Gadling

public hospitals are not charity hospitals, here in Europe normally the public hospitals have the best doctors and the best service, we only use the private hospitals to take exams or samples because its faster and not that expensive, but if I had an emergency or a cirurgy I would need to do I would do it on the public hospitals, never on the private, and I can afford a private hospital, but why should I pay more there if the best service is in the public hospital? thats way I pay my taxes no??

The "black and white" is that socialized healthcare is working in other countries and overall working very well. The "grey" is that nothing is perfect; however, It continues to horrify me how one negative story can turn a person against this. A person hears a story from a friend of a friend about their two hour wait or a broken leg that did not get mended fast enough and all of a sudden the entire concept is terrible. HELLO!! WAKE UP! LOOK AROUND!! OUR privatized healthcare KILLS people; OUR privatized healthcare DEMORALIZES people; OUR privatized healthcare BREAKS people!!

With socialized healthcare we will not have doctors who have been taught as part of their schooling how to make more money.

With socialized healthcare we will not have doctors who become doctors for the money, prestige, and power. (at least not as many lol)

Imagine that.

First of all you have got to understand that universal health care is not charity health care. It is provided for out of your tax money that you are currently spending on unmeccessary things like a failed war for one that is costing billions a month. If you were to take an educated look at universal health care in other countries such as the UK, France and my Canada, you would see your concerns are invalid. Now I will say that they are not without problems. Specifically scheduling. Now as the great country the United States boasts to be, I'm quite sure it can implement better mangement techniques to solve this and other issues. Wouldn't you agree? Yankee know how and all. It is shown in these other countries that it could work. So instead of being a lazy defeatist, why don't you stand up and MAKE it work.

I think some of you people are nuts. You look at one or two single handed stories and you freak out. If half of you were intelligent and new anything you would realize that "socialized" health care works. I could tell you many times where I have sat in an emergency room for hours and hours waiting for someone to take care of my injury and we don't have universal health care. There are pros and cons of every situation but you have to look past yourself and your little group of people and open your eyes. There are so many people in the U.S. who lost their jobs because the GOVERNMENT sent their job overseas and now they are left without a job and benefits. Therefore those people can't take care of their kids or themselves. So, just because it isn't pertaining to you at this moment in time I'm sure that if you were unable to afford a procedure that would cost you more money than you have ever seen in your life you would like someone to help YOU instead of letting you die. So maybe you should read up on this a little better and look at the overall picture instead of a few stories from people you know.

I live right here in the good old USA. I live in Orange County. I supposedly have some of the best hospitals in the world. I gave birth 2001. My doctor gave me a very bad episiotomy. He went home for dinner while I was having contractions. A very young nurse was watching me. She left the room at one point. Eventually my great doctor (had of gyn dept) came back and created a painful cut. I ended up with a very bad infection that resulted in 3 costly surgeries. I had a very good PPO. I was given little sympathy for my situation. Thank god I found a great doctor in Newport Beach. He fixed what my other doctor screwed up. This cost me a lot of money and time. All I am saying is that infections and problems occur with profit based hospitals too. Mistakes occur all the time and are covered up. Let's face it. Most people will not be able to handle thousands of dollars in hospital bills. Health care in the US is not so swell right now. Wait until more corporations stop offering health care as a benefit. It is coming.

To anyone out there who screams that universal health care is so horrible. I am giving you a challenge. Get rid of your employer based coverage, and then try as an individual to get your own plan. You will find that the rates will double, and the health insurance companies will find ANY reason to shut you out of the system. Individual plans aren't cost effective for insurance companies. So if you have ANY prior medical problems, or issues they will be used against you and you will not be covered. And when one large companies refuses to cover you, you will also find that NO COMPANY will cover you. I went through this nightmare myself, and my "medical crime" was that I had a biopsy (negative) done when I was 23. And Blue Cross Blue Shield said that 23 yr. old's shouldn't have biopsies. Therefore I was shut out, and no one would sell me insurance. It was about 10 years ago in the state of Illinois. I now live in a state where I cannot be denied coverage for medical reasons, NY. One of two states in the nation, NY and MA that by law have to cover everyone. Although in NY people still have problems getting coverage, the insurance companies try to ignore you and hope you go away, they lose paperwork, refuse to return calls, you constantly talk to new people, etc. etc. etc.. I am currently in a group plan with an Freelancer's organization and I have very expensive and somewhat thin coverage. Also if you still don't believe me, go to a cancer hospital and just ask the parents of children with cancer how they are paying for the treatment. Most have put up their homes, or have had entire extended families spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to save one child. I volunteer at a hospital and I have seen this first hand! Our system is broken and rotten to the core, we need reform. I don't think we should adopt England or Canada's systems but there are many different types of Universal health care practiced all over the world. Let's look at what works and what doesn't and start from there.

oh horse shit . do you have children ? i do .my ex husband owes them 120,000 dollars in backed child support and health insurance. guess they will never see it. if the united states would stay the fuck out of every one elses hair and stop spending americans hard made dollars on war, war for oil,and every other stupid foreign adventure dick BUSH wants to go we could pay for all americans health care. before i was a mother i was a nurse .i went home crying alot at night because of the treatment medicare and medicaid patients recieved.it was not top rate. to top it off these people were treated like shit by people like you. these people had worked all their lives, they were honest, caring and many served their country in some way or another just because you serve your country doesn't mean it always takes care of you. what i do resent are doctors bringing foreing children from asia, south america, and iraq, for reconstructive surgery on a daily basis. you see it ever day on the news. don't we have our own people to care for? that should piss you off . american doctors giving foreign children free health care and telling its own to fuck off and die. and yes people are dying over this.

I'm American And my wife is from Spain on our last visit I got sick went to-the clinic and was taken care of within 15 min at no cost because my wife was born in the country. We later had another problem with my wife she also was treated the same day.We live in the Boston area and when my wife wants to see her doctor she has to wait between 3 and 6 months. and that's with blue cross blue shield .So it's my opinion that universal health care is better. It will also force down the cost of private insurance

Your last line stated that it was all free. Your health care is not free. You pay for it with taxes and long waits.

Sounds great but hey, IT'S NOT FREE! TAXES!!!! TAXES DEDUCTED FROM YOUR PAY CHECK!!!! TAXES!!! TAXES YOU HAVE TO PAY IN ORDER FOR EVERYONE IN YOUR COUNTRY TO GET "FREE" HEALTH CARE!!!! With those taxes deducted from YOUR paycheck, YOUR hard earned money is pawned off on healthcare for EVERYONE. Therefore, YOU have less money to provide for you and your family. Would you rather put food on the table every week or pay for the bum down the street to take a trip to the emergency room for alcohol poisoning?

well don't americans pay taxes too?? what does your country spend it on war. in 2006 you spent $656 BILLION dollars on war (yahoo.answers.com) where did that money come from hummm perhaps just guessing here but maybe TAXES!!!!!! so americans have to have there pirorties striaght.. kill the middle east first take their oil then maybe if theres any money left over spend it on newer ways to kill people

thank you america has turned into a very hateful place . my ex husband refuses to pay the 120,000 dollars and child support he owes our children. they have medicaid which is worthless now due to recent law changes and good old american greed. im 33 i started working when i was 13 . thats 20 years i have paid taxes all of them and into medicare ,ssi and so on. where is my country now when i need it. now some one is reading this and will be stupid enough to tell me if i dont like it i can move. yes thats really smart. im glad you canadians are more advanced. guess who will be the first to jump on the band wagon if we ever do get national health care, yes the wieners crying about it. william thank you for standing up to people like collette.

Isn't there different plans/coverages depending on which province you live?