If you ask a Canadian what the one thing is no government can take away from us, it would be our medical coverage. In fact the politician who fought for it and got it going was voted Canada’s favorite son.
Why would anybody fight socialized medicine? Every modern, democratic country has socialized medicine and has a healthier population than the U.S.
My daughter lives in Florida with her American husband. They pay in the hundreds a month for medical coverage. Two months ago her son had to be taken to emergency and they convinced her he should be kept overnight for observation. Even with all the money they pay monthly it cost them $1200 over and above her coverage.
I was in hospital for two weeks in November and had numerouse tests, therapy, etc. It cost me nothing. When I got home I had home care and physical therapy for another two months and it cost me nothing.
Politicians, and right wing pundits I have heard on TV have told the American population lies. I choose my own doctor, I change doctors if I so choose. I even choose my own surgeon when I need one. I get just as good care, and freedom to choose, that my daughter does in Florida. I can understand very rich people not particularly wanting it , they might be helping someone less affluent, but poorer people? Nobody up here gets it?
I don’t want to argue with anyone, I love you all, but it blows my mind that people aren’t totally behind Obama but instead listen to someone like Rush Limbaugh. Just like big business, healthcare needs government oversight. Even doctors get greedy and soon there will be few doctors left taking care of the people who can’t pay a yearly stipend.
Demonizing the word socialization is cutting off your nose to spite your face and going by the people I have talked to when I visit my daughter, not many people really understand what it is. Socialists do believe in God and family too. They just also believe in helping their fellow citizens.
[This was originally posted in this thread. ~ Eds.]
How funny....i only very recently (within last week) read the coconut oil articles on the web. (100 uses, 80 uses etc.) so i bouht some and ordered some from amazon. (Im a stockpiler.)
Have started trying some of the uses. I tried using it a
I couldn’t agree with you more Orville!
Hubby and I are born Canadians. We spend a month – 6-weeks in Arizona every year. The number one question we get asked (Canadian license plates) is about health care.
This is a little “story” that happened to us in the US. My family was vacationing in Florida and my kids were having fun running up and down the dunes etc. Some JERK had broken a wine bottle and stuffed into the sand. My son cut his foot badly on the broken glass. Luckily the Big Guy in the Sky was watching out for us this day because the only other people on the beach, turned out to be a paramedic. He wrapped my son’s foot (free) and gave us directions to the nearest hospital.
We got to the hospital and my husband carried our son into the emergency room. They took us almost immediately to be treated, stopping my husband at the door and asking him, “Are you employed?” Here in Canada we don’t have to worry about being employed or unempolyed and receiving hospitalization. My son’s foot was sutured and bandaged etc. On our way out my husband had to give the hospital his credit card to pay for the procedure. This was over 35 years ago so the cost was about $145.00. We received a printout with the cost of the sterilization kit, the cost of the sutures, how many gauzes had been used, the cost of the bandages etc. I took the bill in with me when I took our son to the doctor in Canada to remove the stitches. He told me he would have been paid $25 to show up at the hospital and $15. to take out the stitches. I submitted the bill to our Canadian Health Care Provider (the government) and received total reimbursement.
If anybody takes the time, read about greed in the medical system in the US, and the vast amounts of money the doctors and pharmacutecal companies are making. Is it any wonder that they don’t want the system to change? The governement feeds lies to the people (especially the Republicans) to sway them the way they want them to go. Health care in the US is about greed and making big bucks! U S citizens having nothing to fear (like communism) from socialized health care.
And everything Orville mentioned above, being able to choose your own doctor and/or surgeon is correct.
Even being Canadians we just love Obama and cannot understand why health care reform, which will benefit all, with the exception of people making vast amounts of money from it, would not want this.
