If America Socializes Healthcare, Where Will Canadians Go For Medical Attention?

I've had lots of experience with both the Canadian and British health schemes. If you enjoy a visit to the DMV or a visit to the Post Office during December you will adore government health schemes.
I've told so many folks here in the USA but they just don't believe me and are hypnotized by the word FREE.
Doctors and Nurses etc. will still want to paid under government run schemes as will everyone else associated with it.
You will find however Politicans always seem to get medical treatment without waiting and being told "No more today, come back next Thursday."

My grandparents were doctors in Germany (East and West). I've heard horror stories about socialized medicine that will curl your toes — doctors who act like DMV employees, lack of supplies, government turning down treatment requests because they economically justified (so there is a market in there after all, hmmm).

I assumed it was just the Germans. Then I experienced the military medical system (father was enlisted). I was sent home with a broken arm because they didn't think an x-ray was worth it. Another time, they finished stitching my hand (crashed through a window) without anesthetic because they were rationing it that week. Another time, they let me sleep in the waiting room with a concusion for an hour while the doctors were busy handling a VIP. A very smart Colonel saved my dad's life by telling him to go to a private doctor for more thorough tests (cancer) than he would get in the system. Then his best friend almost died after his blood went septic and the nurses couldn't find a doctor for two HOURS.

So I'm pretty sure I don't want that foisted on this country.

What's sad is hearing able-bodied co-workers of mine talking about national health care without even knowing the consequences. And our health care plan (which includes health/dental/vision) is not bad at all.

People don't understand that when you double someone's income tax to pay for health care, it's not free. Or when you double or triple sales tax on gas, cigarettes etc. It's like stealing $100 out of someone's wallet and giving them back $20. Should they thank you for giving them $20?

And don't forget about all the fraud in the behemoth known as Canada's socialized medical care system. Because we all know how good the government is at spending money responsibly. Personally, my health care plan is a good diet and good genes, which is, after all, my human right.

Steve,

That was brilliant, bud! I Twittered it for ya: http://twitter.com/screenrant/statuses/1210606127

Vic

==If America Socializes Healthcare, Where Will Canadians Go For Medical Attention?==

You're asking the Left Nuts to think too much. It makes them poop their pants.

Since conservatives are out of power, we have plenty of time on our hands to make this our project, informing people, creating web videos, web sites, posts, telling our neighbors etc. to get out the important word about how terrible these government run schemes are. This is a battle we can win because even liberals at their nature (back when they cared to think for themselves) are technically against this form of government power.

And I'm not alone. Anyone who has a rare health condition. Anyone who had a condition like migraine that is poorly understood or needs highly individualized treatment to control. Anyone who has an intractible version of an otherwise common condition. All these people as well as anyone who is deemed too old to be cost effective to treat. They don't even have decent arthritis care in many European countries, something that is a basic quality of life care in the US.

All of us stand to be pushed aside and relegated to the dark corners. Told by our govenment to crawl into corners and die because we aren't "cost effective." Given that I never once took any money from anyone else in my drive to find adequate treatment on my way to where I am today, I find this new push to rob me of my basic Constitutional Rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness to be sinister and downright un-American. That it's my own so-called elected Government that's doing it makes it tragic. That so many of my fellow citizens see absolutely nothing wrong with this … well, it's … I don't know what it is, but I'm scared.

Oh, I know full well that our system is broken. I've fought through it for roughly a decade now, and my meds aren't cheap. One thing is the amount of government regulation that forces coverage. Your insurance policy covers your mammograms, yes, but odds are that you also pay to cover your regular prostate exams. Wait … but you're a woman? You don't need that? Too bad, the government forces your policy to cover it for you anyhow.

Now, consider your doctor. He's paying high insurance to cover his butt against lawsuits. So, he tends to order all the tests he can … just in case … whether he thinks you need them or not, because if he misses something, you might sue. The more doctors get sued; the higher their insurance premiums are and those costs get passed on to … you (or your insurance).

There are a lot of other problems with the system that I could go into, but space is limited.

Gee, I wonder if he gets any cash from the big drug corps running our health care into the ground??

Do you even know anything about the reality of what it takes to bring a drug to market? Do you also know that every other nation out there with government healthcare forces most of the drug companies to sell at a loss? That's partially why our drugs are so expensive and also why the vast majority of new drugs are brought to market in the US. At least here, the companies can expect to recoup some of their investment on a successful medication. Why don't you gripe about all those free-loader countries running our healthcare into the ground? They're just as much to blame by foisting their share of the cost off on us.

You can thank trial lawyers.

