What is your opinion on your national health care? Is it good, bad or what? Some people I work with wish we had it.

 

not the greatest, but i guess if you can't afford the high costs of health care in the us, then it is a good alternative. either way you pay for it. we here in canada are on the life long program, it is called getting taxed to death, lol!!!

 

How does it work for you guys? Everyone get health care regardless of income? I've heard it's hard to get care, then I've heard some people from the US go there for certain things to get them cheaper. I know taxes would have to pay for care, but I wonder does that make care cheaper or what?
Thanks for the reply.

 

we are all entitled to hospital care. but prescriptions are not a part of that. define cheaper care? when you are in the hospital, your meds are covered as well. like i said we get taxed accordingly, recently they added an additional tax, based on your income you pay an additional amount, wtf!!! bull****!

 

Cheaper as in out of pocket costs and premiums. The problem here in the US is that a LOT of people don't have any insurance. I know a few that got shipped around from hospital to hospital because they weren't insured.

 

well, you save as there are no hospital charges.

 

Put it this way, you may have to wait a while for some treatments such as hip or knee surgery/replacement but if you had a brain tumor or prostate cancer, you would get worked on immediately. All medical attention by a doctor is free provided it is a serious medical condition. Sorry guys but breast enlargements and liposuction procedures are not covered.

Prescription medication is not covered unless you are poor. Having said that, prescription drugs are much more cheaper up here than in the U.S. I believe over a million U.S. residents buy their prescription drugs up here despite the fact that it is illegal to do so in some states. 60 minutes did a segment on this last year. All these pharmacutical companies were saying that it was dangerous to buy the stuff up here when in reality it came from the exact same company and manufactured in the same plant! They are just trying to get rich on the backs of sick or dying Americans.

 

My personal opinion is it's great!

I have always recieved first class treatment and care.

Don't go to Emergency care at the Hospital for a hang nail,the Flu or the common cold,you will be waiting a hell of a long time.

We have clinics to look after the minor stuff.

If you have real emergency,like broken bone or serious bleeding you get looked after pretty quick.

 

i have to differ in opinion, then again it might just because of where i live???

 

Overall, I can't say our health care system is "bad" ... anytime I've had a problem that I've needed to either A) go to the hospital for, or B) see my family doctor about, it's pretty straight forward ..... go to the hospital/doctor!

Even when there are circumstances requiring specialists ... book an appointment (based on Dr's referral) and go.

On the FLIP SIDE, we pay out the **** off our paycheques (gone before you even see it) and I'm sure our polititians don't handle the money as well as one might hope? But I guess it's probably a "pay me now, or pay me later" type of situation? At least it's supposed to be divided "equally", so theoretically there's no "preferrential treatment".

Although I'm sure if you CAN afford health care in the US, it's probably really good care??

 

only if you can afford the really good plans

 

That's my point. Unfortunately, even if you "can" afford better health care up here, it doesn't really get you much further . (I think one of the only major differences between good extended health benefits vs. NO extended health benefits is the option of having private rooms vs. only semi- or non-private rooms in a hospital). Also, as mentioned, not all prescription drugs are covered, unless you have health benefits, so that can get expensive without coverage.

 

I know from experience that in the US of A, if you have no insurance, you get shipped around until someone feels sorry for you and takes you in. The first thing that happens when you go to the doctor is that they ask for your insurance card. If you don't have one they won't treat you. That's why I asked the original question. Here in The US, a large portion of the population have no insurance,

 

You're the second one to voive this.
What percentage of your check goes for taxes??
Here with a moderate income you can plan on 30-35% right off the top.
In other words how much more is the national health coverage costing you??

 

Funny you ask that .....

..... there was a thread recently (link) asking "Canada people" (that still makes me laugh! ) how much tax we paid.

According to what I said in there (and I guess I won't change my story now! ) last year about ~28% of my gross pay went to taxes. However those got disbursed (between federal/provincial) is another question.

I've always been under the impression that Americans don't pay nearly the amount of taxes (income/property/sales/etc.) that Canadians do? Keep in mind, we have the GST (6% goods & sales tax) that applies to everybody, as well as varying %'s of provincial sales tax (8% for Ontario) that gets tacked onto everything we buy . So right off the bat, your $1 bag of chips costs $1.14. Get a $1 can of pop with that, now it's $2.28 . You see how this crap adds up!

I dunno ... maybe your (tax) system is starting to turn into ours, and maybe our health system will turn into yours?!?!