I was born in Scotland, married an American and our daughter was born in Scotland. My first experience with US healthcare was not so much personal as when my sister-in-law (on our first meeting) asked me “how much it cost there to have your baby…”. This was forty years ago and I was bewildered…have been ever since when I hear friends, neighbours, colleagues panic at the very idea of a national healthcare system. The only reason I can fathom is, as you said Orville, for too long this country has been fed with tomes of misinformation, supposition and assumption. It angers me when I hear so many of those who can help make change diss the UK, Canada among others with horror stories of what a national healthcare system “will mean”. Rubbish!! Not only am I familiar with the UK system but my sister, husband, her son and his family plus other family still live in the UK and their experiences alone are only a very few out of the general population all getting the same care. My BIL has been battling cancer for several years. He happens to be allergic to chemo but every three months he goes into hospital for a procedure which is keeping him not only alive but productive and enjoying life. Meanwhile, my sister had breast cancer and had surgery two years ago. Two weeks ago she had to have major surgery for an aorta-iliac blockage…this aside from being diabetic. Her care…their respective care has been top-notch and carried out soon as needed. I’m wondering where the spooking here comes from when they tell us people wait months and months for the simplest procedure? And they forget to tell the American people that those in the UK DO have an alternative if they so wish…private health insurance. I had an aunt who opted for this…think she used it once for her first hip replacement. For the second, she chose national health. The only apparent difference between the two was she had to pay extra over and above her private insurance whereas with the second surgery everything was covered. We still have doctors who pay housecalls if necessary…particularly to the aged and children. Home care professionals do similarly for newborns, assorted therapies etc. I’m not suggesting we, here, should go any particular route…as I have understood it the Candian healthcare system is not dissimilar and equally as good or, as has been suggested, why not offer the same as military has…or our politicians who have, probably, the best care available here and at what cost to them???
I know one thing…when my family are sick or need surgery/procedures as they have done, all I needed to worry about was their recovery. I don’t have to worry they will lose their home, business, livelihood to cover medical costs nor do they have to worry about being refused or cut off from health insurance because they already have serious health problems. The Hippocratic Oath states “First do no harm…”; what harm do we do because our health care system limits our health and lives to what our insurance companies decide or what we can afford.
And what it cost to have my child forty-four years ago? Nothing…in fact I was paid, if you like. All pre-natal care was covered as was the delivery (not an easy one as she was extended breech, week in hospital, home visits when we were discharged plus her infant care and when she was born I received the customary govt. grant for which to purchase any necessities. Had I had twins that grant would have been doubled…had I been an octo-Mom…figure it out! There are much worse things than a national health care system…like those on fixed incomes becoming more ill or dying, needlessly, because they have to choose between prescriptions and utilities each month or losing their homes, farms because of catastrophic illness. It’s LONG past time we got the finger out and made sure none amongst us need fear illness.
great post and so helpful…
Why? Our Media is owned by a very small class of Americans whose extremely wealthy lifestyles are married to the same groups that created the gambling culture, pyramid schemes that run Wall Street. So the Media does not fulfill it’s responsibilities to tell the truth about things such as the fact that health insurance companies finance their lavish salaries, bonuses and other luxurious perks by means of 20-30% overhead taken out of our premiums.
How do they do this? How do they operate on 20-30% overhead? - by saying “No”. Saying “No” to coverage results in folks who then do not get preventative care and people don’t deal with their health issues until it’s too late and it, therefore, costs more. So costs go up and up and up, which CEOs then use to justify saying “No” even more, because, afterall, “Costs are going up, so we can’t afford that exercise group to help you manage your weight.”
Media also doesn’t tell you, by the way, that Medicare (even though it does need the right reforms) runs on 3-4% overhead.
Media in the U.S. is not honest, because it is owned by the very corporate conglomerates that profit the most from the things they say about social issues and our politics. This is one of the basic reasons that something like Vibrant Nation is so very profoundly valueable to the People of the U.S.
