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.
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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...
- u
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 :)
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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.
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.
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.
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