General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I have been on DU for almost nine years now. [View all]Jarqui
(10,151 posts)If you want bigger boobs, that's elective - not a must have.
The one beef I've had in Canada is the wait time for MRIs. If you've got a serious condition, then they get you in. But if you need a knee looked at (ie sports injury), that can be a stupid long wait time - months. To beat that, you agree to go in the middle of the night on short notice and you can get one quicker and free that way (roughly within a week). Otherwise, Canadians will head south of the border to get them. So legit criticism there. But they're not going to let someone die - if they an MRI quick.
If you have shortness of breath like you just described, that is a serious symptom and you go to emergency - a cardiologist's office would typically send you there because emergency have all the equipment and staff to deal with it - and find out how serious quickly
Any doctor could have an airhead receptionist who tries to book you two months out but that is not because the system dictates it - it's because they're an airhead.
In Canada, you walk in anywhere, present your health card and maybe fill out a two page application form and that's it. No more endless forms to get stuff approved, etc. Whatever the doc says you need, you get. No questions asked. No insurance pre-approval. No preexisting conditions issues. You're sick and they treat you no matter what - no mounds of bureaucracy or fighting to get stuff covered. The drug prices are much more reasonable and if you cannot afford them, the provincial government has programs to make sure such people get the drugs they need.
If the US government opted for single payer when Canada did, the country might not have any national debt - saving roughly 40% of healthcare costs per capita for 50 years. The savings for the rest of the country who are not insurers or super expensive medical staff would be staggering. All the labor going into all US made products would be that much cheaper, allowing more sales of US goods and more US jobs. The economic impact is mind-boggling.
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