Has anyone on here experienced Socialized Medicine?

[LemguinLunge]

Does anyone live in a country with Universal Healthcare? How bad is it? Is the quality really poor, and the waiting times really long?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I live in a country with socialized medicine. I think 'universal health-care' is a misnomer, though. It's no more universal really than the US system. It depends on money, and money is not guaranteed. You can't legislate for wealth-creation.

Here's my experience. Even though the National Health Service correctly diagnosed me, they took too long to act (for no apparent reason), and I literally nearly went blind. The NHS cut off a little bit of meat from my leg (a biopsy, as it's called) claiming that it was necessary to treat me. It turned out it was for some unrelated medical research. They wanted to take some photos of my condition, but, because they waited until after I started healing, the photos were useless for their research. A doctor misdiagnosed an ulcer for fungus. The hospital food is terrible and un-nutritious, and has been proven to be much, much more expensive than healthy, delicious food would be. I've had my records lost time and time again. They claim it's 'free' but then charge inpatients to watch TV (while prisoners get it for free), and they charge people for dental care and prescriptions, which people of course use more than the inpatient care. If the NHS were a business in a free market, it would have hardly any customers, and would probably have been sued and prosecuted out of existence for all its wrongdoing.

That said, is spending taxes on health-care better than spending it on the Iraq war for instance? Yes. But, we're offered a false choice. We're told we can have the US system or socialized health-care. In fact, the US health-care system was largely socialized even before ObamaCare. Even before ObamaCare, 31% of Americans were on government health-care, and 60% of all health-care expenditure was by government. There are alternatives other than socialization versus even more socialization.

[Opinion Owner]

Another experience. I once had a very common (very nasty, but very easily curable) illness that I did not know anything about, but that any medical professional should have known about. I almost didn't get diagnosed for it. Luckily almost by chance the doctor did manage to offer a possible explanation, which thanks to my own research I found out was true. If I hadn't then bought the medicine, I would still be suffering from this illness and thinking I was dying.

[Opinion Owner]

Oh, and if you want to be seen by a GP, you have to wake up early in the morning and book for later that day (or else all the bookings will be taken already), with bookings in many places not being possible in the evenings or at weekends. So, you have to miss work, and you can't even book more than a few hours in advance in order to give your boss notice. My boss sympathized and offered no resistance in that case I told you about in that first addition to this answer, but it still took me two weeks to get a doctor's appointment. And even then I was almost received not even the slightest disagnosis.

[Opinion Owner]

Oh, and home visits are virtually impossible.

[Jonny_]

I do, it's not bad at all where I live... waiting times can be long depending on where you live and what you're in for. I don't see why people are complaining about universal healthcare for it's good to know I don't have to worry about not being able to afford something that could save mine, my parents or friends lives...

[LemguinLunge]

Is the quality of care and doctors alright?

[Jonny_]

Again that depends where you live, the doctors where I live are fine... in small cities they aren't so good, in cities with status they're usually the best.

[musicbrain5]

I live in Canada so yeah. I don't wait long for anything and everything is covered, except for elective procedures. Dental isn't covered either unlike in the UK. I live in a city so there are a lot of outpatient clinics that keep the hypochondriacs from clogging up the ER with the sniffles, so you get to see a doctor relative quickly if you are in the ER.

I've had a few health problems that required me to see specialists and I've never had to wait more than two weeks to see one. And one time, I got really sick in the US, ended up with a $40K bill and it was paid for when I returned to Canada .

The quality of healthcare here is really great. I don't know where the myth about it being poor and having to wait forever came from because it's total bullshit. Or that it's bad because it's not. Healthcare in Canada is available to everyone who lives here no matter what your income is. Poor people get the same quality of healthcare as rich people. I don't think Americans can say the same about their system especially now with Obamacare, which has raised insurance premiums for most people.

Taxes are higher here because we all pay into the health system, but we get a great return out of it. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for me :)

[musicbrain5]

Oh a down vote. Keep in mind that this system is pretty much all I know.

[musicbrain5]

Also this opinion is just my own experience. I think wait times can differ between regions, like if you're out in the country you're going to wait longer because the hospital is smaller and there's probably only one of them. Things like that.

[LemguinLunge]

I just gave you a +1 for explaining it well.

[musicbrain5]

I could have gone on about more flaws but I was running out of space.

[Distant]

I live in Canada where we have free healthcare, for the most part, and the wait times are indeed LONG. If you're not in an emergency, you're essentially sitting there for hours even if your fingers are missing, for example. The quality of healthcare itself is good, however.

[Anonymous]

I live in America where it is being implemented currently. I actually owed the government money this year in taxes, which I've never had to do before, because my state requires it for the federal mandate. It doesn't work in Canada in a swift fashion, so people used to come to America to get treatment. It's just a classic example of redistribution of wealth and a form of population control. Too many people in the world, so this is one way they can legally start to kill us off here in America. I mean, the government politicians don't have to go onto the exchange, so why do we? Emergency room visits will take days now, and forget seeing a specialist in any acceptable time frame for your condition. Stay healthy because if you get sick, it's all over for ya. Thanks Obama.

[Opinion Owner]

Population of England: 53 Million
Population of Canada : 35 Million
Population of The USA: 314 Million

If they have a hard time with it in Canada and we have 279 million MORE people in America, how is it supposed to work here?

[Jonny_]

So giving healthcare to people who can't afford it will cause more deaths? If your problem is at all serious you'd be seen quickly, sure if you turn up at the ER with a papercut on your finger you'll be there for three days... Do you think they'd actually get away with a system that would kill many thousands of people?

