Canadian Healthcare

[Joe]

This is the best story.

I had 2 sleep studies done and they both said that I had sleep apnea. To correct the problem they wanted me to get a CPAP. A CPAP is a pressurized breathing machine.

The company that supplies the CPAP charges $300 a month to rent the machine. The cost to me was 20%. The insurance company agreed to rent the machine for a few months and then purchase it. The cost of purchasing the machine was $1200 and an additional $200 for the mask.

After like 4 or 5 months of renting the machine and then purchasing the machine the insurance company paid out like $2400 for the machine. The cost out of my pocket was about $600.

I looked up the price of the machine online and it's listed for about $660.

[Pete Nice]

Sleep apnea is the new fad to diagnose people with. Just another money making scheme if you ask me.

[Joe]

Sleep apnea is the new fad to diagnose people with. Just another money making scheme if you ask me.

Yeah, but it did cut back on the headaches I was having.

[Mooreski]

I am glad we don't have to pay out of pocket or go through health insurance in Canada for things like surgeries and broken bones and stuff or to even see your family doctor. That is complete bullshit. I can deal with paying for my medications and stuff should the need for them arise but I am glad I don't have to sell a limb to get the other one repaired.

I do agree though the waits in the ER can be retardedly long but when you factor in the fact you arent paying for your treatment like in the US I think its worth it. Not to mention at my local hospital it isn't just first come first serve. They bring you in on the basis of how severe things are. I went in a couple weeks ago for my knee and there were some people there ahead of me who were there because they had the sniffles or nausea and they took me before they took them so I cant complain much about my hospitals ER lately. The waits can be bad but they do a good job here of going on a case by case basis.

The thing is too though aren't the waitrooms in the ER's in the US damn busy too and have long waits?

And to touch on the comment about the natives ... I live in Northern Ontario. I am about 8 hours north of Toronto and we have a ton of Natives that get flooded out of their homes every spring and come here while they are flooded and a lot of them never leave again and you are absolutely right. These fucking freeloaders go to the hospital for a scraped fucking knee. I dont know if it is because they think they can milk it for some meds or what but it is sickening. On top of that they go in there and think they should be served right away. When I was in a couple weeks ago and I was taken ahead of some people already there one of those I was taken ahead of was a native woman with her kid with a runny nose and I could hear her flipping out on the nurse when I got through the doors and the nurse explaining they take the more serious cases first.

I will leave it at that though... I don't even want to start talking about the freeloading natives around here... It is sad though because there are a lot of good ones who work hard and do what they need to (My best friends step dad busts his ass in the mines here to support his family) but they are far outnumbered and they get a bum rap because of the rest of them that would rather stay home and milk the system for every cent they can.

[Pokes28]

This American healthcare bill makes me so angry I can't see straight.

This isn't about providing good healthcare to the citzens of the US. This is nothing more than a power grab. And in typical US Leadership fashion, they aren't trying to fix the problems, they are trying to fix the symptoms.

Drugs are expensive. So what are they trying to do? Shorten the window drug companies have to reclaim their R&D dollars before generics can hit the shelves. The real problem is how much money it costs to get a drug through the FDA. For a normal drug it costs over $500 million and not uncommonly over a Billion dollars to get a drug through FDA. That doesn't include all the private trial costs. So for a company like Pfizer that constantly has a lot of drugs being developed, they will now raise the prices of drugs because they have to ensure they make their money back.

The real solution is to find out why the FDA process is so expensive. It doesn't yield safer results than the processes that other nations but costs over a thousand times more money in some cases. Why? Because the FDA is a worhtless piece of crap. How about fixing the FDA and lowering the costs for drug makers to put a drug on the shelf?

Adding millions to insurance is the fastest way to make sure that we can't go see our doctor when we want/need to. This isn't going to add doctors, this is going to actually make there be a medical professional shortage. I know that my family practitioner has started removing medicare patients from his practice. He informs them that after such and such time he won't accept them. The reason is that Medicare pays slow and doesn't pay much. So he's just eliminating them from his practice. He's full enough that he can pick and choose his patients and he's doing so. His actions have kept the price of a doctor's visit down compared to the other doctors in town. But of course he's the dick for turning people away.

There are a thousand things that can and should be done before a national health care system. How about making it legal for hospitals to turn away illegals or those that have stiffed them on payments before? One local hospital estimated that they would be able to lower their costs by nearly 75% if they could do that.

One other thing that would lower costs for not only health care but pretty much everything is if they would vote in a national language. In California they have a law that states that all health providers have to provide all paperwork in the person's native language. That has driven up the cost of health care in California by tens of millions of dollars a year.

It is just ridiculous.

[burnt_servo]

here's my story .....

i'm a canadian , and i live in british columbia .

last fall i was involved in a explosion and was badly burnt ...... roughly 30% of my body .
i was airlifted from quesnel to the burn unit in edmonton alberta and spent close to 3 weeks there while they did skin grafts . i had a nice private room with cable tv and a phone / internet .

and it cost me nothing , other than the tax's and small amount b.c. medical wants each month .

in the states i can see this as easily being over 100,00.00 .

i wouldn't change our medical system at all .