T H A N K Y O U ! ! Your words which speak by experience mean a lot. I have tried my best to explain this over and over and over again to no avail. Why people fight healthcare? I believe is because they have it at a reasonable cost being from their employer or by being government employees and since they do not need it, they do not care if anybody else has it. SELFISHNESS.
it is up to us to keep writing to our politicians, the ones that represent you in your district, state, washington what you need from them. STOP THE BICKERING AND STOP trying to campaign when there are no elections. They were elected to fix what is wrong, not to fight each other. I do, and i will continue to do until my fingers bleed. And mean it, do a campaign to vote them out of office. When they come looking for your vote tell them right to their faces, you are not working for me, but for created interests that do nothing for the people.
Excellent!!!!
Orville
I could not agree with you more and do not understand what America is thinking when it comes to health care. I am an American living in Belgium now with my husband who is from here. This is my second marriage. I met him in Montana and that is where he and I wanted to live our lives. We did ok for a time, but wages are low there and although we had the money to pay cash for our home (very fortunate compared to most people in Montana) we still needed to work for the bills and other expenses. It was when he got hurt and the hospital bill came when we both realized, particularly him that we were going to be in trouble in the future if we had a major health problem. He started to go back to his country and pick up the pieces of his job and secure a pension and health care there. I did not want to go because of family, but the writing was on the wall we could not afford America and health care here. I have lived here three years now and although it is very tough being away from family we are much more secure here with all health care provided and I only pay $25.00 a year for my insurance card. It is not government health care, it is government sponsored where they control the cost of health care. In return doctors here do not make 50 times our wages, and insurance companies do not make outrageous profits and there are no pill pusher ads on TV dominating the air waves. Honestly at this point in my life I could not afford to go back to the “Land of the Free” because there is nothing free about it. I wish the “United States would become “united” once again and then maybe they could solve some of these major problems. Belgium has there challenges too, but at least people here can live without the worry of losing their health or homes and when they loose their jobs they get taken care of in that way also.
My husband and I grew up in the U.S., but we’ve lived in Canada for 35 years, and have been Canadian citizens for over 30 years. I agree SO MUCH with Orville on the subject of socialized medicine. I’ve been blessed with good health, but my husband has had several issues, and of course we raised our children here. There’s never a hesitation to seek medical care because of possible costs. One needn’t have an emergency fund for unforeseen medical catastrophes. It’s a given that care is available when it is needed.
Of course the wealthy oppose it–they will pay more of the cost for making sure their fellow Americans have accessible health care. But what ever happened to the concept of “All for one, and one for all”? I would never contemplate living in the USA again.
AMEN SISTER. BEAUTIFULLY EXPLAINED. my neice is a nurse in Canada and loves the care folks receive. So much fear out there, but i remember what FDR did for this country during the depression with the CCC and WPA, what great things the Civilian Conservation Corps did and the CCC created men that were ready for WW2 when it started.
Fascinating to read all the responses. I moved to Canada in 1990, after falling in love with a Canadian. A few years later I was visiting my brother in a California hospital when his insurance ran out. Staff brought us a wheelchair, and we wheeled him to the car and drove him home, though he was still seriously ill. He had many serious health issues and recently died at the too-early age of 64. I remember being with him at a California restaurant when he collapsed. His wife refused to let me call an ambulance because of the cost. So we bundled him up and took him home. And he was one of the lucky ones, with good health insurance from his employer and then, when he could no longer work, through his wife’s work.
More recently, a dear friend postponed her mammogram because she had moved to another state and had no insurance. By the time, eighteen months later, she was able to turn a contract position into a staff position, the delay had given cancer cells time to grow. She might have been able to avoid a hysterectomy and double mastectomy and all that follows – or not, we’ll never know. What we do know is that even now she has to worry about losing her job and, of course, her insurance, when all she should be worrying about is healing.
I’m grateful for universal coverage and hope it will be available for all my American friends and family soon.
