again, i'm not the one who started the russia v american health care competition here. btw, it's a stupid comparison but y'all wanted to go for it.

go figure.

These discussions are always proof positive that no clear answer exists. If there was a clear answer, there would be no debate. Everywhere has pluses and minuses. Every healthcare system has pluses and minuses. The benefits and negatives of any system are always over stated and exaggerated and round and round it goes.

I don't care about the ratings. The only thing I care is how it really works for me and my family. Enjoy living in a pink cloud castle. May the god be with you. :2 cents:

It's not you or me. It's a fuckin' MAP in the first OP's post.

I think he's referring to the option in Canada to buy extra "premium" insurance coverage, usually through Blue Cross, which gives you certain added privileges such as a private or semi-private room (if available), expedited care whenever possible, things like that. It's not mandatory that you have it, and a lot of Canadians don't. There is no "have to pay" as you said.

no.

the map simply shows a fact. it didn't compare or create a competition between america and russia or cuba or bumfuck.

I did. So what?

so now you are better informed as a result. you are welcome.

colder areas = better countries, people in warmer areas are more lazy and fancy relaxing under the palm instead of working :1orglaugh

thats very funny

gypsum cost no more than 50-100 usd here... and the quality is the same..or better :)

http://i.imgur.com/oTmrlVQ.gif

However we're not without our problems.. i also am fairly convinced there is a lot of corruption/waste within our admin areas

Out of fun, that's a truth. Look Latin America and South Asia. People are not great scientists there. They don't launch space rockets etc, because the life is very easy to them - it's not cold, the food is every where etc :2 cents:

Yea! Never get sick. Drink more Jack Daniel's. :1orglaugh

How much would a facet block infiltration procedure cost in the US? Just curious.

Here, to the patient at least, they're free. I know, I just had them done on my lower back and was charged not a cent. In fact over the past seven months I've seen my new doctor about 5 times, was referred to two specialists both of whom I have now seen, and had one procedure done for the above mentioned injections.

(facet block infiltration is basically in lay terms called "cortisone injections")

I wonder what all that would have cost me in the states? I have yet to recieve a bill for anything here, and the level of care has been quite exemplary.

The big bad evil Canadian health care system at work. lol

To flesh the point out fully, just out of curiousity how much per month do you pay for health care coverage? On this very board I've read posts where americans are paying anywhere from $300 to $1500 per month, depending on family size, pre-existing conditions, etc. Where do you fall in there?

I pay $800 a month for me, my wife, and kid. It has a $3,000 deductible (we have to run up $3,000 a year in medical bills before it pays anything)

fuck man.

here its 150 for a family, no prescriptions

Fuck man. Really :2 cents:

we have no dental or extended medical, which is.. massages and sunglasses etc, but all that is through employment (or way more intelligently, your own extended medical)

not sure if Robbie and Family get dental/prescriptions, which could account for the increase

however i can go to any hospital, and i think he would need to go to ones his insurance supports etc

nobody claimed russian health care was better or worse, its probably just the same as it is in the USA the only difference is its free...

the price is the only issue...quality wise if you have money in the USA you are set...if you do not have money in the USA you are better off living in russia if you get sick...thats my argument nothing more...

Quoted for truth.

just some prices for private clinics here (state clinics are a bit worse but free):

private dentist, office and equipment all german all new a tooth with filling is 20euros this is 25$

blood test, private clinic, multi million $$ hewlett packard thing brand new, if I check everything they possibly test for it goes to 200euros but Its a 2 page list of what they check for...a standard blood test is in the 80 euros region and this is a private clinic...state clinic is free they use just as good a machine only you have to wait for like 10 days...

maxio-facial operation, private clinic, done by the chief of surgery himself, top anesthetist, with a private room with 7 day hospital stay and nurse 24h/day and visits from the chief of surgery himself every day, with all the MRI scans 3D Doppler scans, all on brand new western equipment from siemens, with food and basically what ever I asked for, for a total of 3000 euros. It was super complex complex surgery to something close to the brain....could have opted to do it for free but would spend my stay in a 10 bed room with other patients...

tit job, private clinic, top tier clinic, 3000 euros and they do a perfect job

plastic surgery used to be free before the war and sanctions...you just needed to go to any doctor to send you to get checked by a specialist and you wait for a few weeks and they do you for free...

In Russia dental medicine is free too. Yeah, you have to go to a governmental clinic on early morning (8:00 am) to get your ticket for, say 2:00 pm of the same day. Course this is not that comfortable as in paid clinic, but at least you'll get your teeth cured even if you have to spend a whole day to it :2 cents:

Does Russia's healthcare suck? Probably, but then take a look at the country as a whole, everything about Russia sucks, their people for the most part live in abject poverty, many cant afford to eat and their whole way of life is just retarded.

Healthcare, no matter what country you live in directly relates proportionately to how well the country is doing economically, if you live in a shithole, your going to get less than exemplary healthcare, free or not.

Do you mean trailer parks? Are you for real? :helpme :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

WTF???

It's not dental...but it is prescriptions (after you spend $3,000 each year out of your own pocket).

And I have never been to any doctor or hospital in the country that didn't accept my insurance (I think you might be thinking of an HMO).

