Anybody know???
By foursox212
@foursox212 (282)
United States
July 15, 2009 5:43pm CST
Anyone from or familiar with another country where they have universal health care, how is it??? Are the waits longer to get treatment? Are the medicines very limited that you can get?? Does the system say tough grandma and grandpa, your too old just go home and die???
I'd like to hear from anyone with knowledge of this, Thanks...
1 person likes this
5 responses
@jb78000 (15139)
•
16 Jul 09
unlike the other reponses i am from one of those countries. waits for none emergency treatments can be very long - urgent treatments not. the medicines prescribed by the nhs are much the same ones as you'd get privately. of course old people continue to get treated, as does anyone else who needs to. certain things like plastic surgery are unlikely to be available except in the case of e.g. burns victims
of course if you have plenty of money or enough to pay for health insurance and don't like this, or don't want to wait for something, there's plenty of private health care too.
1 person likes this
@jb78000 (15139)
•
16 Jul 09
responding to two comments here.
from comparing notes with americans i'd say our tax rates are fairly similar - it's just that the nhs is important.
no, it isn't a two-tier health system. the nhs provides decent treatment and is used by just about everyone. i can't think of anyone i know that has ever had, or wanted to have, a private doctor. i included that about private health care because of all the comments from americans scared witless of something solely controlled by the state. private health care is rarely used and then mainly by those wanting to avoid the inevitable waits for non-urgent hospital treatment or for plastic surgery and the like. at the moment it looks like your system is pretty unfair so that maybe wasn't all that reasonable a comment...
1 person likes this
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
16 Jul 09
The basic problem with Universal Health Care is the realities of supply and demand. UHC basically creates an unlimited demand for the limited supply of health care assets.
The government is forced to either force enough people into health care to keep up with demand, or artificially reduce the demand.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
16 Jul 09
Ok, how does the government ensure that there are enough health care workers to keep up with how much the demand is going to grow?
We already have a huge shortage of all medical positions.
It's simple economics.
@ParaTed2k (22940)
• Sheboygan, Wisconsin
16 Jul 09
and don't tell me your government doesn't decide who deserves the care they need and who doesn't. The horror stories from the UK are well documented.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
16 Jul 09
It's really interesting how you hear different stories from people from the same countries. I know two people from Great Britain, one who has lived there for decades after moving there from the U.S. and another who lived there for her early life but has been here for some time now. Both of them have only good things to say about the health care in England and are puzzled by what some of the naysayers here say about it. I also used to know a gentleman, also originally from the U.S., who lived most of his adult life in Finland and he was also pleased with their system.
It's funny how people bring up long waits for treatment and "grandma being sent home to die". I've had some pretty long waits for appointments with my excellent private coverage and someone being sent home to die isn't all that unusual here right now if someone doesn't have insurance or money to pay for treatment. Yes, it's true that an ER can't turn people away or deny them treatment if they can't pay but that's only in an imminent emergency.
Annie
@jb78000 (15139)
•
16 Jul 09
it's a reasonable system. waits happen but not for anything life threatening - frustrating maybe but nothing else. granny is never going to be 'sent home' to die, some people decide that they don't want to die in a hospital but nobody is going to be refused treatment in that kind of brutal way.
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
15 Jul 09
This video is pretty clear on what's going on in Canada
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2jijuj1ysw
@foursox212 (282)
• United States
16 Jul 09
I almost gave up on the video after Micheal Moore LOL but I gave it a chance!!!
I wanna hear what our fellow brits and canadians say, I need to know what we're getting into!!
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
16 Jul 09
Yeah, I know but once you got past that thing the video is very informative and telling.
@jb78000 (15139)
•
16 Jul 09
correct me if i'm wrong but from previous comments made by americans i think there might be two real reasons you don't want free health care:
you think it is socialist and would be the first thing that started to turn your country into a socialist/communist nation
you think you'd have to pay more taxes
@foursox212 (282)
• United States
16 Jul 09
They come right out and say they're gonna tax our rich, AKA employers but will side step the issue of taxing the rest of us but would put a tax on everything they deem unhealthy like sodas, gum, candy which in essence turns out to be a tax hike on the middle class (whats left).
