Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Canadian health care

Or less indian handouts..

Recently two friends of my had health issues, one a irregular heart beat pattern and the other had a blood clot in his calf, one in Vancouver the other resides in Victoria. Both were treated immediately with follow appointments to different specialists. The only complaint was the same for both, since no smoking gun reason for the events being evident, blood tests went on for an extended period, neither missed more than a couple of days of work. Both were very satisfied with their treatment. Rural Canadians would probably have had to travel some to get the same treatment.

Winnipeg is our nearest decent sized medical facilities, and that is 360 km -- 225 miles. We do get a travel grant from the province - usually in about 6 or 8 weeks. Better than a kick in the backside with a frozen mukluk.

I live South of the border and have no personal experience with health care inside Canada.

I have worked with doctors and nurses who trained and worked in Canada. They moved South because they say that their standard of living is better. Higher pay and lower taxes. Also because they are frustrated that Canadians with cancer have a long waiting list to get seen and be treated. Or patients are refused treatments due to age, etc...

As I say, I haven't lived in Canada. Are these still issues for your health care workers?

From my personal experience I cannot complain.
October 7th 2012 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had my surgery Dec.28th 2012 so I think my waiting time was not too bad.
As for meds mine cost $ 1500 quarterly and my medical covers every cent.
I also had 33 doses of radiation post operative and that was also covered..

When I was diagnosed with prostate cancer is the US (15 years ago) it took a little over a month between diagnosis and surgery, which was successful.

If you want to look at aggregate objective measures, people with serious diseases like cancer, heart disease etc. live longer on average in the US than they do in Canada.

The US health care system is far from perfect but there are simply far more medical resources available per person in the US to draw on than in Canada.

Canada does spend less money per person on health care though.

the people who are against socializes health care in the U.S already have health care themselves.45000 people a year die in the U.S for lack of health care.If it were not for Canadian heath care I would be dead a long time ago.

our system is not perfect,but it is a hell of a lot better than no heath care,I would be dead except for our health care system

Pre obama care the vast majority of US citizens had health insurance.The rest by law could not be refused care in a emergency room. 45,000 is a bs figure in my book.

our system is not perfect,but it is a hell of a lot better than no heath care,I would be dead except for our health care system

And IMO health care isn't owed to anyone, you have to earn it, just like everything else. The problem governments have gotten involved and skewed the market so bad prices have went sky high.

Life expectancy is longer in Canada and child mortality rate is lower.

Some in the US think that health care has to be earned, as though it is a luxury. Most of the "West" (western Europe, Canada, Brits, Aussies and New Zealand) see it as a right that they demand government support. Many in the US seem to not recognize that every civilized nation supports basic property rights. Only the US continues to stand on the position that health is a property right that the wealthy can withhold from others. Its a question of defining what "freedom" actually means.

The U.S. government spends more on health care per person than the Canadian government, by definition your system is more socialistic than ours.

Which us related to the differences in lifestyle, diet, etc.

Makes perfect sense if your a socialist...

Canadians pay for their health care through taxes. We simply dont allow middle men such as insurance companies to take their pound of flesh. The US system has more services by simply removing 20 percent of the population from the system. Even most Americans who hate Obama care love medicaid (read canadian style government funded medicare) which is simply bizarre. All children everywhere should have a right to health care INHO.
Insurane companies, not government is driving up the price. Everyone knows a windshield replaced by cash costs half as much as an insurance claim.......even in the US.

1. The reason Canadians are happy with their health care is because they're used to the system. If the citizens of the U.S.A. were to participate in such a system there would be a great hue and cry for at least several years but eventually they would get used to it.

2. There was a time when I had a medical condition requiring an expensive medication. At Sam's Club, a months worth was over $400. I got over a 3 month's supply from a Canadian pharmacy for less than $150.

Citizens of the U.S.A. aren't supposed to import medication because allegedly there are quality control issues. I say horse feces. Drug companies take public money for various research and then charge ripoff prices. If the U.S.A. was serious about reducing medical costs they could start by cutting drug companies down to size.

Don't even get me started on the medications marketed that aren't any better than much cheaper ones that are off patent and the "drug shortages" of cheaper medications.

3. It's a myth that the poor can't get health care in the U.S.A. The ones that get ripped off are the ones that have too much income to qualify for Medicaide or other public assistance but not prosperous enough to afford insurance.

For an example, say you have insurance and need a CAT scan. The hospital bills $1,500 but the patient has insurance and an agreement with the insurance company so all that is paid is $500 (this is just a hypothetical example). If the patient has no insurance, they're billed $1,500 and are espected to pay the whole thing. Essentially, the low middle class is subsidizing the health care of the indigent.

4. Then there is malpractice litigation. If there is delay in diagnosis, delay in treatment or just an out of sorts unhappy patient the phsician in the U.S.A. can get sued and the patient may win an exhorbitant sum. It's unlikely a physician will ever be sued for ordering too many tests but if some test for an obscure condition wasn't done and there is a bad outcome, a lawsuit is likely.

As an example, say a person comes in after having bumped their head. They didn't lose consciousness, have no bruising or swelling and have no neurologic deficits. Their chance of having a serious injury is exceedingly small. If though, in the very unlikely event that they died several days later of a brain bleed and didn't have a CT scan, the treating physician will probably get sued.

Tell me, given the choice of writing the order for a CT scan for hundreds of patients who may not need one or potentially going through hours of depositions and waiting for years for a resolution of a lawsuit, do you or do you not think the physician will order the CT scan?

There is the "liberty and justice for all" thing but in our courts, who wins can very well depend on who puts on the best show. In addition, plaintif's attornies want no one on the jury who actually has medical expertise.

5. When those who voted for Obama get a real taste of what he has done to health care, they may wish they hadn't done so. The young and health are going to pay much more for insurance than they had dreamed or they will be fined (a.k.a., taxed) for not having insurance. More companies won't hire full time employees because of the insurance costs in doing so. The elderly, even those to are still very functional, will find out that the health care system won't pay for some services needed to keep them alive.

Be aware, it's really a benefit to the government if the lame and the halt, i.e., those require increased services, die as long as the government doesn't get blamed for it.

I hope the average Canadian lives healthy. Smokes less. Drinks less. Doesn't use illicit drugs. Isn't obese. Etc....

IMO most of the life expectancy and child mortality difference between Canada and South of the border is related to life choices and the fact that we have millions of illegal aliens here.

And large cities full of hood rats.