Comparing U.S. and other medical systems

[Catty1]

sparks' dad had a really bad time when he was in hosp - he was sent home way too soon because so many other people with H1N1 were filling up the beds.

I sure hope her dad is doing ok now. Anywhere there are baby boomers topping up the population - too few staff, too few resources.

[Asiel]

Actually I think we have great healthcare in Canada. There is a shortage of doctors in some areas but everyone is taken by priority. A cancer patient would always come before a knee or hip replacement which is the way it should be IMO. But no one is ever turned away when needing a doctor and we don't ever see a bill, for office visits or hospital care, so how can we not be thankful for a system like that. Sure, it comes out of our taxes and people who don't pay taxes have the same benefits but I think everyone should have healthcare regardless of their status. Our taxes have to be paid anyway so this way we at least know our health won't be neglected. If someone is down on their luck and have no job they shouldn't be denied care either. After 65 the government takes over and covers all drug costs after the first $100 dollars and believe me when you are getting thousands of dollars worth of meds a year that's a bonus.
We get free eye coverage every 2 yrs, Or we can go more often but pay a percentage of the cost. Dental care we pay for unless we have a private plan.
I'm sure lots of things could stand improvement but what in life doesn't?

[catmandu]

I heard a radio show where the European System had one advantage over ours.
In thier case the money followed the patient , in other words the doctors did not get paid until the procedure was done.
A problem here is that a lot of money goes to the Board of Directors , who make 6 figure salaries.
There are 35 million dollars of cuts coming to Hamilton Hopsitals, and I have a feeling that a bloated bureaucracy is responsible.

[phesina]

sparks' dad had a really bad time when he was in hosp - he was sent home way too soon because so many other people with H1N1 were filling up the beds.

I sure hope her dad is doing ok now.

Oh, my God, that's awful. I hope he is doing all right now too.

Anywhere there are baby boomers topping up the population - too few staff, too few resources.

You nailed that one, all right. The source of many problems here and everywhere else.

[sparks19]

I just saw this thread

Well many call it a FREE system but it is anything BUT. in Ontario you are taxed out the ying yang. It was 15% then harper put it down to 14%... is it down to 13% now? plus the ridiculous amount they take from your paycheck. and the taxes are super high but the system keeps facing more and more cutbacks. Doctors are leaving because they are overworked and aren't making the money. In london Ontario you cannot find a family physician. they aren't taking any new patients because as it is they are overloaded. The last I heard there was only one doctor taking patients in London and there is a reason she is the only one. she was my doctor for a while. She refused to give me a pregnancy test and told me it was impossible that I was pregnant because I was on birth control. I was extremely sick and lost that child. She has never ONCE correctly diagnosed me. and I know a few other people who had her as a doctor and they had the same issue. One woman was in her 50's and had severe hip pain and that doctor told her it was all in her head. After a spill down the steps directly related to her hip problem it was determined by another doctor that she needed surgery but she couldn't get it right away

My grandmother has been waiting for a hip replacement for quite a few years now... basically they are just trying to wait her out now.

like Catty said my step father recently had a HORRIBLE experience. After a year long sickness and his second surgery he had to go to a hospital an hour away for this surgery. after his surgery he sat in recovery for almost 8 hours because they didn't have a room for him. When recovery started filling up he literally had to stay in a bed in the HALLWAY because there was not a room for him. after a full day he finally got into a room only to be told the next morning that he had to leave because they needed the bed and he wasn't about to die basically. He was doing well for a while but had a relapse a few weeks ago. He called his doctor right away and got on some heavy duty antibiotics and seems to be doing better but he is still not cleared to go back to work.

a friend of mine was pregnant and was a week overdue. the doctor wanted to induce her told her to go home and wait for their call... after a day no call so she called the hospital. "sorry no room you will have to wait" another day goes by still no room and they checked surrounding hospitals and no room in any of those either. She finally asked what would happen if she did go into labor and they told her she would have to go to a town over a half an hour away and hope they had a bed for her. I am DEAD serious. After two more days a bed opened up and she finally got in luckily she didn't go into labor before that.

I have waited in ER over 12 hours before.

They don't have beds, nurses, doctors and they are just losing more and more because of cut backs.

Now every system has it's issues of course. but I just CANNOT in anyway see this working in the US. The US has single STATES with a higher population than all of Canada and Canada can't keep up with the demand. Now imagine 300+ million people all going in for every sniffle and cough or cut or bruise... and it will happen. People WILL start going for everything. I've seen it everytime I've had to set foot into a walk in clinic. There is just NOT enough supply for the demand that is surely going to follow

I mean the government here can't even reliably budget for snowplows to run... and I'm supposed to trust them to budget for our healthcare.

I don't know what the answer is. this system is seriously broken but so is the canadian system. I honestly feel that because it's "free" we (canadians) are more willing to sacrifice quality of care for quantity. We are willing to forgive less than stellar care because it's "prepaid".

but that is just my personal experiences

[phesina]

Oh ... my .... God...

Thank you very much, sparks. I hope your stepfather will recover and be well enough to work again before long.

[Puckstop31]

sparks' dad had a really bad time when he was in hosp - he was sent home way too soon because so many other people with H1N1 were filling up the beds.

