Quote:
Originally Posted by Clever_Iggy
My employer covers me fully. I pay a $10 co-pay per visit. Since I'm a new employee and not yet married, my company doesn't fully cover my fiancee. But, because of how good our insurance is, we felt it was worth the expense to have her on the firm's medical plan, on my dime. Once I am employed for a certain period and we are married, the company covers 1/2.
I know the cost is still there; I pay for my fiancee's premiums! IMO (and now I think I'm just butting heads with you, redforever and Cactus) I get better access and better health care down here. You can through stats about infant mortality, life expectancy and all of that at me, and while it's somewhat valid, there are other factors influencing those stats. For me I like this system better. It's not perfect, it leaves lots of people out in the cold, it has it's downfalls, but for me it's great.
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I'd agree that the U.S. does have better access to non-urgent and elective surgeries, non-urgent MRIs, etc. etc. But that's one of the reasons that costs are so high down there.
The unfairness is a big issue for me--as are the disturbing stats about infant mortality, and higher mortality across the board. If you'll permit me an anecdotal moment of my own, here is my biggest anecdotal complaint about American health care is that
for me it actually cost me a lot more than it does to just pay it as a part of my income taxes in Canada. I'm not willing to pay more money for the same quality of care--that just doesn't make sense to me.
The other thing is, if I'm really sick, I know where I want to be. I can afford to wait a few months for an MRI if the payoff is knowing that I can get fantastic care when I really need it.
With that said, Canadian health care is
critically underresourced, and our advantages in outcomes may quickly evaporate if our governments continue to starve the health care system.