Problem is...I shouldn't need insurance to go to the doctor or get a prescription. "Insurance" used to be something you used for a catastrophe (like a bad auto accident, or cancer, or a heart attack)...not something that you had to use everyday because the price of medical care in the U.S. is so jacked up beyond what anyone else in the world is paying. :(

So that's nearly a $10,000 per year expenditure that Canadians don't have to pay. So much for the argument many Americans make about the so-called "high Canadian taxes". I can assure Baddog et al that I pay nowhere near $10k more per year in taxes than US citizens in my same tax bracket. Yet that's usually the first thing out of a lot of Americans' mouths when the subject of Canadian health care comes up -- "Yeah but whut about the TAXES?".

Indeed. What ABOUT the taxes? Fact is it's a fallacious argument. Our lower to middle income tax bracketers pay roughly 20-30% in income tax, so do American tax payers. Our higher earners making six figure+ incomes pay in the 35-45% range, so do high earners in the USA.
We have provincial and federal taxes on goods and services, Americans pay state and federal taxes as well.

The biggest difference I can see is that we don't have to pay any health insurance premiums. Well that and when we go for a simple doctor appointment or an open heart surgery, we recieve no bill afterwards.

As imperfect as it is I wouldn't trade our health care system for a more Americanized one for all the tea in China.

CDSmith...I agree...but our govt. spends more money than every other country combined on a fucking military to kill people and try to run the world. So we can't do that.

And also...as I said, we get double fucked. They intentionally allow hospitals and big pharma to charge 3 and 4 times MORE for the exact same thing here in the U.S. so that the big Insurance companies can make even more money (insurance companies don't actually pay those prices by the way...they "negotiate them down...which means they pay the same prices as the rest of the world does)

Reading it all, it's so good to live in the "3rd world" country, pay 6% (OMFG!) tax, have a free healthcare (even for bums) etc. I know, I'm not free because I can't carry AK47 in my pocket and KGB will kill me if I say that Putin is a piece of shit. Yeah, the oversea people have to pay a heavy price for their freedom because they can say that Obama is **** and stay alive. I envy them very much.

* crying smile *

It would require an entire overhaul of how health care is delivered in the US, changing it from an insurance system to a true health care system. Instead of paying for health insurance all 100 million tax paying Americans (or however many there are) would simply pay a % point or two more than they are paying now. That would in a lot of cases end up costing you LESS than your present yearly health care usage costs you.

But of course that would upset the giant "for profit" apple cart you've built yourselves. It would also be a blow to the ego of the notion that capitalism is always superior to the evil *gasp* socialism, a term most Americans I know revile. (Baddog I have you in mind here buddy)

It's not that you "can't do that" per se, it's more that America simply WON'T do that. As in it will never happen. I know and accept this. But this conversation will be had numerous times ad nauseum in the future, because some Americans will never stop with the "what about the taxes?" argument whenever someone has the tumerity to suggest that Canada has a better sytem than the good ol US of A.

One fitty :thumbsup

Just a couple of decades ago we sort of had that. No it wasn't "free" or paid for with taxes.

In the 1980's you could go to the doctor. It might cost you $50. And of course for the 200 years before that in the U.S. it was very affordable to get medical care out of pocket.

In 1986 my stepson had to have his appendix removed. We paid it in cash. It was less than $4,000 for the whole thing including a 2 day hospital stay.

Then in the 1990's the govt. started getting heavily involved and I started hearing more and more about HMO's and how they would lower medical costs.

20 years later...and we have what you pointed out. A big insurance scam. :(

In 2010, Claudia Marie had her appendix removed. She stayed one night in the hospital. It was damn near $20,000
And of course that included stupid stuff like the $150 paper cup they gave her to drink water from to take a $70 aspirin. :(

imagine that in some countries you can bitch about your president and still get decent free health care...or cheap decent private healthcare ;-)
anyway, quoted prices for healthcare in USA are very funny for me

:eyecrazy :eyecrazy :eyecrazy :eyecrazy

What a crazy world :Oh crap

In one of Michael moore's films they interview'd people that had healthcare insurance's and after her husband (that was black) got cancer he did not receive the help he actual had paid for over a 20 year period in monthly fees. The medicine that could help him was experimental but had 90% results in everyone else that had used them, so even that you pay your health insurance it is not 100% that you get help. Another scenario is where a woman crashed where another car ran into hers she was knocked out when the ambulance picked her up, the insurance company refused to pay for the ambulance cause the woman had to call a certain ambulance service. So how the hell are you going to call someone when your lights are out, to me the american healthcare is totally fucked up its all about making as much money they can on people's health.

In the Michael Moore film people that had worked for many of the biggest insurance companies came out and told on camera how it worked, lets say you need to use the insurance there is a guy that sit and dig in your personal life trying to find a loophole so the insurance company don't have to pay for your illness.

American healtcare is FUBAR

no interest in getting into any kind of arguement but i just want to say insurance industry just doesn't work with health care. Its their job to deny you, its their job to make sure they make the most money possible from you. of course doctors and health care workers need to earn a good wage but a for profit health care system goes against the very essence of what health care should be.

Wrong Canada does not have an amazing health care, it is "okay" and I'm in Quebec right now it definitely sucks here for Health Care if you are not a resident of this province. :2 cents:

expected these.




:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

typical.

i found quebec's health care worse than ontario. longer wait times in the emergency room. they don't have walk in clinics and apparently not enough ambulances as they are always calling ottawa's for help.