(no subject)
Aug. 16th, 2009 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_roseIt's sad when the main reason I'm reconsidering describing my hospital visit for my miscarriage is to counter the complete and utter BS in the States about socialized medicine and how their systems is wonderful.
Short version: Yes, there was a wait, I started off in Emergency with a non life-threatening condition. I probably didn't wait any longer than a comparable situation in the US, and I didn't have to be grilled about the state of my insurance while I waited.
And I didn't have to pay out the wazoo for an involuntary and vastly unwanted situation. I didn't pay ANYTHING.
Canadian medical care has its problems. Our socialized medicine doesn't cover any dental or basic/nonessential optical, or most prescriptions that are voluntary or for a temporary condition (Birth control and antibiotics are out of pocket). These are things that require private insurance. There are wait lists for certain kinds of major procedures (Though not so much for emergency level this-person-will-die-without-it versions of those procedures). And right now, *because* the States' system is Fucked up, a lot of specialists go for the bigger money in the States. Yes, as far as I'm concerned, the biggest weakness in Canadian Health Care is caused by the US having an insane system where people go to the hospital with a heart attack and come out with a huge debt and difficulty getting any future insurance. Way to mess it up for the rest of us.
Now, Stop putting my friends, and acquaintances, and other perfectly normal decent people into drastic debt and bankruptcy just because you're afraid of the word "Socialized".
Short version: Yes, there was a wait, I started off in Emergency with a non life-threatening condition. I probably didn't wait any longer than a comparable situation in the US, and I didn't have to be grilled about the state of my insurance while I waited.
And I didn't have to pay out the wazoo for an involuntary and vastly unwanted situation. I didn't pay ANYTHING.
Canadian medical care has its problems. Our socialized medicine doesn't cover any dental or basic/nonessential optical, or most prescriptions that are voluntary or for a temporary condition (Birth control and antibiotics are out of pocket). These are things that require private insurance. There are wait lists for certain kinds of major procedures (Though not so much for emergency level this-person-will-die-without-it versions of those procedures). And right now, *because* the States' system is Fucked up, a lot of specialists go for the bigger money in the States. Yes, as far as I'm concerned, the biggest weakness in Canadian Health Care is caused by the US having an insane system where people go to the hospital with a heart attack and come out with a huge debt and difficulty getting any future insurance. Way to mess it up for the rest of us.
Now, Stop putting my friends, and acquaintances, and other perfectly normal decent people into drastic debt and bankruptcy just because you're afraid of the word "Socialized".
