Canada losing universal healthcare?
 

Atleast in quebec it seems!

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/canada10e_20050610.htm

:disgust

Where the fuck am i going to have my friends rush me should i get sick again, now that i don't have health insurance?

Universal Healthcare.....what's that?

It's about time the rich are able to pay for a better quality of medical care. Two tier system is good in my books, fuck the poor.

can't they do that today? :eek7

not unless they cross the border into the U.S.

or hire a private physician to come to their house, which i'm not even sure is legal there

Awww its so cute, canada's growing up into the United Northern States :)

::puke::

I was hoping you guys would help us out....show us the error of our ways when it came to the medical system. I had to go almost $50,000 in debt for healthcare last year.

Did you have health insurance?

Huh? If you have the cash you can just run across the boarder. It's no problem and you can schedule your surgery any time that's convenient for you.

agreed, it only makes sense to allow rich people to live longer

I sure did, & yet i'm still receiving bills. My health insurance didn't cover some of the treatments, or only 70% of some. I never once had any problems with them not covering things, but once you start raking up big bills, they get their lawyers to find small print ways out of certain procedures etc. to reduce their costs.

So here, a year later, i'm still paying for emergency room visits, etc. from my ordeal last year.

Damn, that sucks. How much were you paying for that insurance that didn't fully cover you? Are you still buying the same insurance today?

I was paying $500 a month, it was COBRA (continuation) of the insurance my folks had me on for free up until i was 21.

Now i have no insurance because they tapped me out financially during my recovery (when i wasn't working), & i just dropped it.

Basically, i racked up $1,000,000 in surgery charges & their debating that some of the treatments were not neccessary.

So i'm back making lots of $ again....but i still have hospitals to pay....so i'll be fucked for another 6 months ATLEAST.

Oh well atleast i can write most of it off.

ITS FREE!!!! it falls from the sky and doesnt cost anyone anything.

yea i had the same attitude until a surgery pretty much ruined me financially for the better part of a year

guess its not the answer to everyones problems. who knew?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...-2005Feb8.html

:(

pr0.. got icq.. hit me up please.. thnx :thumbsup

My mom fell very ill a few years ago and eventually had to be rushed to the hospital. She's in her late 70's, and she ended up having to stay in hospital for over 2 months and had numerous tests, treatments and procedures done. She received as good a level of care as she would get anywhere in the world.

When she was finally deemed fit enough to go home and continue her recovery there, they wheeled her down to my dad's car and wished her well. No bill was handed to her. Had that stay happened in the US it could very well have cost our family over $100k.

No, I think the people of Canada are not going to give up our health care system just yet. Those in Quebec may think this is a good idea, or it may just be one more ploy by the separatists to differentiate themselves from the rest of Canada, I don't know..... but I can't see it flying everywhere else.

Quebec... wanted to be seperated from Canada a long time anyways.

I'll add that on the: things-I-don't-care-about list :)

jk

" But the bigger surprise was that three-quarters of the medically bankrupt had health insurance.

How did illness bankrupt middle-class Americans with health insurance? For some, high co-payments, deductibles, exclusions from coverage and other loopholes left them holding the bag for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs when serious illness struck. But even families with Cadillac coverage were often bankrupted by medical problems. "

And there i was........... with my cadillac coverage too ^

And had people on GFY like wiredguy & countless other people not helped me out, i would have been the guy standing in the bankruptcy line, lost my car, & all my belongings. Simply because i was too sick to work.

Last time i checked, thats why we have a government, to protect people against things like that. You know, murder, rape, theiving & unfair business practices.

And i think sticking it to someone who's too sick to work, sending collection agencies after them etc. would fall under being as bad as murder.

Dude the best way of providing Free public health care thats good quality is to get all the high/middle income to pay for their own Private health care, then the low income the govenment can afford to take care of.

Private health care is A GOOD THING! in Australia. We have one of the best free health systems (all employees here pay an extra 2% to pay for it). And we have a huge amount of middle to upper class population that has private health care and so doesn't burden the public system.

Yea well here, in the U.S. if you get sick, you better have health insurance + alot of extra cash in the bank to pay for the small print.

How much is alot?

Try $20,000 in my case....which was real hard to come up with when i was too sick/out of it after surgery to even use a computer for 6-8 months.

Ever been to a hospital in Montreal? Its hell. Walk in off the street with a broken leg and you will sit and wait for many hours before they take you. (or you may end up having to stand cause the seats are full) Go to a clinic and they will send you to the hospital after you waited there for many hours. Im not saying I agree or disagree with that article but I do think that something needs to be done here. I wouldnt want to lose the healthcare system we have but maybe offering more private hospitals/clinics would help??? I have seen a few hospitals recently get some extensions built on so I assume this is going to help somewhat, but I really don't think its enough. Anyway lets see how it goes and hope for the best.

All it means is that they are thinking of moving away from a one-tier system to a two-tier system where people can pay for healthcare if they can afford it. People are in an uproar saying it's unfair, what a load of bullshit.. It will take a lot of strain off the public system, and the taxpayers don't have to pay medical for those who can afford their own. Makes sense to me.

Let's hope not.

95% of the people on this board will have to come up with a new diatribe for the inferiority of America to Canada, lol.

that fucking sucks for you guys in CA

it'll be 10 years ... you won't have free medical.

welcome to america

Maybe they'll lower our taxes. ahahahaha, I couldn't even get that out with a straight face.

