Canada has unfair health-care advantages

[3113]

Too right 3113, did you know we even treat Americans free of charge if they come over on vacation, try to cross the street and look left instead of right? We don't even charge them for lifting the London bus off them! That socialised medicine's a real bummer!

There ya go! Helping illegal aliens! It's just wrong.

 

[Xelebes]

I'm avoiding this thread.


Wait... dammit!

 

[Boota]

I tried to apply for a job on one of these new death panels. Turns out there aren't any.

Fuck.

 

[champagne1982]

I'm sorry to take issue with you Champagne, I can understand that quoting those particular figures may be distressing to you, but the figures were per 1000 of the population, so population numbers are immaterial.
<snip>I think that despite the best efforts of your President, you'll end up with a half-arsed system that serves nobody well and a lot of people not at all!

Hi Teloz, I'm from Alberta... Land of the two tiered health care structure. It works beautifully if you have an employer who wants to pay part of the premiums for private health care and will support your leap ahead of the line with his wallet. But those who suck at the public teat are left with those little tiny ones up near mom's teeth.

I agree that triage works wonderfully in getting the people that need care the care they need. It works that way pretty much everywhere, I think. It's simply a matter of paying for it when all's said and done. See, I (and I suspect most) Canadians don't mind funding public health care with our tax dollars because we're supporting a system that but for the grace of God most will never use, but it's there when they do.

And my issue was the accumulation of the extra extrapolated babies being born and failing to thrive in Canada when Pure quoted those numbers. I mean there were thousands of infants dying that didn't even have mom's to bear them in Canada. s'all.

 

[Xelebes]

Hi Teloz, I'm from Alberta... Land of the two tiered health care structure. It works beautifully if you have an employer who wants to pay part of the premiums for private health care and will support your leap ahead of the line with his wallet. But those who suck at the public teat are left with those little tiny ones up near mom's teeth.

I agree that triage works wonderfully in getting the people that need care the care they need. It works that way pretty much everywhere, I think. It's simply a matter of paying for it when all's said and done. See, I (and I suspect most) Canadians don't mind funding public health care with our tax dollars because we're supporting a system that but for the grace of God most will never use, but it's there when they do.

And my issue was the accumulation of the extra extrapolated babies being born and failing to thrive in Canada when Pure quoted those numbers. I mean there were thousands of infants dying that didn't even have mom's to bear them in Canada. s'all.

I'm from Alberta and I haven't come across the two-tiered health care. There are fees, yes, and some specific services which are dealt with by the private sector but it is not two-tiered in the sense that is commonly meant to convey here. That includes paying one's way ahead into better service.

 

[champagne1982]

I'm from Alberta and I haven't come across the two-tiered health care. There are fees, yes, and some specific services which are dealt with by the private sector but it is not two-tiered in the sense that is commonly meant to convey here. That includes paying one's way ahead into better service.

Yeah. In my little swamp here on the eastern border, I had occassion to have my MRI taken care of through private (read my deductible) funding and a little tweak from the public service health care plan I'm fortunate to be a member of. This allowed me to jump ahead six months on the surgery list since that was the wait to have the imaging done. I've had friends go a similar route to have elective surgeries performed earlier than if they'd had to wait in line for diagnostics.

Two tiers exist but it's a bit like juggling chainsaws because there's always a possibility that the bed you were counting on will go to an emergency patient. Then you must wait for a new opening like everyone else (other than hockey players and other doctors).

 

[Teloz]

Hi Teloz, I'm from Alberta... Land of the two tiered health care structure. It works beautifully if you have an employer who wants to pay part of the premiums for private health care and will support your leap ahead of the line with his wallet. But those who suck at the public teat are left with those little tiny ones up near mom's teeth.

Hi Champagne, correct me if I'm being stupid, but if you're getting healthcare paid for by the company you work for, isn't that considered to be part of your salary? If that's so, then where's the difference in paying it as income tax to the Government? I was going to explain how it all worked, but you'd be asleep by the end of the first paragraph. Over here, if you're working you pay, if you aren't you don't. That's the bit JBJ and Ami don't like of course, the idea they may be helping someone worse off than themselves.

 

[Xelebes]

Yeah. In my little swamp here on the eastern border, I had occassion to have my MRI taken care of through private (read my deductible) funding and a little tweak from the public service health care plan I'm fortunate to be a member of. This allowed me to jump ahead six months on the surgery list since that was the wait to have the imaging done. I've had friends go a similar route to have elective surgeries performed earlier than if they'd had to wait in line for diagnostics.

