Socialised health care in Canada poll

Quote from chrismontez:

Well I’m an American who now lives in Canada so I can comment on both systems from experience.
USA- The good- When I was working I had a $200 deductible, my insurance covered 80% up to $1200 then 100% after that. I could see a specialist or have a needed operation within days. The bad- When I lost my last job I was told I could keep my insurance policy at a cost of $948/mo. I couldn’t afford it so had no insurance for years as I worked self employed. A friend of mine who had left his job was in the same boat and needed a heart operation. He started working on grants / assistance for the funding , but by the time he got it in place his heart gave out; dead in his early 50’s.
Canada- The good- I won’t die the way my friend did, if I have a major accident or illness I won’t have to go into massive debt to be treated. If I feel sick or get injured I go to the walkin clinic and get checked out and treated for free. The bad- Once I am diagnosed if I have to see a specialist there can be a long wait, then another wait for the operation. All the while the condition may be getting worse.

For my opinion, since it didn’t look like I was going to go back to a job with a good insurance policy, I decided to live in Canada under their system.
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Out of curiosity, how does a US citizen go about legally establishing residency in Canada and thus be able to receive free healthcare?
 
Out of curiosity, how does a US citizen go about legally establishing residency in Canada and thus be able to receive free healthcare?

You immigrate and become a Canadian resident. Either on your own, or as a sponsored spouse, work visa etc...
 
US healthcare system: Break your leg (or something "routine"+no insurance=bankruptcy.

I honestly don't give a s*it about super duper experiment face transplant surgeries on the cutting edge of medicine.

Most of the time you going to be in the hospital due to something such as breaking bones, appendicitis, pneumonia, heart attacks, stroke etc.

I hear these horror stories about Canadians and (Western) Europeans dying right and left and yet it is a myth.

I am sorry, I do'nt feel like delivering a child or something "routine" should cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
 
Quote from IShopAtPublix:

US healthcare system: Break your leg (or something "routine"+no insurance=bankruptcy.

I honestly don't give a s*it about super duper experiment face transplant surgeries on the cutting edge of medicine.

Most of the time you going to be in the hospital due to something such as breaking bones, appendicitis, pneumonia, heart attacks, stroke etc.

I hear these horror stories about Canadians and (Western) Europeans dying right and left and yet it is a myth.

I am sorry, I do'nt feel like delivering a child or something "routine" should cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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Those are also my thoughts. The poor have free medical, military and ex military have free medical, government employees have free medical, my guess is that is well over 50% of the people right there, I'm sure someone here has some numbers on this. Add in the wealthy who are probably covered and employees of large corporations and we are not that far from a national health care system as it is. The ones who are screwed and the working lower middle class and the middle class who work for small business and the small business owners. All the others are covered. I can understand the logic on both sides in a lot of the right / left arguments but health care doesn't add up to me. The anti-health care crowd might as well be arguing against educating the poor because they are not paying their way.
 
i have my kids, 17yo & 20 on a separate PPO health care policy. their premium went up 59% YOY :confused: - thats a disgrace. my biggest annual expense is health care. im 53 and when i turn 55 my rates go up even more... i am "rated" which i think means they paid money out on me b/c i have low deductible... which is weird, b/c my policy is a contract; if they pay they raise my rates alot, if they dont pay, they still raise my rates.. that eff'ed-up. so if i dont go to the doctor once this year, i can expect an increase in premiums...

BTW, i twisted my ankle and went to ER a few years ago... it was not broken, but they gave me crutches (they cost like $200+, which i didnt know)... i got the bill - with my insurance discounts over $1,200. worse was all the people in ER with bronchitis, flu, etc - they go to ER and get free meds. a frigging twisted ankle - hurt like hell, but if they told me it would cost $1,200, i would have taken some meds and tried to lay-up in the rack for a few days and ice it.
 
To those of you that believe in the superiority of US healthcare consider this:

US (corporate) business culture generally does not have a soul. Everything is subservient to Earnings Per Share and even if it means inquiring whether you "habla espanol" before asking you to choose "English" or using indian customer service representatives, excessively using H1 visas, shipping jobs to mexico and importing the product, etc. "The icing on the cake" in all of this is the ridiculous CEO compensation.

If you genuinely believe that some of the most heartless of corporations (HMOs&Health Insurance companies) are primarily looking out for your benefit you are hopelessly naive.

Hippocratic oath and egalitarian industries are inherently incompatible with the profit incentive. If a country is rich enough it should look out for its citizens (instead of pursuing 21st century version of white man's burden)
 
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