I wonder if those who elect to use private health care will get a tax benefit since they'd no longer be contributing towards the public one.
WG

Rich people have always lived longer............

urrr.. read the article again... the guy that sued was a single quebeker.. Not sure how the seperatists or even the quebec government or Quebec population got involved into that..

the free healthcare in canada is a great thing, because it helps those who really do need the help... i hope they don't get rid of it

Don't need to read it again. Upon first hearing of this subject this morning it appeared that it was the province of Quebec that was attempting to change the law so they could make moves toward the two-tier system of health care.

But as the morning wore on I found this article....http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Winnip...80136-sun.html

It was this article that talks about Quebec being involved.... http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Winnip...80138-sun.html

... which indicates that there is no movement towards a two-tier system (which I oppose) but rather towards more insurance options for Canadians.

In another thread I also posted that I would rather see a user fee for people who go to the ER for non-emergancy treatments. A $5 or $10 userfee or the choice to go to a walk-in clinic. That would bring in some needed revenue for health care and still preserve the system we have now, which as far as world standards goes is pretty damned good.

Our current system sucks ass but I don't think a two-tiered system is a good thing at all because I simply don't trust the people who are in charge of healthcare funding.

What I see happening in a two-tiered system: Wealthy people pay for private care, reducing demand on the public system, sure. Then the government will decide to reduce funding to the public system because the same level of need is no longer there. As a result, you'll see rich people getting excellent healthcare and low income people with the same long surgery wait lists and poor care that you do now.

The problem with our system is mismanagement. Their solution for over-worked nurses and long surgery waitlists is to hire more managers to 'investigate the problem'.

The solution is simple. Hire more nurses. Increase the number seats in nursing and medical school programs so there are more trained professionals. Improve working conditions. The solution is not paying people more money, giving crazy raises and benefits...give someone a decent place to work and treat them well and you'll have a happy workforce.

Yesa nd when the poor are too su=ick to clean thier house, mow the yards, atch thier kids, serve then lunch etc etc then the ich will have to get off their fat lazy asses and do some REAL work for once.

I agree 100%. Survival of the fittest. I am so tired of Socialist views on things. If you can pay, you get to live. That's excellent.

I suppose it all boils down to wheather or not you want to live in a community that believes it's important to help others that cannot afford the basics of a healthy existence (food, healthcare, education, housing) as opposed to living in a community that views it preferable to prevent others having access to the basics of a healthy existence. I know I know, everyone should take personal responsiblity for their own lives. For the most part I believe in this but there's a sizable group of individuals in not only the US but also Canada that don't start out with the same advantages that most of us appreciate and may need some assistance.

You may now flame me.

Wait till you get seriously ill & can't run your business homeboy.

Last December, my mother had a heart failure. Ambulance brought her to Hotel-Dieu hospital. The doctor told us to prepare for her to die ( she is 85 ) . They still said they wanted to try to save her, so morphine and called in a team to operate ( 2:00 AM ). Within 30 minutes, she was in the OR with anasthesist, nurses, 2 surgeons, etc ... They unblocked 2 arteries with a type of balloon ( they gave us pictures of it afterwards ). She was then intensive care for a week ( docs, nurses, test, etc ..) then a full 6 weeks.
Today, she is having diner with the kids tomorrow to celebrate the birthday of my father ( 84 , and treated for colon cancer).

This treatment in the US would have wiped out the million they have in cash ...

Oups, I forgot WTF you were saying. :321GFY

No problem. They'll sell a kidney to the rich.

In the Peoples Republic of Canuckistan, all people, both rich and poor, should continue to use the same substandard system, that is typical of socialized medicine... Private insurance, and free choice, must NOT be allowed.

http://jewishworldreview.com/0605/tegegne.php3 :winkwink:

What the hell does that article have to do with what was being discussed? Privatising health care in Canada (far more that it currently is) isn't going to change the law that allows for living organ donors. That's an entirely different issuse...

The US spends a larger percentage of its GDP on medicine than Canada and there's still 45 million uninsurred; so it doesn't appear the the US system is all that shit hot either. Some Western European countries have private/public health care systems so maybe we should take a look at some aspects of theirs. Or we could just hire more doctors (at a rate proportional to the increasing population) and pay them at a competitive rate with their private counterparts instead of increasing the already obscene corporate welfare of 4 billion dollars. Giving the business community in Canada a tax break is one thing, but then turning around and giving certain companies (friends of the Prime Minister) charitable handouts is another - while at the same time claiming there isn't enough money left to increase health care spending by several million.

Lol !
 

banning private health insurance they said !!!! Not banning universal healtcare . That's mean it's still free for every body and ones who have "private insurance" can't pass over peoples who don't ! :thumbsup

No worries about this happening to all of Canada...Seems the PQ wants to do this...but not here in Atlantic Canada...

and Im sure not in the rest of Canada, either.


I find that the PQ always want to stand out...so regarding this issue, go to it boys....I'll stay here in NB and keep my healthcare.

hehe

OK then when the poor are too sick to work or dead, then YOUR fucking ass better be at McDonald's making my god damn burger and fries you punk biatch! Then I'll probally go to Wal-Mart so better get you ass over there in case I buy something so those shelves better be stocked and you better know how to run a regiseter and do it FAST. And if I need to shit you better make sure that toilet is cleaned. Oh and by the way you get paid $5.15 and hour to do all that.

It's funny hearing the Americans telling the Canadians how much they pay for their healthcare.

The USA spends round 13% of their GDP on PUBLIC health. Australia spends around 9% of GDP on public health and Canada around 10%.

The difference is that Canada and Australia have universal systems where ALL citizens are covered. Sounds like American taxpayers are getting ripped off. :winkwink: