My Mother and the Canadian Health Care System.

[DanS]

They don't minimize for costs, that's for sure.

[Ramo]

I have health insurance (Aetna). Crappy grad student health insurance, granted. I figured that I needed a physical recently (it's been three years) so I went to a doctor, whom I found through my insurance. This morning I got an invoice from some medical diagnostics company. They're informing me that my insurance doesn't cover the specified services. And are charging me $655. For a physical.

So, not only do you have this massively inefficient system - huge costs associated with administration over a balkanized market, with lack of government negotiation over medical services and drug costs, with advertising - you actually have severe disincentives against routine maintenance, leading to much more expensive costs down the road. This is the kind of horsecockery that leads to three year intervals between physicals. Canada is not the ideal system (I like France's), but it's still a damn sight better than ours. Like literally every other wealthy society.

You're also going to have costs associated with irate customers like myself telling Aetna to **** themselves over bull**** denials of coverage.

[MrFun]

No wonder the US system is ridiculously cost inefficient.

Hey, I completely agree with those who say that we need serious reforms in our American health care system.

So if you think you know all the answers to how we can reform our service without compromising the quality of our health care, let's hear it.

[Tuberski]

In a US hospital, you wouldn't find a man in a room with 3 women. My hospital has semi-private rooms(2 patients), they have to be both male or both female.

How in hell do you run out of ice? It takes about 60 seconds for an ice machine to start shooting out ice.

ACK!

[Krill]

It's Canada, you think they are going to buy ice machines? It's cheaper to get people to shovel snow in from outside and get the french people from Quebec to compact the snow into ice in big vats, using the skillz thir forebears taught them to make wine.

[The Mad Monk]

Not big enough!

I don't think it really matters though. Here in Toronto, I was involved in a car accident some time ago as a passenger, taken to a hospital with a few cuts...by my standards and by all standards that hospitals in this country should go by, the conditions were unsanitary.

By the way, in Kamloops and area, from what I understand, there should actually be a number of hospitals or medical centres. Do you know which one it was?

~Dominikos~

Not off hand, but I will ask.

[The Mad Monk]

A-freaking men!

We don't even have an MRI within 8 hours distance. You are SOL if you get hurt up here in Canada.

Thanks for the PM, and your sentiments, I tried to reply but your box was full.

The short answer is no, unless I can get permission.

[The Mad Monk]

In a US hospital, you wouldn't find a man in a room with 3 women. My hospital has semi-private rooms(2 patients), they have to be both male or both female.

How in hell do you run out of ice? It takes about 60 seconds for an ice machine to start shooting out ice.

ACK!

That was probably the number one shock to us. Did they have just one ice machine for the whole hospital and it broke? Did they use up their government-mandated ice ration? Couldn't they get some from the motel down the street? Who knows?

We were also wondering about the heavy use of morphine. Apparently that's all they had. My Mom was worried about getting addicted.

[DanS]

Are there even wards in US hospitals? As far as I have seen, it has always been either two to a room or private.

[Zkribbler]

Canada's healthcare services are grossly underfunded. You get what you pay for.

When single-payor healthcare was passed here in California (only to be vetoed by the Governor ), the proposal was to fund it at TWICE the per-capital funding of Canada. Even with twice Canada's funding, and even with fully covering every California resident, the estimates were than Californians would save $10 billion during the first year, alone.

[DaShi]

Are there people so simple who really believe that America will adopt Canada's healthcare system as a whole?

[notyoueither]

Canada's healthcare services are grossly underfunded. You get what you pay for.

Bull****.

[Zkribbler]

Bull****.

Why, then, do you think there's so many complaints about it?

[The Mad Monk]

Government inefficiencies, perhaps?

[KrazyHorse]

Given that patient satisfaction with health care treatment is only marginally better among the insured in the US than it is in Canada, and given that the amount of health care spending is 2-3 times higher in the US than in Canada you're going to have to do a lot more convincing that there is more governmental inefficiency in Canada than there is market failure in the US.