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To the Europeans... is UHC really that good/bad of an idea?

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posted on Jun, 10 2009 @ 09:55 AM
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Now, I am an American so automatically I would be biased against that kind of thing. We don't like socialism here. I wanted a different view from you Europeans out there on this whole UHC issue. Basically how it runs down is that whenever we talk about getting UHC people always talk about the system you have and how you get all of the things for free (which isn't really for free)... I was wondering if your health care system was that good... if UHC is a good idea... or if it's a bad idea. In the meantime what are other suggestions you could give to us Americans without making really big government over here? I personally don't like the idea of UHC because it would be nationalizing another industry and we have monopoly laws over here that would make that problematic... of course that doesn't stop the government from monopolizing other industries I think... but... can you European types shed some light on the issue? Is it that good, or, is it actually no so great? I'd like to hear some non-American views on it.



posted on Jun, 10 2009 @ 11:10 AM
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reply to post by Frankidealist35
 



I live in Canada so I'll talk about UHC here. If that is ok? In farirness I am actually a dual citizen so I'm also an American.

1) It's not free there is a monthly fee of under $100 for an individual and uder $200 for a family.

2) Many things are not covered; ambulance rides, dental, vision, the fee for a hospital room, medicines plus basic preventatives like psyiotherapy, massage therapy etc.

3) My employeer pays for us to be part of a health plan to cover all of the things the gov't doesn't cover.

4) My brother in law needed knee surgery, they told him that it would be 6 months to see a specialist who then put him on a waiting list for an MRI of the knee (4 month wait). Then 3 months to get back into the specialist then a 6 month wait to get the surgery. After the first 6 month wait he was pissed off about the next 4 months of extreme pain till the MRI. So he called a doctor in Montana who had him in, did the MRI and the surgery all in 2 weeks. Until his death (unrelated to the surgery, passenger in a vehicle crash) 5 years later he had no pain in his knee anymore.

5) I knew a doctor up here who was supposed to do a tonselextami (spelling?) on my sister (she was 14 at the time) and he decided to remove her adnoids while he was there. He never asked permission, my parents where not allowed to press charges and he knicked her voice box doing the surgery. She ended up with a major change in her voice and the medical association claimed that the only reason my parents tried to have his license pulled was because of where he immigrated from. There are so few doctors here that the gov't will do anything to prevent one from loosing a license.

6) Friends of mine had a daughter who had a realy high fever and was passing blood and upchucking. They took her to the childrens hospital and had a 8 hour wait to see a doctor because there was only 2 doctors on at the childrens hospital (city over 750K people), this was at 2 in the afternoon.

7) Certain groups of people get free ambulance rides (welfare recipients), some use the ambulances as taxis. I was talking to an ambulance driver and there is group in our local area who call for an ambulance once or twice each a month. Claim they broke their ankle and demand to be taken to the main (not local) hospital (its in the city 1 hour away). they goto the hospital and get an x-ray then they are released and then the go shopping in the city. According to her the ambulance makes about 100 of these taxi trips a month.

8) My wife's grandfather (mid 80's) slipped and fell on the ice breaking his hip. He was taken into a hospital where they replaced his hip. He waited in the hospital for 3 weeks for the surgery. 24 hours after his hip was replaced he was released, he still couldn't move very well, they told him they needed the bed and since he had a family they could care for him. The next day he had what was though to be a heart attack and passed away during a family dinner. The autopsy revieled that a blood clot from the hip replacement had travel to his brain and killed him. If they had kept him in a hospital for another few days the clot wouldn't have broken free and killed him, they said it was the ride hom that likely broke it free.

9) I had a blockage a few years back in the tube that connects my bladder to my kidney (like a stone but mine was an actual tube colapse from being hit by a drunk driver). The first hospital misdiagnosed it as a kidney stone and waited 12 hours to do the x-ray to look for it. When the x-ray came up blank they transfered me to a different hospital, once there the hospital said they had no room and so strapped me to a gourney with a morphine drip for 8 hours till they got me in for an MRI. It showed it was a colapsed tube and then informed me that they didn't handle uerological cases and would transfer me to a 3rd hospital. I asked why the 1st one didn't just send me straight to the third one and I was told it was because the sending hospital has to pay for the interhospital transfer. It was $20 cheaper for the 1st hospital to send me to the 2nd then to send me directly to the 3rd. At the 3rd hospital they decided to put in a rubber hose to hold open the tube as a temporary measure. After that I could pee again and was told that in 9-12 months when they had an opening they would do the permanent surgery to fix my tube and take out the hose. They also said I couldn't climb stairs, run, sit too long, lift anything above 20 pounds or I would cause the hose to chafe and that would open soars that would bleed. Given what I do for a living that kind of screwed me up and took away all of my hoppies except reading. I pee'd pink for the next 3 months. Anyway 3 months later I get a call about coming in the next friday for my final surgery, it seems some poor guy had a heart attack and passed away so they had an open slot for the surgery. I was done for 3 weeks after the surgery but that is way better than being crippled for an extra 6-9 months if I hadn't gooten in early on the surgery.

Actually the US going to socialized medicine will be good for Canada. All the thousands of Canadian trained doctors who moved south for the better money will move back north once the US system is up and running.



posted on Jun, 11 2009 @ 11:00 AM
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A thing most people don't realize though is that in Canada UHC is governed by the Province not the Federal Government. And each province has a different system. So i was wondering if a UHC like system was introduced to the USA but was based on a state to state system would it be more palatable?
In my opinion for the OP though as a Canadian i love my UHC , sure i have to wait in line for awhile to see the doctor or the ER but when all is said an done i don't have any bills hanging over my head and that it self is worth it in my opinion.



 
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