Non-Americans, would you prefer U.S. style Healthcare?

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Also, why or why not?

I voted no. I'm in Canada.

You pay more per capita for health care than we do, but your life expectancy is lower than ours, your infant mortality is worse than ours... by most of the measures of health care system quality, your system performs worse than ours, but yours is more expensive.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

No because I've had lymphoma twice and I doubt if I'd be alive today under what I know of the U.S. system. I admit that all I know is from the Michael Moore documentary.

One of my high school friends moved to Canada from Florida in her early teens.

She was born in Canada, but her Dad got a job as a professor at a university in Florida, so the family moved down there. A good job with full benefits.

While she was a child, she was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. She started getting treated in Florida and had a couple surgeries. Then, her insurer found some reason to drop her coverage.

Her family was left with the prospect of paying for a lifetime of expensive care out-of-pocket... and even then, only what they could afford. Luckily, they had Canadian citizenship to fall back on, so her Dad quit his professor job and they moved to Toronto so that she could get proper medical care.

If they didn't have Canada as an option, I'm not sure she would have survived to adulthood.

 

[Viker]

You might still be alive, just in very bad debt.

This.

 

[Estro Felino]

I voted no. I'm in Canada.

You pay more per capita for health care than we do, but your life expectancy is lower than ours, your infant mortality is worse than ours... by most of the measures of health care system quality, your system performs worse than ours, but yours is more expensive.

I know people who have never been hospitalized in their entire life so they have never benefitted from the free services of the NHS.
So it's beyond absurd that you need to pay an insurance for something that rarely happens in most cases. While the State has the money (through taxes) to finance it.

 

[Secret Chief]

No. Because I'm not an utter and complete idiot. Simples.

 

[RestlessSoul]

After 12 years of Conservative underfunding in the name of austerity, the National Health Service - the jewel in Britain's welfare crown - is in a desperate state. The vultures, in the form of US style private health insurers, are circling. I offer my full support to all those working in the NHS, and anyone willing to fight to defend it.

 

[ChristineM]

Im a Brit living in France. Ive had the best of the NHS before the conservatives began to pull it apart and now i have the French Ameli. Why would i want to replace either of these with a business model?

 

[Altfish]

What is not to like about the UK system when compared with the US.
In the UK you can still go private if you can afford it - reference our Prime Minister
But I get all my health worries sorted (apart from Dentist) for free.
Drugs for those under 18 are free, those over 66 are free, pregnant women are free. If you have to pay it is about £10 for any drug that is prescribed by a doctor.
I can get an appointment at the doctors within 48 hours, quicker if it is an emergency.
You may wait for a non-urgent operation, but I've never struggled.
At my age, I get called for annual flu jabs, blood tests, etc.

The NHS is great although under our right-wing government it is crumbling round the edges

 

[Mock Turtle]

As a Brit I have little to complain about with regards our NHS and would hardly want to see a privatised system become the norm, even though that option is available here too. Our system seems to be struggling due to lack of resources, and probably due to any Tory governments in power failing to provide the cash, especially when they are more inclined to private services anyway. I suspect we might have to alter the way the system operates however - placing some responsibility on individuals as to the choices they make - or having to get payments for certain conditions - or supplementary insurance perhaps. Haven't really looked into how this might work but something has to be done to ensure the NHS actually survives as a decent system for health care.

PS I had previously seen the video about costs in the USA.

 

[Erebus]

I live in the UK and trading the NHS for an American healthcare system is honestly a nightmare scenario to me. The NHS certainly has plenty of problems but those problems are a result of savage budget cuts both directly to the NHS and across the country. Brexit didn't help either as we lost a lot of EU nurses and doctors.

Even with its (fixable) problems though, the NHS provides healthcare for those who need it without requiring insurance or going into debt. If you need an ambulance, you can get one without worrying about the cost. If you need surgery or long-term medication, it won't financially cripple you.

Drugs for those under 18 are free, those over 66 are free, pregnant women are free.

Yep and that's just the start. There's a long list of exemptions from paying for prescriptions:

Who can get free prescriptions

As you say though, even those who don't get an exemption pay pennies when compared to those in the US.

 

[Guitar's Cry]

Don't ask me, U.S. conservatives insist that our privatized healthcare is superior and envied by those with universal healthcare.

My favorite conservative argument is that universal healthcare requires us to pay more taxes.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Walter White did what he did because
he wanted to build an empire to assuage
severe disappointment from missing
out on fabulous wealth from the
company he started but left.

Don't think any of that really happened tbh mate. It was just a story.

 

[Revoltingest]

Don't think any of that really happened tbh mate. It was just a story.

Another poster referenced the story, but got
it all wrong. (They seemed unaware of Walter's
backstory, perhaps because it was revealed
later in the series.) I offered correction.

 

[Sand Dancer]

What is not to like about the UK system when compared with the US.
In the UK you can still go private if you can afford it - reference our Prime Minister
But I get all my health worries sorted (apart from Dentist) for free.
Drugs for those under 18 are free, those over 66 are free, pregnant women are free. If you have to pay it is about £10 for any drug that is prescribed by a doctor.
I can get an appointment at the doctors within 48 hours, quicker if it is an emergency.
You may wait for a non-urgent operation, but I've never struggled.
At my age, I get called for annual flu jabs, blood tests, etc.

The NHS is great although under our right-wing government it is crumbling round the edges

So as long as they themselves can still get care, screw those without private insurance. How selfish!

 

[VoidCat]

My favorite conservative argument is that universal healthcare requires us to pay more taxes.

Oh no the horror: taxes actually helping the community it's supposed to! How will we ever live?!/sarcasm

 

[Aupmanyav]

Also, why or why not?

Let me first fall ill. The buzz word in India is connections.
We have our own system, i.e., I will ask my son-in-law, who is a dentist. He will check with his friends, one of whom is a Professor in a medical college, as to whom to contact in that discipline. Then with that recommendation, I will go to the doctor. He will check me, offer me tea and snacks, provide me the medicine if he has them or I will get it from the market. They are covered under my son's employment contract. Of course, I have insurance as well.

 

[Altfish]

So as long as they themselves can still get care, screw those without private insurance. How selfish!

Sorry, I don't understand the comment?
How have I implied that?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Oh no the horror: taxes actually helping the community it's supposed to! How will we ever live?!/sarcasm

Does that mean they can finally shut up every single election cycle about the dire need for funding roads and bridges, paying for schools, and healthcare?

 

[Shaul]

And yet millions come to America as illegal immigrants in part because they want our health care. Then there are the thousands that come to the U.S. as medical tourists because we have some of the world's best doctors and clinics.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Sorry, I don't understand the comment?
How have I implied that?

Just saying that the conservatives with problems with UHC most likely have private insurance, so they don't seem to be concerned for those who don't.