Two tiers exist but it's a bit like juggling chainsaws because there's always a possibility that the bed you were counting on will go to an emergency patient. Then you must wait for a new opening like everyone else (other than hockey players and other doctors).

Well, I haven't had an MRI to know, but I've had CT scans, ECG and EEGs before with no real hitch. I guess it is more of a problem in Lloydminster where the hospitals aren't as expansive.

 

[champagne1982]

Hi Champagne, correct me if I'm being stupid, but if you're getting healthcare paid for by the company you work for, isn't that considered to be part of your salary? If that's so, then where's the difference in paying it as income tax to the Government? I was going to explain how it all worked, but you'd be asleep by the end of the first paragraph. Over here, if you're working you pay, if you aren't you don't. That's the bit JBJ and Ami don't like of course, the idea they may be helping someone worse off than themselves.

Actually, I can claim medical expenses such as the premiums paid and my deductible from my income tax since this is a taxable benefit. It gets convoluted but really, tis another way the government double dips into my tax account without having to call it "taxes".

 

[champagne1982]

Well, I haven't had an MRI to know, but I've had CT scans, ECG and EEGs before with no real hitch. I guess it is more of a problem in Lloydminster where the hospitals aren't as expansive.

Further north actually. But our problem here isn't lack of facility it's lack of staff to operate the equipment.

I've been the recipient of wonderful care at the UofA Walter McKenzie Health Sciences Building and The Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton in the past. I didn't need to jump queues then since I was there already due to my condition. So, without public health care, I'd be in debt too far to climb out of. I don't knock the system, I just wish the govvmint would come up with legislation that obliges any physician who obtains a degree via student loans and government grants to serve in the cultural wasteland that is most of the country.

I know, this limits the great researchers and gifted surgeons, but only for a maximum of five years (by my reckoning) until they're released to practice where and what they want.

 

[Xelebes]

Further north actually. But our problem here isn't lack of facility it's lack of staff to operate the equipment.

Cold Lake?

 

[champagne1982]

Cold Lake?

Yes, the lesser tar sands...

 

[Teloz]

Doh! Excuse me whilst I go back to school for a geography lesson! Aalberta is in Canada of course! My sincere apologies!

I thought healthcare was free in Canada?

 

[Xelebes]

Doh! Excuse me whilst I go back to school for a geography lesson! Aalberta is in Canada of course! My sincere apologies!

I thought healthcare was free in Canada?

Most are. Some services like dental care, eye care and drugs are handled by private industry.

 

[champagne1982]

Doh! Excuse me whilst I go back to school for a geography lesson! Aalberta is in Canada of course! My sincere apologies!

I thought healthcare was free in Canada?

I guess it depends on what side of the cash register you sit on...

I don't pay a premium for provincial health care insurance. I carry a private policy to cover the very things I was just talking about -- fees, drugs, corrective lenses and semi or private rooms in the hospital (provided they're available) and travel.

I can claim my medical expenses on my income tax, less any paid by the insurance; covering the deductible and fees for forms and letters that my doctor charges for.

So, sure it's free if you never need health care. Once you start to require more than the usual annual checkup, then you begin to see exactly how "free" the reality is.

 

[Teloz]

You'd like our system, for all its faults.

 

[amicus]

Could be American infant mortality is the outcome of irresponsible teen sluts pumping out welfare pups and not taking care of them. Thats probably it.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/PRESSROOM/07newsreleases/infantmortality.htm

