Yeah I have to admit Americans are right

[Grumpy Cat]

I just went to the emergency room. Holy crap so much bureaucracy to get two stitches! It was unreal.

Yeah, I'm glad it's free, but damn next time I cut myself I'm just going to to to the pet store and get the antibiotics and thread to do the damn stitches myself. That's ironically what an American friend of mine does because he doesn't want to pay for it.

[Loki]

The healthcare just sucks there, I guess. Here in England the NHS service is very good in my experience. And TOTALLY FREE. Screw capitalism, free essential healthcare for all is a RIGHT in the civilized world, you shouldn't have to pay for it.

[Sol Invictus]

Lots of room for improvement for healthcare here for sure. AD we'll just have to double up on our smoking in the name of improving the system.

[Grumpy Cat]

The healthcare just sucks there, I guess. Here in England the NHS service is very good in my experience. And TOTALLY FREE. Screw capitalism, free essential healthcare for all is a RIGHT in the civilized world, you shouldn't have to pay for it.

It doesn't suck completely. Not in every province anyways. But the province I live in has made so many changes, thinking for the better, but it's worse.

I swear, health care here is so inefficient, both patient care wise and cost wise. Like, do you really need to send me to three triage nurses? No. Just one, it'll get me in and out faster and you only have to pay one nurse. That's how it used to be.

Maybe this three triage nurses is part of Stephen Harper's economic action plan, to bring down unemployment to make Canada look good... kind of like how the city I live in seems to have this obsesson with roundabouts - there have been five built in the last month. No point to it but to give construction workers work.

Yeah and in Canada health care is totally free. As it should be. And for real emergencies or sickness it's excellent... just small things like needing a couple of stitches or a broken bone is when it sucks.

The big reason for that, though, is that people go to the emergency room for things that can be treated at a clinic, like the flu or something like that. You should only go to the ER if you're broken or bleeding... and people have been told that how many times?

[Grumpy Cat]

Oh yeah another piece of hilarity. My forms say my native language is French, they told me to wait till the radioed in a French-speaking nurse. I'M SPEAKING ENGLISH TO YOU!

Just stitch up my damn hand and call it a day.

Sorry I'm just bitter about wasting 5 hours of my day off.

[Tony]

I fear healthcare is on of that stuff on wich we'll always think differently and a problem that won't be solved ever , both the public and private way sucks.
The public is good because is somewhat free but is do damned inefficient jeez you eventually have to exploit it by find a friendly doctor , learn how to avoid to pay the visits , falsely state about you incomes and stuff like these...
on the other side the private system is too expensive and sometimes in order to save on costs they screw you up (I don't knot wether is correct but I like this verb ) for example they use multiple times the same tools and try to operate you even you really don't need to
I know a lot of stories...

[YggsVinr]

Part of the reason health care is in the situation it is in Canada is because Canada has the tendency to punish the Liberals by voting Conservative every so often. By the time the Liberals fix the mess made of the health care and education systems by the Conservatives, the population decides to "punish" them again. The Conservatives are forever hounding a more American health care system, and as such seem hell-bent on sabatoging what would otherwise be a great health care system. The Liberals aren't exactly angels, but I prefer them to the disaster party that is the Conservative party. For the Americans who think their system is better and criticise the Canadian system...the only reason our system seems to go bonkers every few years is because of the Conservative attempts to americanise it. I would take the Canadian or EU health care systems any day of the week.

[Cato]

The healthcare just sucks there, I guess. Here in England the NHS service is very good in my experience. And TOTALLY FREE. Screw capitalism, free essential healthcare for all is a RIGHT in the civilized world, you shouldn't have to pay for it.

But who foots the bill so others can get free health care? Guess how much in Social Security is taken out of my paycheck so that old farts and deadbeats can get free healthcare? Quite a fair amount, and I'm no rich man.