[Joe]

here's my story .....

i'm a canadian , and i live in british columbia .

last fall i was involved in a explosion and was badly burnt ...... roughly 30% of my body .
i was airlifted from quesnel to the burn unit in edmonton alberta and spent close to 3 weeks there while they did skin grafts . i had a nice private room with cable tv and a phone / internet .

and it cost me nothing , other than the tax's and small amount b.c. medical wants each month .

in the states i can see this as easily being over 100,00.00 .

i wouldn't change our medical system at all .

As an American you'd be paying that off for the rest of your life or if your lucky and you have coverage you'd probably still get stuck with 20% o fthe bill.

[Pete Nice]

This American healthcare bill makes me so angry I can't see straight.

This isn't about providing good healthcare to the citzens of the US. This is nothing more than a power grab. And in typical US Leadership fashion, they aren't trying to fix the problems, they are trying to fix the symptoms.

Drugs are expensive. So what are they trying to do? Shorten the window drug companies have to reclaim their R&D dollars before generics can hit the shelves. The real problem is how much money it costs to get a drug through the FDA. For a normal drug it costs over $500 million and not uncommonly over a Billion dollars to get a drug through FDA. That doesn't include all the private trial costs. So for a company like Pfizer that constantly has a lot of drugs being developed, they will now raise the prices of drugs because they have to ensure they make their money back.

The real solution is to find out why the FDA process is so expensive. It doesn't yield safer results than the processes that other nations but costs over a thousand times more money in some cases. Why? Because the FDA is a worhtless piece of crap. How about fixing the FDA and lowering the costs for drug makers to put a drug on the shelf?

Adding millions to insurance is the fastest way to make sure that we can't go see our doctor when we want/need to. This isn't going to add doctors, this is going to actually make there be a medical professional shortage. I know that my family practitioner has started removing medicare patients from his practice. He informs them that after such and such time he won't accept them. The reason is that Medicare pays slow and doesn't pay much. So he's just eliminating them from his practice. He's full enough that he can pick and choose his patients and he's doing so. His actions have kept the price of a doctor's visit down compared to the other doctors in town. But of course he's the dick for turning people away.

There are a thousand things that can and should be done before a national health care system. How about making it legal for hospitals to turn away illegals or those that have stiffed them on payments before? One local hospital estimated that they would be able to lower their costs by nearly 75% if they could do that.

One other thing that would lower costs for not only health care but pretty much everything is if they would vote in a national language. In California they have a law that states that all health providers have to provide all paperwork in the person's native language. That has driven up the cost of health care in California by tens of millions of dollars a year.

It is just ridiculous.

I could not agree more with everything stated here. If Pokes were a preacher, I would be at his church.

[ap bikini team]

I've heard this term come up a lot. Can someone in Canada explain what a native is and what is the impact on the system? Is it comparable to our Native Americans and the fact they don't have to pay taxes and get free health care too?

[Angie81]

my dad is 65 years old , worked all his life, and recently had a stock, and it comes to were he needs a little help with medical things, they told him he would have to pay 4,000 before the would give him medical help and his medication comes out to be 300 a mouth.. :bullshit: :bullshit: :bullshit:

[NussieT]

I've heard this term come up a lot. Can someone in Canada explain what a native is and what is the impact on the system? Is it comparable to our Native Americans and the fact they don't have to pay taxes and get free health care too?

You are correct Paul. Canadians refer to our Native Americans as Natives or any other slang terms. They too are freeloaders and they get free health care.

[ap bikini team]

I've heard this term come up a lot. Can someone in Canada explain what a native is and what is the impact on the system? Is it comparable to our Native Americans and the fact they don't have to pay taxes and get free health care too?

You are correct Paul. Canadians refer to our Native Americans as Natives or any other slang terms. They too are freeloaders and they get free health care.

Ah ok. I wasn't sure. It's funny. You want to see what universal health care here will look like? Take a look at how "well" we take care of the Native Americans we have here (all of which have full health care). They are treated like shit and the crappy prepaid plans you see at Walmart are better than what they have.

Get used to shortages in health care (ask Canadians, they have 10% of our population and don't have enough doctors). Get used to not seeing your doctor, because they'll probably fold their practices before dealing with the new crap coming through (I've talked to doctors who are already warning their patients). And worst of all, get used to be taxed to the fucking rafters because there's no way the government can absorb 30 million people into a system and NOT raise the deficit a dime like Obama said he wants.

[cody]

Last year I ripped the tip of my finger off and went to the hospital. The lady up front asked for my health care # (which I forgot at home) she said no problem just asked me my name. Got my finger sewed back on and I was gone in 15min with a perscription of some sweet little pills! Cost: $0
The Canadian health care system is not perfect by any means. People will take advantage of the system. But like how some Americans are so anti-socialized health care too many Canadians are too totally anti-private. The best systems in the world are a mix of both private and public i.e. anywhere in Scandinavia. And don't believe any of that "death panel" horseshit Palin was bitchin about. My grandma was terminal with cancer and the doctors and nurses did everything they could for her. They were great.

[ap bikini team]

I don't want to turn into Wes from ID and start bringing up dead threads, but I thought this was hilarious. If Canadian healthcare is so good, why has the prime minister of New Foundland, mark the 2nd Canadian politician this year to come to the US for surgery, if their universal care is so great? Is it because what they came here for is too expensive to be cost effective, and thus not available in Canada?

[Chip]

An example of how the British health care system is pretty good...

http://www.news.com.au/world/british-wom...5868449515

Must have been a huge ass...