SleepyT,

First let me say how sorry I am about your Mom. While my Mom did not die of cancer, which I know is enourmously painful, I too watched her die a slow and painful death, she died from lung disease, so basically I watched her sufficate to death. I totally agree with you that there should be insurance for everyone, however, I think we need to be very careful what we ask for and we as individuals who are dependant on insurance and the health care system need to be very involved in the process of providing insurance to ALL Americans. The main reason I say this is because I fear if we are not involved we are headed for a socialized medicine system, which has many issue in and of itself. Ask anyone in Canada and many other countries with socialize medicine. Not only do the individuals who are totally dependant on the socialized medicine program affected, but so are those of us with private insurance because the doctors and other health care workers are so affected by the process that a socialized medicine program brings. Not to mention the wait to get into a specialist like your Mom would have needed, it is crazy, some people actually die before they can get in for treatment, this is a given fact, the stories are out on the internet for anyone to read and I have spoken with families who were victim of the system.

What we need is truly an individualized insurance plan for each and every person, where they can go to the doctors of their choice. I'm not sure that is where we are headed though. I pray I am wrong, but I'm afraid I'm not. Those of us who depend on insurance as heavily as those of us on this board do need to ensure the United States are not headed toward socialized medicine!

I know we have many members from around the world, from Canada and GB which have a national insurance program, could you all tell us your thoughts? Pro's and Con's. Then we would have true insight from individuals who experience it day to day.

Great topic to explore.

Melissa

I could not agree with you more...What a 'rich' and 'powerful', country we live in and people are doing with-out, the basic needs in life, such as meds & food. Yes, What happened to humanity? So sorry for your loss, my best friend and x died just over a year ago with cancer, tis a a horrible disease. Hugs& prayers.

..PS, I, also would like to hear from our ds friends in Canada,your views on our health care system/ insurance... Dallas2; you live in Ca, what do you think?

My husband is Canadian, as our many of our friends. I have heard the stories, but honestly, I have never seen personally any experience that was negative with socialized medicine. The people who have to wait a very long time are the people who are able to wait. My husband broke his hand while he lived there, and he sat in the ER for 2 hours. That's fine, he wasn't dying, and the heart attack that came in after he did, WAS dying. Meanwhile our dear friend Ian, who has to date had a kidney removed, the second kidney transplanted, his bladder removed and reconstructed, and another surgery to attach the transplated kidney to the reconstructed bladder due to necrosis in the ureter, has yet to wait more than a few weeks for any surgery or to pay the first dime for any of it. He fussed once that he had to wait a week - for a checkup. I have never seen anyone who was truly in need, have to wait. And I have never seen jars on the counter at the pizza hut asking for donations to pay for a child's liver transplant in Canada either like we have here. Socialized medicine is not perfect, doctors get paid less so many of them head out of small towns for bigger cities or the US, but there are definite benefits. No one dies from being too poor to see a doctor or afford their meds. My father-in-law had to wait several months for a back operation - but he wasn't dying, and he wasn't even being kept from work, as he is retired. So yes, he had to wait longer perhaps then if he were in the US, but he also didn't have to pay a fortune for it.
I truly hope we are headed for a change if not a fully socialized system, then at least something better than the current system. We shouldn't be allowing poor people to die because they're poor.

boy I have to reply to this one.lol.I am a canadian and would not trade it for the american system for the world. Nobody is turned away here. And no life threatening emergency is not dealt with immediately. People die everey day in the states because they cannot afford insurance. Its a shame that The american people (proclaiming to be living in the best country in the world) would just let people die.

I believe we in America do need health coverage for all. There is a group www.voicefortheuninsured.org they have a propasal that they are presenting to congress log on check it out.

My whole family from my moms side live in Ste. wenceslas Canada its a small providence in the middle of Quebec and Montreal. Anyways my aunt as well as everyone in Canada has the free health care. I talk to my aunt almost everyday since my mother died. Well she is always complaining about the health care their. The hospitals are always full. People die in the waiting room cause they are so full. You have to wait weeks and sometimes months to get to see your doctor. She had a hysterectomy and almost died cause they butcher you. She had to see 4 other Gyno to figure out why she was bleeding and had nothing to bleed from.

They found out that the doctor butchered her so badly that she had to be on antibiotics for almost 2 yrs just to cure the infection that had grown inside her from the surgery..

Anyway you look at it we are screwed.

SleepyT Im sorry to hear about your mom. My thoughts are with you.. Be strong she is in a better place.

Hugs

Oh and one more thing I think all prescriptions should be free.. Let this wealthy government at least pay for that.

Ilive in canada and what you say is wrong. You get bad drs wherever you live. Maybe your aunt just likes to complain.. sorry but I have lived here all my life and those statements are not correct. Yes it is grteat to have our prescriptions covered when on fixed incomes or seniors or covered by work place

I don't think my aunt like to complain (she is a very happy person) anyways,maybe its because you live in a different town I don't know what the case is. But this is what she told me and I don't doubt her for one second.

I found this and it just to prove what I said in my last post..It really does have to do with which part of Canada you live in..

3.Wait times in Canada are horrendous.
True and False again it depends on which province you live in, and whats wrong with you. Canadas health care system runs on federal guidelines that ensure uniform standards of care, but each territory and province administers its own program. Some provinces dont plan their facilities well enough; in those, you can have waits. Some do better. As a general rule, the farther north you live, the harder it is to get care.

4. You have to wait forever to get a family doctor.
False for the vast majority of Canadians, but True for a few. Again, it all depends on where you live.

I wasn't going to copy and paste the whole Canadian article. Its just the point i am trying to make that my aunt isn't wrong and doesn't complain unless its true.

gidget You said she lived in a small province in Quebec. Quebec is one of the provinces. Maybe you meant small community with not as much access to drs. Here I live in ontario but in a remote part. If there is an emergency we are immediately flown to a bigger city.I am sure your aunt is not a complainer and I should not have said that. It is true that a lot of our drs do go to the US because they can get rich there. Our drs do well but don't get that rich. lol.

Lol No doubt, I was just checking to see if maybe she was just being a bit bitchy but no.. It said what she said.. Its cool. people have there own opinion. Maybe I typed it wrong before I will have to look. I thought I typed she lives in a small providence between Montreal and Quebec. That's what I meant if I did say something different. I'm sorry. oh and I wasn't mad or anything your still a sweet lady.. =)

This is about reply # 5 : Dallas, I could 'NOT' agree with you more, Here in the good old USA, people are turned away from the er rooms & dr's, to suffer and sometimes die, just because they have no insurance. It' is a "SHAME" !

I mentioned before the experiences of my husband and our friend in Canada, and that my husband did wait 2 hours in the ER, in a small town, with a broken hand - what I didn't mention due to being in a rush was that obviously, he never paid a cent, and was given treatment, meds, and therapy.
A year later, here in the US, he had a stroke. I drove him to the hospital, and he sat in the waiting room for 2 hours. He had insurance, but not through his job, so we were paying it out of pocket, and we still ended up with an ER bill of $2000. So in Canada = non-life-threatening, wait 2 hours, pay $0. In US - life threatening, still wait 2 hours, pay $2000 + cost of insurance.
You guys are absolutely right though, the part of Canada does make a difference - that was the point I was making about doctors leaving small towns for larger cities, because they get paid relatively little per patient, and increased volume means increased pay. Farther north=less people=less doctors, so I can imagine that wait times would increase. In a massive city like Toronto, things move pretty quickly.
Another issue is that some doctors will require an office visit every month to refill even a simple Rx, a visit which they then can bill to the government and be paid for. So, not a perfect system. But still better than ours.