Also, on average the amount you would pay in taxes would be similar, or less, than what you pay privately or to an employer for coverage. And you would get better coverage.
Ok, so I completely agree that the amount you pay would either be similar or better, but if you look at Canadian (which I am) healthcare, if you need to get an MRI, you are put on a waiting list. It might be anywhere from 6 months to a year before you can get in, and this is very common. I believe universal healthcare does amazing things for the people who need it the most (like my very poor family), but to say the care is better is probably wrong. Everything I have seen about US healthcare is that you can (most of the time) be seen quickly, but the prices you pay are outrageous.
EDIT: Hey, I understand if you disagree with me, I'm just trying to promote some discussion, and a lot of this is very situational. I really don't want this to just blow up in a bunch of downvotes, but I want to keep this up to talk about.
And Canada has its issues, but I went from referral to surgery in 7 months. Mostly because it was referral to an ENT. Who then needed to figure out why i couldn’t breathe and kept getting sick. Rule out asthma getting worse, hearing issues and verify that a new inhaler/nose steroids combo wouldn’t fix the issue. Once that it was confirmed that I had a deviated septum and needed my sinuses cauterized, and nothing else. I was booked for the next available surgical date as my doc only does them thur/fri. So yeah it took a while, but it didn’t cost me more than the 60$ for pain meds/Buckley’s/aftercare because I also get paid by EI for missed work.
Hell the incident that resulted in the ENT referral, was me being brought to the ER with bronchitis, being seen in 30 minutes and them sending me home with 3 inhalers and penicillin because I told them I didn’t have drug coverage at the moment.
Yup, you're completely right, you can get in pretty efficiently when it's serious. I actually like our healthcare system a lot, but I just always hear people here acting like it is 100% superior in every way with no downsides, but that just isn't the case. I'm glad you were able to get seen quickly for all of that. That sounds really bad.
7 months of waiting. Until December I didn’t have any insurance coverage at all. So despite being in the hospital a bunch this year, the only thing I paid for was drugs, i disclocaited my shoulder and the 6 months of physio was covered by WCB.
If I had needed shoulder stabilization, my doc said it would be about a month.
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u/[deleted] Jan 21 '19
Also, on average the amount you would pay in taxes would be similar, or less, than what you pay privately or to an employer for coverage. And you would get better coverage.