I knew most Americans understood that socialized medicine is not a government control issue and the letters here show that what television shows is not the feelings of the majority in the U.S. (I guess those who rant against it make a better story). The only ones who see this as an issue of government control and interference are those who wish to make it seem that way. Is not all money spent by the government not coming from taxes? So what is the issue about using taxes to provide standardized health care for every citizen? Would that not make more sense than some of the pork barrel spending, redundant armament spending, the billions that are spent to support foreign governments whose leaders send most of it to their Swiss bank accounts, and the American companies who, while their spokesmen wave the flag, cheat their own government in time of war, etc. etc.. While the two main areas for the good of the average American, health care and good schools, is less and less reliable. Some people want to believe free enterprise is the way to go on everything, no government interference, but the recent running of the banks and insurance companies, etc. should have shown this is foolish. It lines the pockets of some while others lose more and more. The division between rich and poor is again getting wider. As one person here said, greed comes in every area. Even doctors. And certainly in private health care companies. The only control the population has is in their vote– and that only if the majority of people forget about the party system, whether they are democrats or republican, and talk louder than the naysayer right wingers, and the democrats who are too weak to hold their position. Stand together and force politicians to do it YOUR way.
My son–in-law in Florida owns his own business. When I naively asked him if he provided health care for his employees he looked at me like I was mad. He gave me all kinds of reasons why he did not. Of course, his bottom line is money. Although he owns a huge house with a pool on the waterfront, another brand new gorgeous 6,000 sq. ft. house, with a guest house, on a mountain top in N. Carolina, another house on the side of the mountain in N. Carolina and two other tracts of land, as well as two porsches, a new pickup, two jeeps, and all the water and run about toys one can think of==he would not even think he should help his employees. Believe me Canadian businessmen would do the same thing if they had this situation. I have a hard time with this.
Healthcare in Canada is not perfect. One of our problems is the money nurses and doctors can make in a country just south of us. But we will only vote for people who make this a primary issue. That’s our only control. We will work on what we have and make it better. As a senior it has been amazing for me. If I had to pay for my prescriptions I could not live. Common sense, intelligent Americans are going to prevail and health care for all is just around the corner.
Forums like this are becoming more and more important. Where people speak to people about what concerns them without it being misrepresented by media or politicians or radio and TV false spokespeople.
Amen Orville. I’m a fellow Canadian with many relatives in the US who are afraid of what health-care reform will mean. Evrything you say is true. Long wait times for some procedures and the difficulty in finding a family doctor in some areas continue to be problems in many parts of Canada, but no system is perfect, and these problems are not insurmountable. The bottom line is we do get EXCELLENT health care in this country. In Quebec, where I live, we even have pharmacare. If you don’t have private coverage through your job, the province pays for all medication. Premiums for those who require this coverage are on a sliding scale, depending on taxable income.
My ex-husband now lives in New Jersey and has MS. He recently became unemployed and has no more health coverage. (Something called COBRA, which covered him temporarily, has run out.) He cannot afford any medication to control his disease and pre-empt another exacerbation. He is seriously thinking of moving back here to Canada with his second wife, and my new spouse and I constantly encourage him to do so before it’s too late.
Thank you I just got around to reading this post and it is exactly what I have been screaming out at the top of my lungs ;0 That you are a B+ in health care and we as Americans are in the D- But yet they still keep fighting it tooth and nail
I would hazard to guess that NO ONE whoever lost their coverage and had to buy Cobra for $1500 a MONTH wouldn’t want healthcare reform.
I have a $10,000.00 deductable without dental or vision. Really sucks. BCBS raised there rates 22% and if you are not with a group, you carry the whole load..
Holy Crap! My husband was hurt on the job in Jun 09 & now that he’s been out of work more than 6 months they’ve dropped our health benefits. We’re lucky that I can get it from my company otherwise we’d be doing the Cobra thing. What a cluster!! I can’t imagine why anyone would NOT want healthcare reform….boggles my mind! But I guess if you listen to the propaganda and fear mongers, you get it.