Quote:
Originally Posted by IllTestYourGirls
How many illegal immigrants does Canada have? USA "free" healthcare will be NOTHING like Canada's. We will be flooded with illegal immigrants (like the US isnt already) but wait until they really make health "care" "free" here in the US. I would not want to live in a border state thats for sure. Your waits in those cities will be years long LOL.
|
We have 1/10th the population of the US, and although we do have our share of illegal immigrants it's of course nothing close to what you have down there. However, the proper way for a health care system such as ours to handle non-citizens is to charge them a user fee.
Here in Canada if you're a Canadian citizen and you need to head to the emergency room for something, maybe a stay on a ward for a few nights to recover or whatever, it costs you nothing, there is no bill of any kind when you leave. But if you're a non-canadian and thus not covered under our medical care system you still get treated but it's going to cost you. I don't know what the cost is but you do have to pay something.
That's the way to handle that issue.
Speaking of non-Canadians using our medical services, here's quote from wikipedia I found interesting....
Quote:
|
Rarely mentioned, is the use of Canadian medical facilities by relatives of Canadian citizens living in the USA, either US citizens or Canadian ex-pats. Many of the aforesaid will routinely use Canadian addresses to make use of Canadian hospital out-patients facilities, adding to the concern with wait-times in Canadian hospitals.
|
When comparing the health care systems of the G8 nations Canada ranks 2nd behind Australia. USA is ranked 8th (last).
With regard to people mentioning wait times there's a common misnomer. Wait times mostly pertain to when you need to see a specialist of some type. If your case is non-life-threatening then yes there's usually a wait time of a month or three, depending on the specialy your treatment involves. With regard to ER visits though, if your case is serious enough you get routed into treatment immediately. Arrive by ambulence and you're in (again, if it's serious enough).
I worked in the Canadian health care system for 15 years, on cardiac medicine, geriatrics, stroke & amputee ward, neuroscience, intensive care, even put in a few years in the ER. I once took a guy for a CT scan that came in complaining of a bad headache. He'd never had headaches before so this was abnormal for him --- off to the scanner rooms with him. I don't know how it turned out for him but I do know that when he was released there was no bill, no money owing, nothing.
People knock our system for a lot of things, it's not perfect by any stretch, but every time I see an American on the boards saying they had a long hospital stay due to illness or a bad accident or whatever and they now owe $50k, $80k, $200k etc because they don't have insurance, I thank GOD for our system where no matter what happens, you're covered. And our level of care is as high or higher than anywhere else.
Sorry, I wouldn't trade it for the world. Improve it yes, but trade it? Not a chance.