hitherto wrote:Why can't everybody just pay for their own health care??? Those who are not responsable enough to do so probubly have a car and a cell phone. Pay your health insurance first!!!
I understand your irritation man... BUT, I would argue that if public health care were to be implemented well, you might find it a little more palatable...
Well, as a Canadian, I have a VERY unpopular opinion of public health care. I believe (and am often called un-Canadian for this) two things;
THE FIRST; Public healt care should only cover injuries or sicknesses that aren't the patient's direct fault.
I mean, if some knob rides a motorcycle without a helmet, why should I pay for his stupidity? When he cracks his skull in an accident (whether at fault or not, he chose not to wear a helmet) I don't think I should pay for it. BUT, if he gets cancer (unrelated to his motorcycle riding habits) I would gladly help him out. A second example; if somebody smokes, I would gladly pay for them to have reconstructive surgury on their foot if a heavy beam fell on it, but I am FURIOUS that I have to pay for these idiots to get treatment for lung cancer.
Q: "But what about the cost of adjudicating whether someone's at fault or not? Won't that be prohibitively expensive?"
A: Even with a reasonable system of due process and an independant appelate body, we would save mountains of money not paying for people's lack of self perservation instincts.
Q: "So we won't treat these people, they'll suffer in the streets as crippled homeless?"
A: Nope. We'll treat 'em, but we'll just garnish their wages (or hold back income tax returns) until it's paid in full. Which could take a lifetime admittedly...
THE SECOND; Public health care is a waste if there's no private health care system available in paralell to it.
Why?
In Canada, everybody gets the same service; bad, inattentive doctors who are overburdened and rushed, who don't give a crap about their patients. Waiting lists for tests that should be routine are also a plague here. A buddy of mine from university who is now a doctor lamented that North Dakota has 12 EKG machines. There's one in Manitoba, a province twice the population.
My dear ole mum's best friend is dead
because of the public health care system. With a private system, the doctors will test for "worst case scenario" right at the outset - after all, it's the insurance company that pays for it, and the tests are readily available. In a public system where there's no private alternative, doctors test for the "most likely scenario", and only test for the worst case once the most likely has been ruled out. This, coupled with long waiting lists, means people die of problems left undiagnosed for too long a time. My Mom's best friend was just such a case - she was told that she probably just a minor but re-occurring common problem. When her cancer became terminal, they found out only because she collapsed in a public place, and they had to investigate when she died less than 3 days later.
If she had had access to a privately funded testing (which is NOT available in 9 of the 10 provinces, and technically illegal) OR if the government had to compete with private service providers (to ensure a consistent quality of service in the public system) they would have detected her cancer before it was a kiwi sized tumor in her skull.
Any monopoly is going to provide crap service.
Anyways, back on topic... It's media monopoly that allows this election scare crapola to flourish.
He's an American country rock singer and if I could get rid of him by voting I would!!
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