re: Has anyone lived in a country with universal healthcare?

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Great, now do cancer, or be someone who busts their arse working to provide but can't afford great healthcare

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am i supposed to apologize for having a normal job with health insurance?
my grandma had cancer. I dont' recall her having to fork over tons of money to treat it. She had insurance through the state since she was a retired state employee.

How do you bust your arse working but can't afford health insurance? maybe bust your arse working for an actual company that provides health insurance, or at least have a spouse that works for someone with good health insurance. YOu can't both work jobs that don't have health insurance. That's just stupid.

I had my hip joints replaced within 2 weeks of diagnosis. People in other parts of the world with universal health care were waiting 6 months to a year for joint replacement. I don't want the gov anywhere near our health care.

you get to pull your own teeth

LINK

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the US has free healthcare as long as you're poor.

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Its not free, it's just nod paid for by the person using it.

A single payor system in the US is not possible. It's a politcal talking point and impossible until the healthcare costs are addressed.

Just look at the shite show Medicare is and you need no more proof. The government pays other people to administer care to Medicare beneficiaries because they have absolutely no idea how or desire to.

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There are millions of jobs that society relies on that don't have employer-sponsored health insurance.

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Like what?

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Making enough to live and cover health insurance on your own is incredibly tough,

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I disagree.
A healthy 20 something year old doesn’t need some awesome arse insurance. If you’re a laborer, then bust your arse to get to a point where you can then work a real job that provides insurance as you get older and I would assume eventually have a family.

And if your poor enough, then everything in this country is free.

We have too large a segment of the population not paying in for this to not greatly increase costs to those that do pay in or drastically lower the quality of care. One of the two would have to happen.

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I could only imagine cancer or major illness.

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I know going through cancer and stem cell transplant at MD Anderson I had access to any and all medications available. I'm still in support groups on Facebook and they are made up of people from around the world. Medications that I had access to years ago are just now getting approved overseas.

If we are just talking simple primary care and ER stuff, the universal model makes sense. Having gone through cancer and eventually a double lung transplant, I like knowing that anything to help me live longer is available here. The only thing I dislike, costs aside, is network coverage and this is hospitals and doctors faults. In a way insurance sets what they get paid. If it was a flat rate for each procedure, office visit, etc. like Medicare there would be no such thing as in network vs out of network.

edit: if you live in a large city it's not really an issue because most hospitals will offer the same services so you are going to be covered somewhere. If you live in smaller states, towns, etc. you will have to travel for healthcare and sometimes out of state in which you would be responsible for so much more money. It's not your fault that what you need isn't near you.

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you have a heart attack in the UK, you might get to see a cardiologist 6 months later.

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Canadian friend of mine tore up his kneee skiing and waited 6 Mos for an MRI

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Like what?

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Service industry, residential construction, agricultural laborers. Not sure why this is apparent to you.

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I disagree.
A healthy 20 something year old doesn’t need some awesome arse insurance. If you’re a laborer, then bust your arse to get to a point where you can then work a real job that provides insurance as you get older and I would assume eventually have a family.

And if your poor enough, then everything in this country is free.

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I disagree with your disagreement. No, they don't necessarily need awesome insurance, but unsponsored health insurance, awesome or not, is expensive. Your employer sponsored care is cheaper for two reasons: 1.) the insured pool is higher, so the costs are spread out 2.) employers are covering a portion of the negotiated premiums. Ask your HR what your COBRA premium would be to get some idea what it would cost to cover yourself outside of your employers umbrella.

Ideally, yes, people start small and move up. This still does not alleviate the issue of having enough employer-sponsored health insurance to cover every single working individual in this country. And people still get sick and need health care while they are pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

Again, I'm not advocating for single-payer/universal healthcare. All I'm saying society will be paying for the healthcare of the have-nots one way or another.

Canada

Pro : longer time with doctors
Con : longer time to get into doctors

Pro : included in your taxes
Con : not included in your taxes

Con : no private insurance
Con : in US your private insurance probably does not cover it

Pro : cheap drugs ie 3 month scrip in Canada = 200 US
Con : $$$$ drugs ie same 3 month scrip in US = 1,800 US

Living in multiple systems the best would be the middle road (both GOV & PRI)

Base care for all (tied to GDP)
Strengthen HSA's (allows folks to manage their own care for savings for all)
Private insurance (that actually works) for added coverage
Tax write offs for preventive care (cheaper in the long run) and positive life choices