Who do you trust?

14 years ago

I'm sitting here watching the news and we have yet another politician expounding on the dire consequences of the proposed health care changes. Doesn't matter which side is being expounded upon right now. Wait a minute and the other side will air their views on the same issue.

We have so many good friends in Canada on this forum who are living with what half the country is claiming the left is proposing for the U.S. Socialized medicine. I think I would trust their opinions before what I'm hearing on TV from all the politicians and media pundits. So, what do you say? What are the pros and cons of your medical system and are you happy with what you have.

Please, don't turn this into a political name calling. That's not what my purpose is here. I just think we in the lower netherregions need a better perspective than we are getting now and our north of the border friends are just the ones to give it to us.

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Comments (8)

samkaren
14 years ago
I thought this was a general question..I was going to say my secrets I trust with my cats.

But....cons in our system....over priced prescription drugs. Medicare being abused by too many people

Samkaren
your resident DJ
wildchild
14 years ago
My opinion is that socialized medicine works quite well until you are seriously ill, require lots of testing and more possibly expensive treatment. Just like some of our current HMOs.

I recently had a health issue that my doctors saw me for immediately. I had my tests done within days even though nothing was life threatening. My doctors phoned me to discuss the results.

My best friend has a well known HMO it took her six months to get an MRI. She has Cerebral Vascular Disease. Although she is 55 her HMO doesn't cover colonoscopy, only sigmoidoscopy. If the sig shows something suspicious then they will send you. Death sentence anyone? My DH's first colonoscopy showed a polyp at the far end. He wasn't even fifty. He might be dead or fighting cancer today if we had that lovely HMO at the time. She could not get an MRI with contrast until she had one without. Two different appointments. WASTE!!!

We already have safety nets. What we need is to clean up the system we have and make sure people don't abuse it and nobody falls through the cracks. We need to start with our borders.

When the politicians themselves have to be under the same EXACT system they propose for the rest of us with NO added perks ONLY THEN will I believe them.
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pattico_gw
14 years ago
"When the politicians themselves have to be under the same EXACT system they propose for the rest of us with NO added perks ONLY THEN will I believe them"

wildchild...that's how it should be..they should be on our pay scale for awhile too...kind of like wearing my moccasins.

patti
lilliepad
14 years ago
AMEN to that Wildchild and Patti!
joyfulguy
14 years ago
Here's an idea ...

... vacation in Canada this summer.

Ask the people that you meet how they like our system(s) - they vary, province to province.

Some like our system ... some don't.

But ask them to explain how it works ... don't take the word of folks with an ax to grind.

But when there was talk of having a single system in one of our small Prairie provinces ... a few years after they'd gone through the hell of the Dirty Thirties ...

... many people with an ax to grind came up from the U.S. to tell us that we were skating on the outskirts of hell if we tried it.

The premier of that province at that time (early 50s) was a mainline Baptist minister.

A couple of years ago our national radio/TV conducted a poll as to who was the finest Canadian ... that Baptist minister, Rev. Tommy Douglas, father of Medicare ... won.

ole joyful
kframe19
14 years ago
My sister-in-law is Canadian.

Some years before she became my sister-in-law she started having severe neck pain, numbness in her arms, all the classic signs of a disk going south.

The waiting period for an MRI to really diagnose it would have been a minimum of 3 months, and getting the surgery to correct it would have been another 3 to 4 months.

She came across the border, got an MRI at an American clinic in less than an hour and saw an American orthopedic surgeon.

Four days later she had the surgery to correct a badly bulged disk.

So, two weeks as opposed to as much as 7 months....
nancylouise5me
14 years ago
Having many Canadians come to the store during their holidays, we get to talk to them and one thing that constantly comes up is health care. The majority of Canadians seem to like what they have. But they do say the waiting time to get anything done is terrible. That is one thing that they ALL complain about and wish would change. NancyLouise
wildchild
14 years ago
The majority of Canadians seem to like what they have

Like any large group of people the majority has probably never been in need of special tests, diagnostic services and surgery.

So, two weeks as opposed to as much as 7 months....

Point made.

The people who need to be polled are the ones who required "real" use of the system. Those whose most dire medical condition in their lifetime was a cold ,flu or bladder infection are going to be happy with any system.

I submit that those who have an ax to grind are those that became really ill. They are the ones with first hand knowledge of the system.

Sort of reminds me of the way people talk about our legal system and police protection etc. Average Joe think it works so well until they need it or are mired in it. Ignorance is bliss.

Who do you trust?

Comments (8)

samkaren

wildchild

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