NWR: What Do the Canadian Knotties Think...

ExpatPumpkin

about the current health care debate going on in the U.S.? Just curious...

SunnyCanadian

I haven't paid a lot of attention but please tell me if it essentially comes down to this - Obama and his administration want to create a free public health care system similar to the one we have in Canada? Correct me if I'm wrong.All I have sufficient knowledge on is the healthcare issues that come up in Canada.By no means is our healthcare system perfect, but I do have the peace of knowing that if I get hit by a car tomorrow I don't have to worry about how I will pay for the ambulance ride, lab tests, diagnostic imaging tests, specialist referrals, and my hospital bed.If I get pregnant, I won't worry about paying for the costs associated with the delivery of my baby. I get 12 months paid maternity leave (I think 16 weeks is paid by my employer and the rest is paid by Employment Insurance). I will only get about 55% of my income for the 12 months I am off but still it's better than nothing!I can go to any hospital and any doctor I wish to, provided the doctor is accepting new patients. We have a MAJOR doctor shortage here, which I'm sure is the same case in the States, correct?FYI - The province that I live in, Alberta, DID use to charge premiums for our "free" insurance plan but they have scrapped this as of 2009. If I remember correctly we had to pay $136/every 3 months or something.Prescriptions, dental work, massage therapists, chiropractors, glasses, and other similar services aren't covered by the "free" plan but almost every employer offers a benefit package, which usually covers 80% of these additional healthcare costs.I know that sometimes some Canadians have had to wait a long time to have a particular surgery (like knee replacement) or to get an MRI, but that is NOT the norm. Can anyone tell me why some Americans don't want universal health coverage?Who's for and against it?

anna.oskar

This is some of the junk on American tvs.  All in an effort to confuse and instill fear. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqMKK8AoLCw

anna.oskar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOto7C4yHXQ

ExpatPumpkin

Most Americans who don't want it believe that it would make the country socialist, and they are afraid that: - their taxes will go up - they'll lose their current employer-based coverage - they won't have access to their preferred doctor In addition, the hardcare haters are afraid that: - they'll face death panels - they'll die waiting for a major surgery - Obama is Hitler's love child

thesuninherhead

aMrs, I am not sure about WA, but in Qld you don't pay for ambulance- or rather, you do, but it comes from your rates. So you won't need to worry about that. As for pregnancy etc, you don't have to have private health cover to cover that sort of stuff- you can use the public system. That said, I take out private health cover just because I'd prefer the option of going private if it came to it- but our public system is good enough that you could go there and would not have to worry- nor pay, once you are a citizen anyway.

thesuninherhead

" TLV, under the Aussie system, your mom would still have to pay for visits, and without PHI she would still have to pay no insurance prices for kidney dialysis, medications, etc."Amrs, I'm sorry but you're not correct about all of that. Kidney dialysis you can get in a public hospital for free if you are an Australian. Many doctors bulk bill, so you do not have to pay to see them. You do pay for medication, but at greatly reduced prices because the government subsidises. Eg. Nick has diabetes. When he first got it, he was hospitalised. He didn't have to pay at all for that. Now he purchases insulin, and it is at a very reduced rate. With private health cover, you can claim back some (but not a lot) of the medication costs. Our medication is already so inexpensive that it is very easily managed. He also gets free needles, and subsidised testing strips and glucometers.

thesuninherhead

PS: Now the health rant is over, how are you enjoying Perth?

aMrsin09

Actually I'm not enjoying it at all.  WA is about as backwoods backwards as you can get. I hope QLD is vastly different.  Everything I was saying about the Health care was coming from FBIL who was sitting next to me whilw I was researching thr PHI.  

thesuninherhead

Well your FBIL does not know what he is talking about!You do not need private health insurance to get by. Once you have a medicare card (which you can get if you're an Australian- and I would gather if you have residency that would count) you will have access to bulk billing and discounts on your medication. Hospital and extras cover is there so that you can elect to go to a private hospital if you need to- but unless you're having elective surgery done (in which case the wait times are longer in public hospitals), you'll often end up in a public hospital and there won't be much in the way of fees associated with your visit. Personally, we have hospital and extras cover, but only because it provides discounts on things like glasses/contacts (you can also get glasses through the public system for free, but they are highly ugly), dental (which you can do public again, but you'll be waiting a long time- unless it's an emergency), and the ability to elect to go to a private hospital if you want. It's not essential, though. If you get sick here, provided you have medicare cover (which every australian automatically has, you just need to go to the office, prove you are an Australian (or in your case I guess, have residency), and get a card) you can go to hospital and won't have to pay. The only exception may be ambulance, and that's just because it varies state-to-state. As I said, here in Qld you automatically have ambulance cover so you don't need to worry about that, either.

aMrsin09

I'm headed to the chemist today to find out how much my precriptions are w/o the PHI.  Becuase Chirpractor visits are around $80 (need at least once a month) and if my Rx's are too much it may be cheaper to get the PHI than pay out of pocket. The cheapest PHI I found was $180 ish for the two of us and that was with Chiro and Rx only.