Short answer – Get rid of trial lawyers!

Longer answer – Cap malpractice payouts, penalize lawyers for frivolous malpractice lawsuits and let doctors be in charge of your healthcare. Not a lawyer, or insurance salesman, or some nurse in an office 1000 miles away telling a doctor what treatment he should be giving a patient that said nurse has never seen or examined.

nope. it's working.

i'll post one part at a time:

have any of you idiots ever looked at quality of life index?

i don't know why these xenophobic idiots enjoy a foreigner such as yourself giving advice on how to run america, but thanks my socialist canadian friend, for coming down and stirring up america's angry right.

In order to make a point, one generally has to do more than toss out a question. And it might be helpful to post what you're talking about so us dum ol' ijits can see it.

yes.

Right on, Steven. My dad was a doctor and he warned me about socialized medicine way back in the sixties. 'Nationalized Health Care' is not a new concept. He painstakingly showed me case after case of how government intervention into medical practices, insurance, hospital construction and management…all of it lead to uniformly higher costs to the consumer and a decrease in quality of care. Consistently. Unfortunately, the Left seems to have no appreciation of either history…or facts. They go with their feelings…and their feelings tend to be devoid of either reason or a rational ability to recognize common sense.

Hence: Obama, a socialist, is leader of the free world.

Here's a real-life example from me personally. I had a bad pain on my left side one night and I really couldn't sleep. I thought it was a bad stomach ache so I took some Pepto. It was a struggle that night but by the am I felt fine. I went to work and was in a meeting when the pain came back, but this time really hard. I had to leave the meeting and was taken to a local clinic. The doctor asked me to jump up and down and he pressed my sides to see if I had pain. I felt the pressure of the pressing, but no other pain. He said I was fine and that I probably had bad gas. I asked for a blood test but was told I didn't need it. I mentioned my appendix but was told it couldn't be that. I stated to feel a little better so I went back to my meeting. About 20-30 minutes later the pain came back so I was taken to a local LARGE hospital. The emergency room was packed, as it was "cold season" and we were disgusted that no one in there needed a bandage, cast, etc. – they were all just sick and coughing. I was told to take a number and it would be about 2-3 hours to wait for a doctor. I said to my college to take me back to the meeting so that I could get my car and go home. I saw an ambulance attendant and asked her what she would recommend, and she said to go see a doctor but not here as the emergency room was overloaded.

I went home again and my wife said that I need to go to the hospital as I probably burst my appendix. I told her of my attempts to get in to see a doctor and that made her mad. I laid down on our bed and the pain kept coming so I decided to go to our hospital. We got there and I was only 8-10th in line, but it took over 3 hours to see a doctor. We kept begging to go in but there were many people with "colds" in front of us which really annoyed us, but there was one true emergency with a small child with a broken foot from gym-class. When it was finally my turn I told my story again and the doctor didn't think I had anything wrong with me. I begged him for a blood test again as I was sure I had a ruptured appendix from what I've read and my wife's opinion. Reluctantly he took my blood test as he said it was going to be a waste of time, only to come back and see me a little while later with the results – I was certainly fighting something bad.

A specialist was called from another local hospital to come see me ASAP as he was on call, but he didn't want to drive the 30 minutes to come see me. I was then taken to my own room and was hooked-up with iv's, etc and told that I had to stay here until he came- which he didn't…. No reason other than the fact he didn't want to come to where I was. WE offered to go there so my doctor called him back but he declined to see me for some reason. I was told my local hospital's abdominal surgeon would be in at 8am so I was given some meds and told to sleep. They woke me up to do a special ultra-sound in the am and my appendix had totally ruptured and my body was now being badly poisoned. I was told that I was lucky to still be alive with how bad it was and they would rush me in to surgery – as soon as they could. I would up having the surgery at 3:30pm that day.

Yes, I am alive and they did a good job, but our system is an absolute joke. My wife has seen people waiting for important tests and treatments because the emergency room is full of walk-ins with colds. This government health-care is such a political football as our country is now several steps left of the Dems and anyone who dares to mention allowing private health care is shouted down. My best friend's wife had to wait almost 1 year for treatment for breast cancer and she was almost resigned to the point that she was going to die before treatment – and she's a nurse. It's freaking unbelievable what goes on here in Canada with our health system.

A warning to all in the USA – don't allow this system to happen in your country as it sounds great but the unimtended consequences is horrible.

You couldn't have. If you really did, you won't post such garbage, considering all the costs of becoming an MD in the first place.

