Quote:
Originally Posted by CDSmith
*sigh* here we go again. This tiresome debate all over again.
All I'm going to say is this: over the past 2 years alone I've had treatments, appointments, scans, tests and x-rays that would have in total cost an uninsured US citizen roughly $300,000+ in medical costs. In a few more days I will be having another facet block intervention procedure, something that runs anywhere from $20k to $40k per treatment in the US. I will be having another MRI scan done on my lower back in the late fall as well, and by then I will be due for my next course of injections to my back.
The bill to me so far: $0.00. And the care has been exemplary.
My sister in law was diagnosed with cancer in her lower abdomen roughly ten years ago. She had all of her medical care done here in Canada and still does... what would have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills in the US. She's alive and healthy today and has had $0 bills handed her. (St Boniface General Hospital in Winnipeg has an excellent cancer research and treatment facility, as does Vancouver where she is currently going for all of her ongoing followups)
Don't even get me started on how much medical care my mother has required in the past dozen years, including several lengthy hospital stays. Probably over a million bucks worth if she were an American. Again, $0.
Any Canadian griping about our healthcare is free to seek out other doctors in Canada, other specialists, go where the care is more to your liking, or else get your ass south of the border and pay through the nose. No one's holding a gun to anyone's head here.
$0. High quality care. Is it perfect? No, no system is. But from where I sit it's a whole lot better than the "Insurance System" they have going on down south.
Warchild's post --- spot on.
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You're a grown adult and you really think you are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical treatment for $0 aka FREE? If you are that means you aren't paying taxes.
The Canadian system is rationed healthcare, it has to be, there's a budget for healthcare imposed on it by the government, and the reason you are getting good treatment is that budget is huge and funded by huge taxes.
I have no problem with the Canadian system other than its prohibition on private hospitals. With the vast majority of Canadians living close to large American cities there should be the option where you can go to the US for treatment and get reimbursed for the amount the Canadian system would spend on that treatment. Ontario had HORRIBLE wait times for cancer treatment, still does but it's improving but when your life is on the line you should be able to get treatment. A friend of my dad's needed heart bypass surgery, waiting list at the time was 6 months, he died of a heart attack long before his surgery date.
I became aware of the BC PET scanner situation just reading some forum not even health related, a woman with cancer, I think breast needed/wanted a PET scan - she had to go to California, when she talked to the doctors there and told them her province had just 2 scanners they were stunned. I'm not an oncologist, I don't know how important PET scanners are, from my quick reading the PET scanner is a big help in early detection and can see metastases long before other tests/scans.