Quote:
Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Anecdotally, which means absolutely nothing, most of the Canadians and Brits that I know love their respective healthcare systems.
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This is what most of them tell me, too. The friend I took to hospital outside of London when he had a coronary incident, who was made to wait for 2 1/2 hours after arriving in emergency with no attendance by anyone other than the receptionist until I mentioned that he had private insurance, upon which he immediately got a doctor and a room, adores the NHS. One Canadian friend, whose father died because his cancer went undiagnosed through more than a dozen visits to the doctor, who gave him Tums and told him he didn't need to see a specialist until he had lost 50 pounds, and then had to wait for two months for diagnostic surgery by which time he was a goner, thinks the US system is barbaric. A Canadian family member, who suffers from a congenital joint defect that is routinely screened for and corrected at birth in the US but is untreatable in adulthood, loves OHP. A lot of the older Canadians I know, and not a few younger ones, come to the US for actual care and send the bill home, but they love the Canadian system.
Much as I presume that most Americans who tout the US system as the best in the world don't know what they are talking about, I think the same is true for our friends with socialized medicine.
BR(incidentally, Hank, Canadians do get better healthcare results if judged by the most basic of indicators - they have lower infant mortality and longer lifespans than we do. (So do Cubans.) The Brits do worse than us. I doubt that public provision and universal access per se are either the devil or the key to much of anything. I do however find it depressin1g to pay so much for mediocre results. Then again, my solution is well known - fuck the elderly, focus all public health funds on under 18s and preventative care, get bang for your buck and let those who have had a lifetime to sort their shit out take care of themselves. But so long as the majority of my healthcare taxes would go to some rich old fuck getting his piles looked at for the 18th time, or blowing huge amounts on iffy late stage cancer treatments, or even getting his hip replaced so he can continue to play golf, I will be opposed to nationalized healthcare.)C
