yeah, universal health care is of the devil

[piranha]

those of us who have it hate it! or not. instead we seem to actually be fairly realistic about its benefits and shortcomings.

canadians overwhelmingly support universal health care; think obama is on right track in US. (pdf from nanos research.)

The survey found that nine in ten Canadians support universal health care (90% support or somewhat support), and seven out of ten Canadians believe that President Barack Obama is on the right track with respect to health care in the US (71%). Results were consistent across regions.

When asked what they believed was the key strength of the current Canadian health care system, six in ten said, unprompted, it was accessibility and universality (61%). The key weakness identified, unprompted, was wait times (33%), a more than two-to-one margin over the next most cited weakness - a shortage of doctors and nurses (14%).

When asked to look south of the border to the US, the majority of Canadians felt that President Obama was on the right track when it came to making changes to the health care system in the United States (71%) with only seven percent saying he was on the wrong track. One in five were unsure (21%). Quebecers were comparatively more likely to say Obama was on the right track (82%), followed by Ontarians (74% right track).

i should add that the wait times are for non-urgent care problems. the paramour's mother waited too long (in my book) for a hip replacement. but when i had life-threatening high blood pressure and tachycardia, i was immediately seen at the ER, ushered past a waiting room with other people. i've also always been able to see my GP when i needed to. and all that costs a mere C$54/month for british columbians (and if you can't afford that there is help); nobody is dependent on an employer offering health insurance and spousal/dependent benefits; if you lose your job in a bad economy, you don't also lose your health care (i find that incredibly frightening).

having lived under both type of systems, i greatly prefer universal, single-payer health care. and i don't at all mind paying taxes to support such care for people who have less than i do. i like living in a society that cares about all its members, whether they're currently fortunate and able-bodied or not.

Comments

[kore]

if you lose your job in a bad economy, you don't also lose your health care (i find that incredibly frightening)

Not only that, if you're part-time or a temporary contract worker, you don't get health benefits either. There was a HUGE lawsuit against M'$oft here a while ago because people who'd been temp employees for decades didn't have benefits, stocks, &c, other things permanent employees got. Also, Medicare here is insane -- for two people without kids, your income has to be around $15,000. That's less than our yearly rent.

[piranha]

i remember how many companies (including universities) get away with not giving health care benefits to "part time" employees. that means they have to make a special "extra help, professional" contract for you, lay you off after 11 months -- and then rehire you a month later. nice "vacation"; no insurance. i used to work like that for the U of I for some years; then they went to bat for me and actually created a real position so i could have benefits.

this is usually ok when one's young, without dependents, and without any health problems yet. it does, however, not encourage people to engage in preventive health maintenance either. and if something serious happens to your health, suddenly you've got mountains of crippling debt (as you know, bob).

it is overall just SO WRONG. the US is one of the richest countries on earth, it can damn well afford to provide health care for every one of its residents.

[deane]

Since everyone in Canada already has basic health care, employer-provided health benefits are less important than they are in the US. The biggest is dental, which is not covered by our "universal" care, followed by prescriptions.

This results in the amusing situation where, although employer-provided benefits are less essential to Canadians than they are to Americans, we have more regulations in place to stop companies from denying them to employees.

[matthewdaly]

And that's the thing that infuriates me about individual mandates and boggles me about "universal" health care in general. Looking over my adult life, both the insured and uninsured bits, over 95% of my (physical) health money has gone to dentists and optometrists. I don't understand the notion why there would be a wall separating the parts of the body that the pool will cover.

[kore]

it does, however, not encourage people to engage in preventive health maintenance either. and if something serious happens to your health, suddenly you've got mountains of crippling debt (as you know, bob).

OMG YES....and actually, if you can't afford the preventive health maintenance, you are _more_ likely to wind up needing catastrophic care -- and then without the discounts provided by hospitals to people with insurance, the sickest people wind up owing the most money, which they can't pay, so their credit gets wrecked on top of it. And then usually they can't afford the preventive health maintenance even _more_ afterwards.

Such a horrible mess.

[flarenut]

The firing/rehiring of "temporary" or "part-time" employees is also unlawful. Not because it's a vicious fraud on the employee, but because it's tax evasion on the employer's part. Still happens all the time...

(That, and people being forced to work off the clock so they won't reach the number of hours that requires benefits.)