[Opinion Owner]

You're missing the point entirely. There is no increase in doctors, but now everyone has healthcare? How can you possibly have an effective system with that kind of influx? No offense, but you live in a small country so your system may be reasonably effective. It won't work in America. Plus the President has butchered the bill so bad through Executive Orders that it's not now the bill it was "passed" as. This is a bad system in America and it's going to do more harm than good.

[Opinion Owner]

There is an influx of people from other countries with Socialized systems who come to America and pay out of pocket for things like cancer treatment. That is because there is such a back up in their country, that if they wait for the specialists, they'll be dead.

[Opinion Owner]

So America has nearly 250 million MORE people then Canada , with no increase in doctors, and it's supposed to make the treatment better how?

[Jonny_]

I doubt the influx will go from a few to a million... yeah there will be an increase and there will be a longer waiting list for one thing or another... but you're complaining about a system which hasn't even had a chance yet to show whether it works or not. Frankly the previous system looked awful, i'm glad we never had that... paying for x-rays and just being seen by a doctor? I'd rather just leave it unless my arm has fallen off. Plus it's not like we have any near as many doctors as you'd think, we probably have less per head than America does. We used to have a hospital in my town, like many towns had... it's gone. Now my district is run by two hospitals and one of them is also on the brink of closure.

[Opinion Owner]

Simple math. If there are 5 doctors for 100 insured people, and then it goes national and there are now 5 doctors for 1000 people, how is that going to be timely and effective? Simple math.

[Opinion Owner]

No offense either, but I love how you foreign socialists think you know everything about healthcare based off of your own systems. You have no idea about the incredible difference in population sizes, the hidden fees, tax increases, and limited choices of plans you can choose. Nothing is "universal" among countries.

[AmongTheApples]

Not to mention that our government (the US government) is incompetent. Everything that they have ever tried to do they have made more expensive, complex, and cumbersome; and they never deliver on any of their promises.

[Opinion Owner]

Have you seen some of the things that were built into the Obamacare which are all wasteful spending? Our generation is screwed. Obama has outspent all Presidents before him COMBINED in just 6 years. No one has any idea what they're doing, hell, Obama has never even had a real job. He has his radical agenda he will get done at any cost.

[Opinion Owner]

Big government doesn't work.

[Jonny_]

Your bigger population would also suggest you have more doctors... You don't have the same amount of doctors we have, you obviously have more. You're still complaining about a system that is brand new to you, wait until it's actually causing you real problems. I mean you make it sound like there was only a tenth of the population with medical insurance, the increase won't be that big it just won't... I'm pretty sure we're very heavily taxed so we would have an idea about that and 'hidden fees'. It's the same system just on a larger scale, as I said america will have more doctors than Ireland or indeed Britain has. It's not that you have very few doctors per person compared to Britain.

[Opinion Owner]

We don't have more doctors. My doctor whom I've been seeing for years is closing her practice due to the restrictions placed on her practice by the government. Many other doctors in private practice are doing the same. Just because you flood the market with newly insurable people, doesn't mean that doctors randomly come out of the woodwork to work. I am not in favor of huge taxes, I am not in favor of the quality of my healthcare going down. I do feel bad for the few who didn't have healthcare, but no Emergency Room can turn someone away regardless of what the system is.

[Opinion Owner]

It's all about money. It's all about redistribution of wealth.

[AmongTheApples]

It has absolutely no prayer of working. I really don't want to get into the weeds of this thing, but the reality is that we are already over 17 trillion dollars in debt and medicare and social security were set to consume 90% of our G.D P. BEFORE Obamacare.

[Opinion Owner]

Obama has outspent all Presidents before him COMBINED. Obama is a radical, sweet talked Americans into voting for him and his putting forth his agenda at any cost. It's too radical, and too fast. You can only push Americans so far before they begin to push back. He was raised by a Communist father who he idolized, had Communist mentors in school and college, and a radical preacher. Is this a surprise to anyone? The man has never had a job in his life, how is he qualified to run a country? Now we're all going to pay for it.

[thetundrawolf]

I knew a girl who lived in Canada . She had cancer, and got all of her treatments free. (Aside from their taxes.)

She had to wait months between treatments, whether she was desperate for them, or not.

Another girl I knew said her doctors make as much as ditch- diggers. You are expected to leave a tip, if they cure you. It wasn't a third world country.

Socialized medicine is death.

[musicbrain5]

Sometimes cancer patients in the US eventually end up declaring bankruptcy or losing their houses or whatever because their treatments were too expensive and insurance didn't want to cover it. Maybe the care is better overall but if it puts you in so much debt that you won't have a good quality of life when you're eventually healthy, what's the point? Cancer is often considered a pre-existing condition so a lot of patients have to pay out of pocket.

[thetundrawolf]

And the point is? It's better to be wasting away and dying because your "Free" (NOT free. The treatments are paid for by horrendous taxes on citizens) treatments were spaced too far apart?

[musicbrain5]

I never said healthcare is free here because it's not. You're the one who said this woman's meds were free (should be "free"). Doctors make good money here too. Your anecdotal evidence are not facts.

Americans sometimes paid slightly more taxes than people in other countries, so I wonder where that extra money went. Obama probably pocketed it. www.forbes.com/.../

[musicbrain5]

Actually, I am going to leave this conversation since I don't think anything good will come out of it. Neither of us will get anywhere with our points. I don't want either of us to get a bad opinion of the other person because of this topic. There are pros and cons to our system, and to yours. I'm sorry your friends had bad experiences. My parents are doctors and so I know there is a lot of red tape in some cases. I'm not a bad person, I promise.