Have to disagree. NOTHING the government runs, goes well. Canada has had a system like that for decades, and now Medical Aid in Dying is Canada’s #5 cause of death. Over 4 out of every 100 people who die are killed by their health care system *on purpose.*
You do realize that’s voluntary right? For when someone is dying of something that cannot be cured and they chose if of their own free will. The doctors aren’t just going around and writing down euthanasia on everyone’s charts and sending them off to the furnace. They are not being ‘killed’, it is a medically assisted suicide to stop that person from experiencing potentially years of painful suffering and will only be considered if the patient undergoes a psychological evaluation to ensure they are not being coerced and are of a sound mind to make such a decision.
That’s … not how it works. The healthcare system has some issues (what service doesn’t) but most of those are caused by the intentional underfunding of the system by conservative governments.
I went insurance-less for a couple of years, and found that most specialists and doctors charged less for uninsured patients. Not sure how hospitals operate, though.
During that time, I had an overnight stay in the hospital for a possible life-threatening issue, and it took me two years and a new job to pay that bill off.
This is absolutely true (though I can’t swear to the exact number). The medical practices know that insurers will always pay less than the nominal fee, so they charge more to make up for it. (A relatively small number of practices will offer a discount to uninsured patients. The total is still absurdly large; labor costs (doctors, nurses, etc.) and overhead costs (hospitals, bedding, food, medicines, medical supplies, ongoing costs for very expensive medical equipment, etc., etc.) are very high, and there’s no real way around it. The insured share the risk, paying lesser (but still large) amounts to cover the treatments they MAY need; the uninsured must pay actual costs plus profit.
I was told a few years ago that these days it was the opposite, that when you were handed a bill and you said “aww man, I don’t have insurance” they would come back with a more modest bill. Maybe it varies from State to State.
I was also told that, with insurance, you’d still be handed that huge bill and when you talk to the money people at the hospital they would be like “that’s right, that’s the total bill before your insurance. Let’s see, you are responsible for x amount of that.”
#MedicareForAll. Geez I’m sorry if this gets a bit repetitive, but there is no other humane or moral solution.
Have to disagree. NOTHING the government runs, goes well. Canada has had a system like that for decades, and now Medical Aid in Dying is Canada’s #5 cause of death. Over 4 out of every 100 people who die are killed by their health care system *on purpose.*
You do realize that’s voluntary right? For when someone is dying of something that cannot be cured and they chose if of their own free will. The doctors aren’t just going around and writing down euthanasia on everyone’s charts and sending them off to the furnace. They are not being ‘killed’, it is a medically assisted suicide to stop that person from experiencing potentially years of painful suffering and will only be considered if the patient undergoes a psychological evaluation to ensure they are not being coerced and are of a sound mind to make such a decision.
forget it, John, their brain has rotted from reading too many National Post op eds and watching Fox News
That’s … not how it works. The healthcare system has some issues (what service doesn’t) but most of those are caused by the intentional underfunding of the system by conservative governments.
I went insurance-less for a couple of years, and found that most specialists and doctors charged less for uninsured patients. Not sure how hospitals operate, though.
During that time, I had an overnight stay in the hospital for a possible life-threatening issue, and it took me two years and a new job to pay that bill off.
This is absolutely true (though I can’t swear to the exact number). The medical practices know that insurers will always pay less than the nominal fee, so they charge more to make up for it. (A relatively small number of practices will offer a discount to uninsured patients. The total is still absurdly large; labor costs (doctors, nurses, etc.) and overhead costs (hospitals, bedding, food, medicines, medical supplies, ongoing costs for very expensive medical equipment, etc., etc.) are very high, and there’s no real way around it. The insured share the risk, paying lesser (but still large) amounts to cover the treatments they MAY need; the uninsured must pay actual costs plus profit.
I was told a few years ago that these days it was the opposite, that when you were handed a bill and you said “aww man, I don’t have insurance” they would come back with a more modest bill. Maybe it varies from State to State.
I was also told that, with insurance, you’d still be handed that huge bill and when you talk to the money people at the hospital they would be like “that’s right, that’s the total bill before your insurance. Let’s see, you are responsible for x amount of that.”