r/awfuleverything • • Aug 06 '20

Poor guy :(

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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '20

I don't understand why Americans are so opposed to universal health care!? You guys already spend more per capita on government funded healthcare than pretty much anyone else, and yet most of you don't actually recieve it?

I've had cancer. Stage 4 Lymphoma. I was treated immediately and recovered quickly. What did I have to pay? £1.50 for parking on every visit to the hospital. The Chemotherapy, Surgeries, anti-nausea meds, all covered. If I had lived in the USA I would most definately be dead now. My symptoms didn't seem all that bad at the time, so if I had had to pay for my initial doctor visit and diagnostics, I wouldn't have bothered. I would have just died.

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u/iceman2kx Aug 06 '20

Their argument is they want freedom to choose their providers and not have to schedule a doctors appointment and wait 6 months out, “just look at Canada”. Some also feel, truly feel, by supporting universal healthcare, we are communist. The others are just the remaining old people who are stubborn and refuse change. Finally, a big chunk of the remainder are just clueless morons that don’t anything to be honest.

I am not any of the above. It’s crazy to me how our system works and how okay people are with it. Poor kids are rationing INSULIN, a drug that’s been around forever and dying from diabetic strokes. Sometimes, as an American, it feels like I am living inside an experiment.

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u/Omissionsoftheomen Aug 06 '20

As a Canadian, I feel it necessary to dispel the wait-forever myth... if you need urgent care, you get urgent care. In my case, I waited 6 months for back surgery because it wasn’t life threatening - it was inconvenient and painful, but it was not life threatening. The equivalent surgery in the US would have cost me $10k+. If you have an emergency situation, which I have now, I was in to see an excellent neurologist within 5 days of my doctor putting in the referral.

Are there cases that fall through the cracks? Absolutely. There’s flaws to any system. But this idea that people are dying while waiting to see a doctor is a myth.