Universal healthcare-a good thing?

[SFG75]

With the release of Michael Moore's movie, there is now an interesting debate about healthcare in America that is going on. The American system is by far, the most expensive compared to other industrialized nations. On top of that, we insure less people and there tends to be a large coverage gap. Arguments to adopt a more German or Canadian style of healthcare is derided as "socialist" in certain quarters.

If you are Canadian or European, do you like your present healthcare system? What are its drawbacks and strengths? If you've been to America, would you keep yours or go to ours?

If you are American-should we have single payer government health insurance or some European variety?

 

[ylris611203]

Our healthcare is free at the point of service.

The question here is, how good is it?

 

[mehastings]

I pay about $350/month for our portion of our health insurance. On top of that I pay co-pays for all visits and medications. Some of our co-pays are cheap, but I do have some medications that cost me $25/month. I'd say in the end I pay about $500 monthly for a healthy child, an adult who hasn't seen a doctor or filled a prescription in years and one adult with asthma and allergies (but otherwise healthy). I still have to wait forever for an appointment.

I think this system sucks.

 

[SFG75]

I pay about $350/month for our portion of our health insurance. On top of that I pay co-pays for all visits and medications. Some of our co-pays are cheap, but I do have some medications that cost me $25/month. I'd say in the end I pay about $500 monthly for a healthy child, an adult who hasn't seen a doctor or filled a prescription in years and one adult with asthma and allergies (but otherwise healthy). I still have to wait forever for an appointment.

I think this system sucks.

I had to laugh as your governor, who is running for president, was recently forced to go off script when a waittress needled him about health care. I take it Massachusetts isn't the panacea of health care he claims it is?

 

[mehastings]

I had to laugh as your governor, who is running for president, was recently forced to go off script when a waittress needled him about health care. I take it Massachusetts isn't the panacea of health care he claims it is?

My FORMER governor is an idiot. I wouldn't let him water my garden while I'm on vacation, bother run my country. If all of the other republican candidates die and Romney gets the GOP nomination, he still won't win this state.

Massachusetts is far from the healthcare mecca it could have been. The way Universal Health Care works is that all state residents over eighteen are forced to have health insurance. It isn't free. People who already qualify for Medicaid get free insurance, everyone else has to pay for it. So, if you are a seasonal farm worker, who just barely scrapes above the poverty line and doesn't get insurance from your job, you have to buy it yourself, without help. If you don't, no tax return for you. The benefit to Universal Health Care is that doctors, hospitals and private medical services (like the ambulance service I work for) won't have to write off as much care. In addition, insurance companies are having a field day signing up all those folks who were afraid of losing their tax returns or getting fined. I see NO benefit for the average person. It certainly hasn't changed my life one bit.

 

[nomadic myth]

I'm a Canadian living in Korea.

Canada: Long waits at the doctor's office and to see specialists or get surgery. Feels good to have a safety net, though. Illness does not have the added burden of financial worry.

Korea: National Insurance plan covers basic things, but there are still small user fees. The user fee ($5) keeps away unnecessary patients, and visiting a doctor is fast. Unless you have additional private coverage serious terminal illness leaves one hanging. I don't trust private insurance much, though. I figure if there's money to be saved, it will be. I want to get out of Korea by 35 so that old age happens in Canada.

 

[France]

Here in France our health care is supposed to be the best in the world. I have nothing but praise for the treatment, it's prompt - when I had a breast cancer scare the doctor apologised for me having to wait until the next day for a scan - and the quality of care is excellent. However the cost of the system is horrendous. Individuals do pay a small amount towards their care - which can be covered by insurance - for instance an operation and a five day stay in hospital will cost the patient about 75 euros - the rest is funded by the state. The money comes from a 50% levy on Employers on all the salaries they pay and an extra 20% from employees.

So we probably are paying for getting on as much as some of you Americans do. The good part is that you don't have to worry about being bankrupted by healthcare fees in this country - there is no limit, as far as I know, on how much the insurance companies will pay out.

 

[SFG75]

Our priorities in America are backwards. Currently, there is a federal program that pays for health coverage of children whose parents are too "rich" to receive government help, but who are too "poor" to afford private insurance that employers offer, if they offer it at all. The program will be paid for by a huge tax increase on tobacco products, so it isn't as if everyone's getting nailed. Believe it or not, the president is against the bill!
A CHIP on the president's shoulder.

But it seems difficult for the current president to understand that lots of employers in America don’t actually give health insurance to employees. It seems even harder for him to accept that many people with jobs can’t afford to just go out and buy health insurance.

As I reported in a column a few weeks ago, CHIP is set to expire at the end of September. The administration is grudgingly willing to let it continue, but only with a budget increase of $5 billion over its $25 billion “baseline” budget for the next five years. After inflation, that's a cut, and it would knock about 1.5 million kids out of the program, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But anything more than that, according to the president, would be the "beginning of the salvo of the encroachment of the federal government on the health care system." Oh no! Not the beginning of the salvo!

Some day, we'll figure out that the private sector can't do everything right. Until then, we'll be in the poor house and put up with shoddy care because of some paranoid fear of "government."

 

[FoxxyDeda]

Brasil is a 3rd world country so I guess one cannot expect much from its heath system but we do have one in place and it works up to a point. Everybody that works pay a tax specific for heath care. I don't remember the percentage but it is nothing terrible. If you want (and can afford it) you can then pay for additional heath insurance privately.
If you don't have private insurance when you need the doctor you will have to wait longer, this wait usually depends on how serious your condition is, and you cannot always choose the doctor but you will get treatment. I think it also depends a bit on where you live in Brasil, sadly the poorer the region the longer the wait and so on.

In an emergency anyone can go to the hospital, or have an ambulance come and, even if you don't have the additional health insurance, you or your family will not be billed for whatever it is they need to do to save you.

An example: My parents live in a small town on the Sao Paulo area in Brasil without private insurance, my mother needed to have her gold bladder removed in an emergency procedure. She spent 4 days in the hospital because of a minor problem with her bloody pressure coming out of the anesthetics and got everything done for free, only paid a bit extra so she could stay in a room by herself, and they even did the operation using the little camera (Laparascopia in Portuguese) so she has no scars, just 3 little dots on her belly.

I have to say I was very surprised when I moved to the USA to find out that here they would probably have gone bankrupt if something like this happened.

 

[nomadic myth]

Forget where I read it, but it was something in reference to socialism or social safety nets. It was that if you were given the choice before you were born, before you knew your family, your physical condition or wealth level, almost everyone would choose a system that provides equal access to all of the basics (health care, social welfare), even if it meant higher taxes or unequal contributions according to wealth.