If Social Security wasn't taken out of my pay every two weeks, well, I'd be able to afford a modest health care plan of my own. Fuck this free nonsense, you have to pay for something if you want it badly enough.

[Oinakos Growion]

Social security/Healthcare is one of the things I "gladly" pay for in the form of taxes. I don't mind being taxed for that because I know that if I ever need it it's going to be there, with no limitations. I know that whatever I need I'll get it (even if they have to buy a new machine to treat me costing much more than all my previous contributions, without a blink). I consider this money going to tax as being better used than paying a private insurance, because that'd be more expensive and I'd never benefit from a so comprehensive cover (in the public system over here you never pay the full amount; your employer and the government chip in for you too - you actually always get more than you pay for, even if others sort of "abuse" the system - oh well!).
Furthermore, that's the kind of system that always works more or less ok since it's very much followed and scrutinised by external institutions, etc. Nobody would dare to steal (much) money from the social security/healthcare system, so that's good too.
Sure, there's many problems with it, but when I go abroad and compare... hell... I stop complaining
It really gives you peace of mind knowing that if you have a problem you just take yourself to whatever medical centre and you'll be done. Period. Nationwide. No questions asked. I really couldn't live in the American system (Ireland is pretty similar and I had some upsetting times there regarding this issue).

Now, being taxed in order to refinance banks and stuff... That sort of thing is the real issue, not the human right to be cured if you are sick or "fixed" if have an accident.

For a nation to work we all have to put things together, establish a community. We all have to chip in for some things and organise ourselves. In my view - and in the view of all my compatriots I'd dare to say - free public healthcare is one of the top priorities. I guess it's more or less the same feeling for most of Europe.

Fuck this free nonsense, you have to pay for something if you want it badly enough.

When one is on his/her bed with a terminal illness that wasn't covered in the insurance because one didn't even know it existed and one doesn't have more money for any more treatments... then one wishes one had paid a little bit more tax even if it ever indirectly paid for some old lady twisting her ankle every now and then...

[Cato]

Social security/Healthcare is one of the things I "gladly" pay for in the form of taxes. I don't mind being taxed for that because I know that if I ever need it it's going to be there, with no limitations. I know that whatever I need I'll have it (even if they have to buy a new machine to treat me costing much more than all my previous contributions, without a blink). I consider this tax as being better employed than paying a private insurance, because that'd be more expensive and would never cover me that comprehensively (in the public system over here you never pay the full amount; your employer and the actual government chip in for you too - you actually always get more than you pay for, even if others sort of "abuse" the system, oh well!).
Furthermore, that's the kind of system that always works more or less ok since it's very much followed and scrutinised by external institutions, etc. Nobody would dare to steal (much) money from the social security/healthcare system, so that's good too.
Sure, there's many problems with it, but when I go abroad and compare... hell... I stop complaining
It really gives you peace of mind knowing that if you have a problem you just take yourself to whatever medical centre and you'll be done. Period. Nationwide. No questions asked. I really couldn't live in the American system (Ireland is pretty similar and I had some upsetting times there regarding this issue).

Now, being taxed in order to refinance banks and stuff... That sort of thing is the real issue, not the human right to be cured if you are sick or "fixed" if have an accident.

For a nation to work we all have to put things together, establish a community. We all have to chip in for some things and organise ourselves. In my view - and in the view of all my compatriots I'd dare to say - free public healthcare is one of the top priorities. I guess it's more or less the same feeling for most of Europe.


When one is on his/her bed with a terminal illness that wasn't covered in the insurance because one didn't even know it existed and one doesn't have more money for any more treatments... then one wishes one had paid a little bit more tax even if it ever indirectly paid for some old lady twisting her ankle every now and then...

You've got no clue as to how social security in the U.S. works, then? What I pray for social security doesn't go to support me should I get an illness, but it goes to support old fossils and deadbeats on the dole in the here and now. If I'm lucky the social security program'll still exist when I'm of retirement age, but I'll be living off of the taxpayers in a generation or two.