A LUCKY GUESS IS ALL. I HAD NO IDEA, REALLY.[/

QUOTE]

~~~

Hey, you Closet Liberal! Thanks for the stats.

I would add a couple things from common sense, go find your own statistics, but, 'Crack Babies', seem to have a low survival rate, I wonder why?

I know, I can hear the Liberal rage now, 'it's them poor darkies, never had a chance anyway...', yeah, sure; the black welfare mom's you mean?

Another aspect not considered and surely intended to insult the working woman who postpones motherhood until the age where infant mortality and defects increase threefold...ya know, them damned independent Libs, who finally figure out in their forties all they really wanted was to have a baby.

All that and more, taken into consideration, shines a bit more light on the holistic concept concept of comparison concerning infant mortality rates, now, does it not?

Hey. hey, JBJ, insulted any Liberals today? (get with it!)

Amicus

 

[lance gt]

I guess it depends on what side of the cash register you sit on...

I don't pay a premium for provincial health care insurance. I carry a private policy to cover the very things I was just talking about -- fees, drugs, corrective lenses and semi or private rooms in the hospital (provided they're available) and travel.

I can claim my medical expenses on my income tax, less any paid by the insurance; covering the deductible and fees for forms and letters that my doctor charges for.

So, sure it's free if you never need health care. Once you start to require more than the usual annual checkup, then you begin to see exactly how "free" the reality is.

That's why Ontario won't go with a two tier system. Everyone gets their OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan)card and receive medical treatments. No one is left out from getting the services they need. Dental, Eye care, and some non-essential services aren't covered by OHIP but are covered by private insurance coverage through employers. We pay a small percentage of the cost and declare it on our taxes and receive the amount as a write off. So, in essence, it still works out to be free. Other provinces are trying to adopt a system based on American style practices and as you have read, they aren't working as well.
"Give us a place to stand and a place to grow. We call this land, Ontario"

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

My paper features an article about Canadian healthcare today.

The bottomline is: Americans use more high tech toys to diagnose with, Canadians use chicken entrails; Americans use wonder drugs, Canadians use roots-berries; Canada isnt filled with irresponsible ghetto rats shooting and cutting each other all the time; and Canada isnt plagued with sick-pregnant Mexicans flooding across the border.

 

[lance gt]

My paper features an article about Canadian healthcare today.

The bottomline is: Americans use more high tech toys to diagnose with, Canadians use chicken entrails; Americans use wonder drugs, Canadians use roots-berries; Canada isnt filled with irresponsible ghetto rats shooting and cutting each other all the time; and Canada isnt plagued with sick-pregnant Mexicans flooding across the border.

We only use those things on the Americans, JBJ, when they come here to get an accurate diagnosis. We're so damn healthy up here, we save our most technological processes for you. Maybe we need more Mexicans up here too. It would round out all the different languages we have, like, Chinese(both versions), Indian(Punjabi, Hindi), French, German, Innuit, Dutch, Japanese, Russian, Ukranian, Polish, African, English and of course, American.

 

[3113]

I tried to apply for a job on one of these new death panels. Turns out there aren't any.

Well, healthcare isn't in place yet, Boota. Just you wait! Once we get it they'll need your services to decide if granny lives or dies! I think you'd be perfect for it. And you'll even get paid a government salary...

Hey! Why not make that you're Halloween costume? Wear an executioner's hood and a teeshirt that says, "Death Panel Judge"?

Yes?

 

[lance gt]

Well, healthcare isn't in place yet, Boota. Just you wait! Once we get it they'll need your services to decide if granny lives or dies! I think you'd be perfect for it. And you'll even get paid a government salary...

Hey! Why not make that you're Halloween costume? Wear an executioner's hood and a teeshirt that says, "Death Panel Judge"?

Yes?

Shades of "Logan's Run" here or what?

 

[Teloz]

I tried to apply for a job on one of these new death panels. Turns out there aren't any.

Fuck.

Well, healthcare isn't in place yet, Boota. Just you wait! Once we get it they'll need your services to decide if granny lives or dies! I think you'd be perfect for it. And you'll even get paid a government salary...

Hey! Why not make that you're Halloween costume? Wear an executioner's hood and a teeshirt that says, "Death Panel Judge"?

Yes?

I love it! Now how can I work that character into my Halloween Story Contest submission?

 

[lance gt]

Well, healthcare isn't in place yet, Boota. Just you wait! Once we get it they'll need your services to decide if granny lives or dies! I think you'd be perfect for it. And you'll even get paid a government salary...

Hey! Why not make that you're Halloween costume? Wear an executioner's hood and a teeshirt that says, "Death Panel Judge"?

Yes?

I wish there was a thing like a Death Panel Judge for those who wish to be given the chance to end their life when they are going to die a slow and painful death from cancer or AIDS, instead of keeping them alive for our own selfish reasons. We talk about respecting people's rights and choices, but we won't let them die with peace and dignity. Funny world isn't it?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

There is! Jack Kevorkian was recently released from prison. Rumor sez it was a Presidential Pardon so Doctor Death can help Obama reduce Medicare costs.