Socialized Healthcare

My uncle had a stroke (he's fine now) in the Philippines and they charged our family not only thousands of dollars (pesos) but also for the ambulance ride. In America, we deal with health care fee's as well.

So here's where my curiosity comes in. Those of you who live in a country with socialized medicine or universal health care, can you give us some input about your system? Topics include: Quality of your care, Waiting time, availability, procedures, etc.

I hear great stories of universal health care and how great it is, then I hear people here in America saying the doctors are never available for that kind of system (including my family). I watched Sicko and Moore makes it sound great. However, I would like to hear from actual individuals under that system to find out how much (if at all) America is lying and brainwashing my family about our system (again, if that's the case).


PS: Does anyone in this forum even live in Canada, Britain, or any other place with universal health care anyway?

Discuss anything else you guys want, but I'm just hoping for my answer.

 

A few people live in Canada and Britain here. My girl Maddie is from Norway, and they have it.

The reason we don't have it, is cause insurence companies make a killing on fees. It's all corporate greed man.

Good thing Imma leave the country.

 

Yeah I'm aware of our corrupt health care system. I think its horrible... I'm planning on leaving as well some time in the future. I would LOVE to move back to Philippines, however... Their system is just as bad as ours considering much of PI is under American influence.

 

Socialism you say? Check out this pardoy of a socialist anathem to Obama, I thought it was pretty funny and a catchy song too.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHnd9Lst4hs

Just thought I'd share

 

Socialized Health Care sounds like a good idea when you first hear about it, but in reality, you'd be a lot worse off. When was the last time the government did anything better than private citizens?

The postal service is perhaps the best example of this. Have you ever tried to track a package with them - it's useless. They don't even really track them, they just notify you when it's delivered. UPS, FedEx, and DHL give you like 2 updates a day until your package arrives.

It's impossible for government to do things more efficiently than the private sector, because it doesn't answer to anyone. HMOs have to provide good service, or else their customers will leave. Free market economies are what have brought the world such relative prosperity in the last 100 years. Free markets work, because all of us as a collective group of individuals are more informed than a single government bureaucrat could possibly be - we have direct access to economic information, since we earn money and buy stuff.

I'm not saying HMOs are the best option for healthcare, but they are way better than the government would be, trust me. People in Canada and the UK sometimes have to wait months or years for urgent surgery. Some have died waiting. In the UK, they have debated denying care to the elderly, because they are 'less valueable' members of society. That is a very dangerous road to head, and is the same general direction as Hitler and Eugenics.

The future of health care is health savings accounts and similar ideas. Please guys, learn things for yourself, don't believe the lie that government will solve all your problems.

 

You're a hypocrite.

 

Yes that's nice and all, but I did ask for input from a resident. Are you a resident in a country with socialized health care? If so then I'll take your opinion into consideration. If not then, I see your statement as useless since my OP states I've heard mixed opinions from Americans.

That's the point in me asking people who live there. TO LEARN. I'm not going to rely on my country to teach me about foreign opinions.

-_-

 

It depends on the institure you choose to go to, really. I have the choice to go to the national institution in my former district, which isn't a nice sight which sometimes makes you nervous unnecessarily. You have to wait a lot because there's no ticket or appointment system (well, last time I've been there, which was a good 5+ years ago), but they are well equipped and inform you well.

However, I've been going to this other institute which looks as if it was a private company but in fact it is not. New building, very aesthetic inside and outside, goes by appointments, well equipped, you name it. I've had health issues more serious than the average cold and I can tell you the environment helps a lot to overcome anxiety. They do operations and every form of diagnosis in that building, so you don't have to run around, let alone travel through the city.

So yeah even with socialised healthcare we have a choice, and as bad as the word might sound, it's actually doing its job well.

 

Seeing as Britain and France receive healthcare that is considered to be universally superior to ours, at lower cost, for shorter waits, I think that perhaps you may be wrong.

Seriously, you missed the whole point of the thread, which is whether or not universal healthcare in the countries that it is in works. I believe it does. You believe it doesn't. This thread was looking for personal accounts from people from those countries to see the results once you remove all the obfuscation being thrown around.

Also, I think that the government does a better job with police departments, fire departments, public transportation systems, and education then they would be if done by private groups. Private schools for the rich do not count, because education for anyone else would still be crap. Crappier crap, most likely.

 

*Sigh* Canada has everything. You never hear anything bad about it on the news.

 

Thats because all they do is play hockey and then eat flap jacks with maple syrup and down it with beer.

Right now though I live in the United States and am on medicare because i am technically disabled due to some of my illnesses and I have been impressed with how they handle things so far other than all the paper work. I get a certain about of money every month to pay for my health and medical needs and other personal things.

I don't know if this really qualifies as the health care you have been discussing and is only Available to people with certain circumstances but I am satisfied with the program I am on.

 

Actually, Canada's Universal Healthcare system is one of the weaker ones around, it really does have long wait times (for non-critical stuff of course), unlike its European counterparts.

Which is better than the US system, which not only has the wait problems, but also costs money, and is worse than the care provided by European systems anyways.

 

Also, doesn't Canada have a horrible childcare system? From what I've heard, they'll take kids away from families with as little evidence as someone saying they saw something happen without any proof.

 

we got the same problem in europe, everyone got afraid of child abuse after some poor kid in england was cut apart.

also, its weird, if there is a divorce, and the man gets the children cause the mom is too dumb/evil to take care of them, and then the mom kidnaps the kids, and after a month or so they are found again, the mom actually gets too keep them... because they were withere for a month....

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

You pay for what you get...

 

how is the tax in japan so low?

i always thought healthcare was great there,, and for the rest they also have some big costs

 

18th highest taxes, FFFFFFF-

It's still 28% ijff, not that low...

 

i would call 10 percent less then my country low

 

Well, thats perception then, you'd appear to have low taxes to someone in Denmark.

 

Free, full, high-quality healthcare is an absolute must for every country, and should be a basic human right.

Of course, a 'free market' economy can hardly afford such a thing, so it must draw money from taxes, as in such countries medical business is highly profitable independent enterprise, hence the insane prices, which also affects the poor countries in trade, and generally all people. All socialist countries had universal high-quality healthcare, and Socialist Albania even abolished all income tax.

However, free basic healthcare in every country would still be something progressive.