An absolute indictment of our system here in Canada that tolerates long wait times for specialist visits, diagnostic testing, and elective surgery. Not a great selling point to the Americans. Spread the mediocrity equally.
“Canadians don’t mind waiting for elective care all that much, so long as the rich Canadian and the poor Canadian have to wait about the same amount of time.” In that one sentence, Marcus Davies laid out the ethical basis of Canada’s health-care system. The question facing Americans this fall is: what should be the ethical basis of America’s health-care system? – Newsweek
Via NewsBusters
[...] 16, 2009 by Neal No, in fact, you cannot. Well, at least not right away, you can’t. Look at the original source for the wait times [...]
We Americans have to wait anyways. Last week I paid several hundred dollars to wait in a physician’s lobby for literally 3 hours past my appointment time because the greedy physicians stacked his appointment 6 people deep and saves money by understaffing. While I have health insurance, there are only 2 doctors available in this specialy that are covered, and both were booked solid until November. Every claim I have ever submitted to the health insurance company has been initially rejected, a standard practice of the industry. Isn’t that a death panel with corporate execs deciding whether I get to live a decent quality of life?
A public option is not for “the lowest common denomenator”, as one’s income does not reflect how hard one works, nor is it fair or ethical to politically determine one’s worth as a human being by the tax bracket they fall into. I pay taxes, I pay several thousand per year for health insurance, and I still don’t have the constructive coverage that I pay for. Thus, I have to wait until I am on my death bed to get any sort of care.
There is no incentive for any health insurance companies to improve because there is no competition. The opposition to the health care bill is funded by the medical and insurance industry.
Every industry will act in it’s own economic best interest until it becomes too expensive to do so. Long lobby waits will decrease once competition in the industry increases with the public option because the insurance companies and doctors will lose business to other offices and companies willing to hire staff to keep their business.
Your ignorance on this subject is staggering, and you are ungrateful for the blessings in your own life.
Your ignorance of the public option is staggering. You need to do some honest research into wait times and rationing of care in Canada and Britain. Do you think we don’t have to wait at the doctors office here? Do you think our doctors don’t overbook their schedule in order to bill the government more each day? At least you have a choice to deal with another insurance company, I do not. I am stuck in a single payer system and I do not have the option to use my after tax income to pay for services in the private sector in my province because there isn’t one. It is illegal. If I want to pay for quicker service I have to go to your country where it is available. I am ungrateful for a system that uses up more than half of my provincial budget, but delivers substandard service.
You are missing the point here, which is that there is free care at the end of your wait. We still get shitty care at the end of our waits too. I pay out of pocket EVERY TIME because my insurance kicks it back. Plus, I have to pay several thousand a year in insurance premiums on top of that. Seriously, how much in taxes do you pay that goes to healthcare? A couple hundred bucks a year? Are you kidding me???
And don’t get me started about the cost of prescription drugs. It’s a mortgage in itself, even if you have insurance, which is why we prefer to drive or fly to mexico or canada to buy pills.
I am not missing your point. Out of a total budget of 10.2 billion for the province of Saskatchewan (http://www.finance.gov.sk.ca/budget2009-10/) 4.075 billion is budgeted for the healthcare system. That is 39.9 % of the entire budget. For the 1,027,092 people who live here that works out to $3967.51 per person. But if I am not satisfied with a 6 month wait to see a specialist of a 3 month wait for an MRI test then I have to leave my country to obtain those services. It is illegal for me to obtain those services in the private sector because none is allowed.
$3967 CANADIAN DOLLARS??? That’s the budget for my American health insurance premiums, and I still have to pay $250 AMERICAN DOLLARS just to sit in the lobby of a general practitioner’s office every time I get sick. Regardless of whether the insurance pays, I still have a $25 additional copay every time I go to the doctors. Prescriptions? Forget it! Easily another few hundred AMERICAN dollars a month for those. And I still have to wait 6 months MINIMUM to see a specialist.
Out of the $3967 budgeted, you pay a fraction of that yourself. Consider yourself lucky because we pay a lot more for the same BS.
No I paid more than that when you take the sales tax into account.
It’s about freedom of choice and multiple options annedemonium. I’d gladly pay more in insurance premiums or cash if it was going to mean that I wouldn’t have to wait three months for an MRI or two years for knee reconstruction or hip surgery. I’d like to have the ability to pick and choose who gets my business, and the freedom to look elsewhere if I’m not satisfied. Instead, I’m forced to pay into one system where I’m at the mercy of fixed annual budgets approved by bureaucrats and unions constantly demanding a larger share of the pie. I shouldn’t have to go to your country to experience the freedom that I’m looking for and I shouldn’t have some bureaucrat telling me how I can’t spend my after-tax income on private health care.
Well perhaps you should familiarize yourself with manditory coverage laws and the limitations presented when your insurance company only provides you coverage for 2 physicians, neither of which can see you. Not even on a waiting list for 3 months. EVER. You will never see the inside of their office. So since you can’t stop paying premiums, you have to shell out another few thousand for an MRI your damn self, and with those results there is no one to treat you.
Welcome to my world.
Also, it seems to have escaped your attention that America is not contemplating a single payer system. You would just have the option of (but not required to) purchase your insurance from the government and then going where you want, thereby increasing competition, options, and customer service but decreasing costs.
No that had not escaped my attention, actually your the single payer system has been talked about a lot in the last few months. Even though the President has talked a lot about “increasing competition, options, and customer service but decreasing costs” he doesn’t have a plan. He has farmed that out to congress and that is why he is having so much trouble. If the Whitehouse had written their own plan they would be controlling the message, as it is they are not.
The President may have said they weren’t moving to a single payer system, but some of the Democratic members from Congress have said otherwise. The fact that none of them really knew what was proposed in the bill for the longest time, and that none of them were providing consistent answers with each other when asked questions at the Town Hall Meetings, makes me unsure of what to believe. If they were all consistent with each other and knowledgeable of the bill’s contents right off the bat, I’d have more confidence in your statement annedemonium.