Looking for a jacket, opinions?

[Toogoofy317]

Yes, U.S health care sucks but I don't think Nationalized is the way to go. Had a friend in Canada have to wait a year to get a defibrillator implanted during that time had a SCA and almost died his family had bought an AED while waiting and thank God they were there and aware that it had happened.

If they could gaurantee me that instances like that would not happen and I can get healthcare at the speed that it is done here maybe I'd go for it. But, we have a member on here trying to get help through the health care system and he has to wait a month or two at a time to get into the health department because it is so backed logged. If the can't handle what they have now I don't have much faith they will be able to handle all of the U.S. and it's illegal immigrants (don't get me started on that) waiting four hours in ER waiting room chest pain with a heart problem cause the ER is filled with mainly illegals or those without insurance maybe 20% is usually an EMERGENCY!

Mary

[LOUiE]

don't look to Canada as an example of socialized health care.  Look at the eurpoean countries.  They've got it right. 

[qwertydude]

Even if you wanna bash Canada's health care for being in adequate, you can't ignore that as a whole Canada spends far less per capita on health care, about half the US, and still have better overall health because of better access to medical care. With free access to health care people are not afraid to get preventative treatments before it spirals out of control and ends up clogging emergency rooms and costing far more than lower cost preventative treatment. It's a simple fact that 40% of people in the US do not have access to adequate health care. Medicine may not be top notch on our neighbors up north but more people have access to it. For me and many people like me, not rich, any healthcare is better than what we have now which is nothing, a severe illness will leave me broke and in debt for life. I have seen the cost of a broken leg bone for a friend reach $25,000 for treatment, and his insurance denied him cause they deemed it too expensive and would only cover the first $5000 because that's how much they figure it costs to fix a leg, so much for private insurance. And if anything recently has become far too apparent it's that deregulation of everything is seriously hurting the country, that include deregulating the financial industry and health care system. If you face the fact that if we could reduce medical costs through tighter regulation of this out of whack industry, current government spending could cover EVERYONE including the illegals, so we wouldn't even need to socialize medicine. But as for an article with a little more research and proof you only have to look up wikipedia. Oh yeah and one more point to make the US is the only industrialized nation to not offer some form of universal health care. So either we're the only one doing it right or were the only one doing it way wrong, I tend to side on the latter because after all the dust settles Canada is still healthier while spending less money than the US. Think about it this way, if you love the private sector so much, would you like the fire department to be private sector? Having to get preapproved for them to put out your house fire? And imagine having to purchase fire insurance. Face it fire, police, and public education is socialized but why the taboo on medicine?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_and_American_health_care_systems_compared

[allaussiegrown]

The Australian system is a bit different.

We have free health care and hospitalisations but you have to pay a small amount depending on your treatment. We get taxed a Medicare leverage from our net pay and it is substantial to the amount you earn.

A lot of people in Aus have private health care as well because you get to choose your surgeon and can go to a private hospital and there are more benefits. But if you get sick in aus it is very easy to get health care and there is rarely a surchage or gap to pay.

[PaviSays]

Cool.  I learned a lot about leather vs. synthetic jackets AND socialized medicine in the same thread!

[Toogoofy317]

If I'm not mistaken I did say ours suck too?  Honestly, there have been times I've preferred no medical care to substandared medical care. Getting shocked with a defibrillator and sent home an hour later for the three hour drive  is not cool! It almost killed me well almost died earlier that day lets have a repeat. But, had a bleed from the catheterization and burn marks on my chest and back. If that is what substandard health care is then I don't want it! I went 3 weeks without health care during that time admitted for heart failure two weeks in ICU and 100,000 bill! So, basically it ruined my life.

I'd like to see good healthcare regardless of how it's done!

Mary