FYI the U.S has more drugs and more reasons to make drugs than anywhere I've ever lived and I've lived almost everywhere. It is obvious to anyone who has left the fish bowl and swam to other places that they have turned our country into a drug makers dream pit. Why aren't other countries advertising night and day about every drug under the sun and what it can do for you? If you believe a word this very obviously paid promoter of the drug industry is saying then you will believe you actually need half the B.S they are trying to sell you! Wake up and smell the rotten corporation and all it's B.S. Then I suggest moving to Canada where the health care is real good if you don't believe the paid promoters!!

If canadian health care doesn't work, we don't need that kinda system here.

Erick you're aclown. This "paid promoter" is a friggin' stand-up comedian …. from Canada. And the reason there's so much drug advertising here is because doctors have complete freedom as to what drugs they prescribe and after spending a billion dollars getting FDA approval manufacturers are understandably eager to recoup that before their patents run out since they sure as hell aren't going to make their money overseas where people get a free ride on our backs. In case you hadn't noticed, the bulk of the advertising is for common afflictions like depression, asthma, acid reflux, ED or birth control and others for which there are a multitude of drug options so it is perfectly sensible for them to try and build any advantage in name recognition they can.

George, I don't think you should try to explain things to Erick. He thinks corporations, the things that play the largest part in making American lives so ridiculously comfortable, are evil. You can't explain things to that type of person. Trust me, I've tried dozens of times. Let him smoke his weed in peace.

IMO

All these people who can't afford health insurance can afford automobile payments, cell phones, car insurance.

National Health Care (Socialized medicine) will be enacted. Then health care will be expensive (paid by taxes, so those who don't pay won't mind what it costs), then rationed. The end result will be those who now can't afford a physical examination WILL have a physical examination, but if they get really sick, they're going to have to die — treating really sick people is expensive.

True Story: England. Patient comes in with ruptured abdominal aneurysm. Bleeding out. American doctor training in England goes into Emergency mode, runs to his superior and says they must take the patient to the OR.

"We'll do him directly after lunch," says the superior

"But he'll be dead by then."

"We'll do him directly after lunch."

Little known fact: In 1992 when Hillary was trying to socialize medicine here the first time, a group of entrepreneurs
opened a hospital in Scotland. (Why Scotland? The UK has Nationalized Health and the rich people in England pay out of pocket to see Harley Street physicians). An American surgeon subspecialist with whom I am acquainted was paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS/YEAR to practice his subspecialty at the "Scottish hospital". Similar specialists and subspecialists likewise were hired. State of the art equipment in all the units. The propaganda media never reported on this Scottish Hospital. The WSJ had two stories on it — one after I wrote and suggested they check it out and one when it closed. The Scottish Hospital ostensibly was there to take care of wealth Middle Easterners and Europeans, but picture Teddy Kennedy being denied treatment for his brain tumor or Hillary waiting two years for an MRI and the more intelligent here will quickly figure out the true reason for the Scottish Hospital.

HillaryCare bellied up and within a year, so did "The Scottish Hospital". My acquaintance came back to America.

Supply and demand will dictate what happens in these systems. If you remove price as a barrier to seek medical care, you will have more demand. If you squeeze the price to the suppliers of care (price controls) you will have less supply. Well, you can do the math. This all equals rationing by way of waiting times, ques, priorities and the like. In Japan, they have had 18 deaths this year tied to not being able to find MDs to deal with ER demand.

Something will always act as a rationing device for goods and services. So, there is the lady in Canada who is told she can have her hip replaced in Oct. Sadly, she has to use her wellchari till then.

Welcome to the brave new world

To answer your question about Canada, as far as I know it is pretty much illegal for there to be private care. The Canadians have gone so far around the bend in fact that people have sued the Canadian government over their healthcare system and won, and that STILL doesn't change anything. Medically speaking, you are far better off being a dog or cat in Canada because your pet's care is all private. The UK's system isn't much better. I've heard stores about how they don't give pap screens to young women because the government figured it was mostly unnecessary, so at least one young lady there is now dying of cervical cancer despite having requested a pap three times. In another instance, a man with terminal cancer researched and found a treatment offered in the US that could prolong and raise his quality of life by months to years. He was denied treatment despite offering to pay all the costs for that out of pocket. The government said he either had to go all out of pocket for everything or no treatment. Heck, doctors in the UK have just stopped telling patients about treatments they know would work but that they also know the government won't allow.

