Feel free to use it the
next time you're in need of quicker
emergency service.



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It also works well if the check-out lines
are too long at Walmart.

When I had my heart attack back in February, no one asked me if I had insurance or how I was going to pay. They just fixed me. Then I hear people go to the emergency room because they have a cold or a sprained ankle and then bitch cause they had to wait for 4 hours. They should in fact wait until the next day and go to their doctor or a free clinic.

[misunderstood]

I'll never understand why people go to a doctor or emergency room for a sprain or a cold. I being selfemployed have no health coverage and no one has ever offered to write off my bills. Kidney stone and 4 hours in ER cost me over a grand and about 15,000 when my wife needed surgery. Took a while but I paid the bill. Hard when you can't afford the coverage and don't qualify for assistance. Self-employed fall thru the cracks so to speak. I'm not looking for a handout, but those that abuse the system make it unaffordable for those that would like to get some coverage ,but find it out of reach. Alright, I'm off the soapbox.

[buckeye]

One of my son-in-laws is and EMT in Columbus, Ohio. After 20 years he has decided to go back to regular fireman due to the fact that almost 50% of his emergency runs in the last few years have been people who: need an aspirin, need a ride to the doctors office, are trying to get drugs "for pain", and similar stupid reasons to call out an emergency vehicle, and sometimes keep them from a real emergency. Maybe Jim's badge might do some good!

[Top Cat]

Actually thats a real good point Misunderstood.
Trip, if he had come to your hospital for his wifes surgery and was self employed with no insurance, would she have been treated and would it have been written off if he didn't feel like paying.

[trip]

Actually thats a real good point Misunderstood.
Trip, if he had come to your hospital for his wifes surgery and was self employed with no insurance, would she have been treated and would it have been written off if he didn't feel like paying.
As a side note right now I pay $910 a month for health care.

TC,
It is the responsibility of every healthcare facility in the US to care and treat every individual that presents themselves at the door. Noone should be turned away or treated differently just because they are self-insured, commercially insured or not insured at all. If Misunderstood's wife had come to our hospital, she would have been treated for surgery in a professional manner irreguardless of her financial status.

When I mentioned that we write off some accounts, we do that from time to time (as does every hospital) only after payment options and notifications have been exhausted. And the accounts written off have to meet certain criteria. A person doesn't have services rendered then get them written off just because they can't pay.

And BTW, even though I work for a hospital, it doesn't mean healthcare for me and my family is free. I pay in excess of 500.00 dollars a month for coverage for my family. And, I'll bet your co-pays are less than mine.

I'm not trying to cop and attitude here, just trying to get the point across that it's not all roses for healthcare employees.