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Originally Posted by Wolf13
... because it does nothing to address the horrible care and high cost we pay here... regardless of what's done in the states.
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Our care is roughly the same. Better in some ways, like overall life span, infant mortality, and cancer survival rates.
And "high cost?" Americans pay 50% more than we do, including higher taxes for healthcare.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf13
So why do so many go south for help?
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That's largely a myth. The exceptions:
- Canadian snowbirds who get American treatment because they're living in Florida or Arizona.
- Specialized treatment like gamma knife radiation and proton beam therapy for some cranial tumors and specialized programs to treat severe brain injuries. With Canada having only 1/10th the population of the U.S., it's cheaper for the Canadian government to pay to send people to those clinics rather than set up similar clinics in Canada. (Winnipeg got it's own gamma knife a few years ago.) This is a function of population density. The U.S. and Canada could swap health care systems, and it wouldn't change a thing.
- People living along the border, for which we have agreements with nearby American hospitals to treat them. That goes both ways, of course. Like Sarah Palin getting her health care in Canada when she lived in Juneau.
- And yes, the very rich. Like independently wealthy Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams getting "minimally invasive" surgery to repair a leaky heart valve. Not only was the treatment available in at least four Canadian cities, but it was
developed in Canada.
The
difference: Luxury facilities. "If for example he came to the Ottawa Heart Institute he would be in a little private room where there's just a chair for his wife to sit on and his family [would]have to stand around the end of the bed. He goes to one of the American luxury institutions and he gets a suite for his wife and family and so forth."
Even proponents of the Canadian system will fully agree that the American systems is better for the wealthy.
Canada also has its specialties. U.S. insurers send Americans to Canada for hernia treatment using the Shouldice technique, for example. Also
cosmetic dentistry and laser eye surgery. And of course Americans flock to Canada for prescription drugs and flu shots.
In the late '90s Ontario had to replace their health care cards because of all the Americans using fake cards to get treated in Canada.
Nearly 1 million people in California alone seek
medical care in Mexico each year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wolf13
The US system is NO solution, as they have a major pharma/insurance epidemic.
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American healthcare and insurance companies are INVESTMENT companies. The shareholders, not the patients, are the customers. They have a Congressionally granted exemption from anti-trust laws that is the wet dream of every other industry.
And of course you won't see anything in Canada's public system like the CEO of America's United Health Group stepping down as CEO, due to his involvement in an employee stock options scandal, with a
$1.1 Billion golden parachute. Not for a job well done, but for resigning in disgrace. The voters would freak.
No answering to the voters, the American system can simply, logically, "go where the money is." Service the wealthy, and who cares about everyone else?
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success shouldn't be condemned but avoiding social responsibilities while living in a society just because you believe you're above others isn't what Canada is. 
), but those people my money is going to help will live a better life as a result. Not sure how that's "disguising it as compassion", that's a pretty narrow and pathetic way to view how a society functions. 
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