Sounds like some of my experiences at military hospitals. Worst one I had was getting stung on the tip of my left middle finger by a bee in first grade. My finger started to swell more than it usually did, so mom took me to our assigned doctor at the base hospital. Waited for a couple of hours to see him, while the swelling spread to my entire hand. Doctor says "can't do anything for you here, gotta send you to the biologicals/toxins/etc specialist." So we wait another couple of hours, to see said specialist; during which time my entire arm had swollen to about 150% it's normal size. Turns out the specialist was the same idiot we'd seen earlier and his comment was "well, he's allergic to bee stings". And instead of wanting to stabilize me (by this point I was having trouble breathing, sweating, and couldn't stay conscious) he wanted to talk about allergy tests. It's only one of two times where I've seen my dad almost haul off and deck someone. It was some other random doctor who happened to be walking by at the time who got me the anti-toxins or whatever it was to stop it from spreading into my lungs and heart. It was also that other doctor that got me the epipen (sp?) to carry with me to jab myself with in case I got stung again.

I've run into stupid stuff in privately funded hospitals, but nothing ever that dumb. I hear stories like this from people in the socialized medicine countries; mostly the U.K. and Canada; enough that I can't help but think that kind of thing is S.O.P. Which is why I can't say I'm thrilled about openly socializing our healthcare system, and why I'm furious that they're trying to stealth it in with the stimulus bills.

Depends on what you mean by forbidden. From what I understand, private insurance is an option. However, in the past few years there have been a few stories of Canadians and Brits who came to the U.S. to get care their socialized systems wouldn't cover. They'd then get notice that their coverage had been reduced or cut altogether when they got back home. The reasoning was that the procedure was not accepted by their version of the FDA. To me, the whole government argument sounded like the old computer warantees: voided if you install a video card and you're not a certified technician, but applied to people.

Oops! My mistake. I did not realize this post was so popular it had two pages ergo did not check page 1. My post is there. Sorry. I shot off my mouth without putting my brain in gear.

I had that exact thought around the time of the Republican Convention. I was hoping it would somehow find its way into a speech. Unfortunately, we're living in an age of witless speechwriting.

As a Canadian and a breast cancer survivor (6 years the end of May), it has been a hit or miss with the health care system. I was very lucky in the care that I received (BC is ranked the best place in Canada for it's treatment) but it has been a miss with other things. I suffer from lymphedema (from the breast cancer) and I couldn't get the medication paid for (what I was needing it for wasn't one of the reasons stated) that would have been a temporary gap to see if condition aggravating the lymphedema was the cause. Won't do the temporary thing, but will pay for the surgery (the permanent way to go)…go figure. There are good and bad in all health care plans, but finding the right one for the US will not be easy. Every system needs their checks and balances to make sure that it is working effectively.

And just for the naysayers, we have had many news reports of Canadians having to go to the states due to lack of beds, etc.

You can throw all the facts, logic, and horrifying anecdotes you have out the window. "When I was in Germany," your smug liberal friend will say, "I got strep throat and got treated in the emergency room quickly and for free!"

And because that siren song of FREE HEALTH CARE (IT'S A HUMAN RIGHT!) is so alluring, many, many people will suffer.

TrishP is correct. Health care in Canada is hit and miss. Most nurses & doctors I've had to deal with are very caring and compassionate. When you are able to access them.

My eight-year-old son spent 9 hours waiting in the emergency room with a broken arm before anyone could even look at him. It got to the point where he just wanted to go home and maybe come back the next day. I would have GLADLY paid whatever it cost to have him looked at sooner. But that would be illegal.

My wife just booked an appointment with her doctor. (Wonderful doctor, I might add.) Her appointment is August 18th. Can't go anywhere else because most doctors aren't accepting new patients. Which is, I suppose why Emergency rooms are so crowed with "colds and tummy aches."

Where do you live, the Arctic Circle? If I want to go to a Doctor, I just choose from any of the walk in clinics and go, whenever I want. When I walk in, always less than twenty minutes. Seriously, where are you?

I call BS, buddy. I live in Edmonton, with a population of about 1million people. You do not EVER walk into a clinic here in twenty minutes. Actually, if you lived in the Arctic Circle you probably could, but not in any metropolitan area that I'm aware of. I think you've got your Universal Health Care goggles on. Stop spreading that socialist crap.

you ain't seen nuthin' yet rev!

If we going to socialize healthcare we should start by trial on one state. A state with dumb liberals in charge (New York or Oregon). Let's give them an opportunity to ruin their health and economy before we decide to plunge into this insane socialistic program that Will Not work. Why do the Canadians head South when they need true healthcare? Why do 70% of French citizens pay for private health insurance when they are covered by the national healthcare? Too difficult to figure out for some.

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