Born and raised in Canada I’ve known nothing different than going to the doctor if you’re sick. Heading to the hospital for emergency care means having my health card with me. Nothing more.
For years, I knew nothing of the American health care system aside from what I had seen on TV: one image that resonates with me to this day is a man shot and left – dying – in an emergency room hallway on a gurney. No one had information about his insurance, or if he even had any and he was left there. Suffering. Overlooked because of a lack of paperwork.
That? That doesn’t happen in Canada.
Hearing that my American friends owe THOUSANDS in health care costs for sick children, surgeries, CHILD BIRTH scares the ever living crap out of me.
The idea of losing my home, having my wages garnished and collection agencies having my number on speed dial for my child’s birth makes me unconditionally happy to be a Canadian; to have this ‘nazi socialist*’ health care system available to me is a blessing.
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So what you’re saying is that I should fall in love with and marry a Canadian next time around?
I’ll be your lesbian lover. Move here and we can get married too. That’s legal here, yanno? XO
I so agree with you.
I sure with that people would open their eyes and see that health care reform would be the best thing that ever happened to this country.
My husband’s British and is equally offended at a lot of the statements about socialized medicine that people have been making. The UK healthcare system is not all that bad. I wouldn’t mind having something similar here at all. Sigh.
I live in the UK, have never lived anywhere else and so can’t comprehend living somewhere where I couldn’t automatically get free healthcare for myself and my family. I find it incredibly hard to take in that this happens in what is supposed to be one of the world’s leading countries. It’s certainly a reason not to want to move to the US!
I’m American. Always have been, and like you but the opposite, I only knew of “paying” for healthcare. When I learned, a few years ago, that Canada and other countries had “free” healthcare, I nearly shit.
I currently pay $425 a month for health insurance for just my son and I (my husband has his own with his company), and still…STILL…I have had to pay outwards of $6000 to deliver my son and for our hospital stay. STILL I supposedly owe the anesthesiologist who did my spinal block/epidural $4900. Outrageous.
Then, last week, my son who is four months old, fell off the couch onto his head, so we rushed him to the ER where we waited for THIRTY MINUTES, while he screamed the entire time, and could have had head trauma, we waited. And waited.
So, I’m all for the universal healthcare bit…sign me up ASAP.
I hear ya when you say it sucks for people to have those kind of medical bills. It really does. It is hard to find and afford good health insurance. With that said though, as a nurse in an ER we would never, ever leave a patient dying on a gurney due to lack of insurance information. We treat EVERYONE regardless of their ability to pay. This is why the ER is so overcrowded and people with kids with head trauma like the previous poster have to wait so long, because we do treat everyone from a mild fever to a full cardiac arrest…everyone. We are not legally able to turn anyone away so I would steer clear of whatever hospital let a man die due to lack of insurance information…that is just wrong and completely illegal. Hopefully they can find a happy medium where we still have some control as individuals but more people have access to healthcare at less of a cost.
It does sound good to me. I have been lucky enough to always have insurance but how wonderful it would be if everyone in the US could just go and be taken care of. My own 28 yr. old daughter doesn’t have insurance and we are currently paying off some of her bills.
Yet, there were several foreign people there at the hospital and I guess you could say we are paying off their bills too. It really gets to me when they get help and most likely never saw a bill ! We keep taking in people and taking care of them before our own.
I was born and raised in the Montreal area and still live here today. I am so very grateful for our healthcare system. It may not be perfect but I and my family have always gotten first rate care without losing our shirts to pay for it.
I work for a company that has many people on contract in the States and some of the medical bills that I have seen for those who had the misfortune to fall ill are frightening. Thankfully, we are talking about people who can afford decent insurance but there are so many who don’t fall into this demographic. Just scary!
I absolutely agree with this. Personally, I don’t understand the resistance.
Hmmm. Given that I love America and would never move, my only solution to our problem is to have everyone in Canada move here so we can get some popular support for a nazi socialist health care system. What do you say? We do have Disney and Fenway Park, you know..
We owe $6000 for our son’s birth/NICU/complications. Then we owe another company $1800 from when I was on bedrest. Having a minimum payment plan with all these combined companies was costing us $400 A MONTH. Then hubby lost his job. All of our medical bills are in collections. IT SUCKS DOWN HERE.
When we get back on our feet I will GLADLY contribute so everyone can have proper health care. I’m not greedy. Share and share alike in times like this I say.
C’mon Obama, don’t let us down. And to the opposition, keep your cool and don’t form a revolution. The US is better than that.
My question is ,I have been without a job for 21/2 years , I am 61,and my husband pays for a 5000.00 deductible 249.00 a month out of his social security.How will this reform help us?
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