I sure hope her dad is doing ok now. Anywhere there are baby boomers topping up the population - too few staff, too few resources.

H1N1? Really? Can you prove that? If it were not for H1N1, he would have been fine?

I have not seen anywhere near the epidemic the media promised us.

As for staff... Its not much of a issue here. I hear nurses are in high demand though. The health care industry is one of the few that continue to grow.

I wonder why Canada has too few staff and too few resources???

[Louie and me]

I really hesitated to get into this debate but being a Canadian originally from England I have experienced both national health care systems and cannot imagine what my life would have been like without them.
I recently had my annual physical that included blood tests, a mammogram and a bone density scan. My husband (a heart patient and type 2 diabetic) also had his physical with blood tests and is waiting for an appointment for a colonoscopy as a preventative test.
Since age 45 my husband has had quadruple bypass surgery, three angioplastis and replacement of both hips due to avascular necrosis. I have had surgery for melanoma followed by a sentinal lymph node biopsy. Dispite how it may sound, we are both active and in pretty good health.
I have heard of people who have experienced delays in treatment both in the UK and here in Canada but never for any condition requiring urgent care.
A friend from Missouri just had a defibrillator replaced and the cost was over $250,000US. Fortunately he had health insurance paid for my the Canadian company he used to work for. Now that is scary.

[Grace]

After reading all the responses, it seems that no matter where one lives, no matter the health insurance/care available, there are both good and bad situations.

. . . . . I am a diabetic and I have several items that I have to buy on a monthly basis. However, they aren't expensive when compared to how much they cost in the USA . . . . . .

BIngo!! This is my main gripe about medical care/supplies in the US - especially for those of us on Medicare.

Medicare seems to think that a non-insulin dependent diabetic should get by testing only once a day - so they will only pay for one strip/day. Being pro-active, I think it important to know what different foods do to my blood glucose - so I test frequently. I can buy 200 strips from Canada (on-line) for $100. Here in the USA companies charge $100 for 100 strips - twice as much!

This being a pet board, I will include some info about pet meds. I use Revolution once a month - prevents ear mites, heart worm, round worm, etc. Buying on-line from a place in Australia (thank you Ellie), I save $20/month over the cost in this country. That's a savings of $240 each year.

[pomtzu]

I have to agree with Gretchen (Grace) - there is good and bad in every system.

I too am on Medicare and a supplemental private insurance, and those combined cost me a little over $200 per month. With both of those, I have no out of pocket that I have to pay - ever! What Medicare doesn't pay, the supplemental picks up the balance. However I have no prescription coverage since it is quite expensive, and doesn't even cover full cost. For what few meds I take, it's a whole lot cheaper just to pay it on my own, and can get great prices thru Sam's or Canadian pharmacies. Even my brother who takes a pharmacy worth of meds, finds it cheaper thru Sam's or Canada than to carry prescription coverage here.

I cannot fathom having to wait months, or longer, for a non-emergency procedure. The longest I ever waited for a surgical procedure was a couple of weeks, and diagnostic tests such as an MRI or CT Scan, just a few days - blood tests no wait - just walk into the lab and it's done right away. Doctors are plentiful with no real wait for an appointment, and I can go to any doctor of my choice without any referral being necessary.

So even tho I believe that our system in the U.S. has many flaws and in need of fixing, I still prefer what I have over what some other countries have. This country needs to find a way to cover all of it's people that want to be covered. If you don't want insurance, then that's fine, but for those that desperately want and need it but can't afford it, there needs to be some kind of solution.

[sparks19]

Yeah that's kind of my biggest gripe about that system. I guess because the money is being taken from us BEFORE we even get to see it and anytime we buy anything (that includes nessecity items) so everyone says it's "free" when it's not really free it's just being taken from you before you get to see it and it's still not enough because they keep making more and more cutbacks.

But beyond that... because it is seen as "free" people overlook the wait times for non life threatening things. So yeah if you are about to die without the surgery you get it right away but otherwise you need to just suffer and live your life in pain until they finally find an opening for you... or until you get to my grandmothers age and they just try to wait you out rather than waste their time giving her the hip replacement she needs so badly.

When my step dad went in for his second surgery... he couldn't get an actual date and time for the surgery. He had to just sit and wait for them to call if they had a cancellation. Luckily after just over a week he got a call one night telling him he had to be in for 7 am the next morning because they had a cancellation. then he was booted out about 30 hours later when he was SUPPOSED to stay for 5 days. if they hadn't had that cancellation who knows when he would have gotten in because they couldn't or wouldn't give him a date.

but like Grace said... there is definitely pros and cons to each system although the cons seems to be weighing down the pros for both systems. There's gotta be some middle ground.

[cassiesmom]

One thing I would like to see change is the way services are paid for. (I work in a claims office) We received a claim for a service that is not covered under the insurance plan I work for. The patient had the service at a hospital in the PPO network, so the claims came in with the billed charges and the contracted rates. But the patient will not get to know the contracted rates - she will get a bill for the services at the billed charges, which are a LOT higher than the contracted rates. That stinks.

The other thing that is frustrating to no end is the cost of prescription drugs.