Sen. Bernie Sanders is pushing the single-payer health care initiative hard. The issue has fallen onto the backburner in the news cycle, but the hard left of the Democratic Party wants this—even some wanting to use it as a litmus test regarding candidate support. The more establishment wing is skeptical. In fact, some of President Obama’s former economic adviser feels that this whole push is going to be a total disaster for Democrats. And for good reason: when you tell voters that their current health insurance plans will be cannibalized by Bernie-care—support for Medicare-for-all drops like a rock. The price tag is another issue.
🆘Please explain @DrEricHoskins @SophieKiwala this 4.5 yr wait for #Healthcare in ON😱 @picardonhealth @NeurologyToday pic.twitter.com/06WDGKQk1a
— Joy Hataley (@JoyHataley) November 1, 2017
We all know this program is insanely expensive. The Washington Post editorial board noted the high cost; they also noted it would be a train wreck for the working poor. Even Sanders knows this aspect about the cost, which is why he deployed evasive maneuvers when asked about it by NBC News’ Chuck Todd. Even the Canadian doctor who came to D.C. to endorse his single-payer push admitted on the senator’s podcast that socialized medicine creates long wait times. Well, for another Canadian doctor, she is experiencing that aspect firsthand; she had to tell a patient of hers that the wait time to see a neurologist would take over four years. Alas, the wonders of socialism are on display (via CTV News):
Our future awaits us. McConnell is dragging his feet on everything in hopes we’ll lose the house and senate in the up coming election. He keeps his job but we get the shaft from the left. That pig of a man needs to go now.
We just got off a ruise ship (15 day), beginning in Quebec City. There were plenty of Canadians onboard bragging about how wonderful their health system was. I kept a few Canadian healh care horror stories in my back pocket. The ones on land did not get any tips from me as I pointed to the high tax on the receipt and I said “you’re welcome.” I’ll take my American health care any day over any Canadian socialist health care system.
This is only one example, I’m sure the waiting time for s heart attack is no more than 6 months.
This is one way to get rid of the elderly.
By the way government run healthcare is not free.
It’s called VAT
They have tax the hell out of you
It is already here. Everything requires a referral. Insurance denies things, providers have to fight with insurance and patients when insurance denies legit claims. Try getting insurance authorization to take the 20 or so PT sessions your plan provides. The reason it takes years to see a provider is they spend most of their time on the phone with insurance and admin issues leaving little time to actually treat.
Funny, the lefties I know who spout the glories of Obamacare and single payer do not suffer from chronic diseases that require constant monitoring and review. A common cold here and there or a refill for cholesterol meds and they are fine and dandy. They have no idea of the other reality.
I can’t count how many times I’ve heard or read something like this: “Why can’t we be more like Canada and Europe? They’re so ahead of us!”
What’s with all the negative waves?! It’s free!
This is going on in the US as well. I have a patient with Obamacare, she is 42 and experiencing what I think is angina, heart pain. Her EKG has profound changes. She is scared and wants something done and I agree with her. The problem is that we can not get her insurance company to agree to any testing. Nothing to determine what is causing her to have pain and if she is trying to have a heart attack. This is not isolated. I have a number of patients who can not get a thing done. Yet our politicians think this is something we should keep.
Read the whole story. The doctor who raised the issue acknowedged that it wasn’t an urgent case and the suggestion to go to Toronto or Ottawa (Kingston is right in the middle) is a reasonable one. If the problem had been serious that patient would have gone to the head of the line in Kingston. A number of years ago I had to see a neurologist after my heart surgery and my issue wasn’t serious. I had an appointment in a week and I live in Toronto.
A couple of points. The Canadian health care system isn’t a shining example of what universal health care should be but it’s not a smoking hole in the ground either. This 4.5 year wait was likely generated simply by listings that haven’t been cleaned up in awhile with people actually taking a 90 minute drive to Toronto or Ottawa. The doctors in Ontario are in another fight with the provincial government and I suspect that politics were in some way involved with the release of the letter. The medical system is not free as so many of our southern cousins seem to think. We pay for (big time) it in special provincial line items on annual tax returns, and with every thing and service that has a tax federal or provincial or municiple applied to it everywhere in the country. Finally, contrary to popular belief not everything is covered, dental services, drug prescriptions, physio, chiro, eye doctors and many more are not covered by Medicare (not sure what the actual name is) and must be paid for in cash or have insurance to cover it.
I’m not saying there can’t be inprovments to it there are a helluva lot of things that can be changed or added especially in the realm of private insurance covering certain surgeries or procedures during off hours or blood work, cancer treatments etc the same way.
Lazlo’s Uncle Nestor went to the Doctor who told Nestor that his health was failing and he gave Nestor only six months to live.
Then gave him a bill if 8500 bucks
Nestor told him it would take a year to pay off that much
So the Doctor gave him another six months
MEDICAL TOURISM ever hear of it?
Do foreign hospitals speak English? Yes.
Do they charge less than your home country? Yes.
Can they schedule you in less than 4.5 years? Yes.
Is it cheaper to fly in, get a hotel, see the doctor, and go back home? Yes.
Are you willing to die rather than look around? -Apparently, yes.
…. you get to choose your Dr? …. no
We already have government funded, single-payer healthcare in the U.S. It’s called the VA, and it is truly horrific. Watch the video below!
https://youtu.be/VCU1JQzvoyM
Good
Fast
Cheap
Pick 2.
Good + fast = expensive
Good + cheap = slow
Fast + cheap = inferior
If the demented aren’t diagnosed then the families finances will be depleted on ‘new,low income’ jobs before healthcare and benefits are available.
Let me add – seems ripe for faith healers !
I’m fortunate to live in an area with top notch medical facilities to choose from. There are definite benefits to living in a Republican dominant urban area. I have no need to fly to another country when I have five major hospitals and numerous clinics all in a fifty mile radius. The only real concern I have is if the ACA becomes the norm forever.
8 months wait for an MRI, I was told by a scumbag lawyer from Calgary.
He said that was no problem as he just comes down to the US and has it done.
FKN mooche.
He had a good lookin wife, though, so we kept talking……….until he told me that I didn’t need an “assault rifle”.
He grabbed her and stomped off when I asked him to define “assault rifle”.
FKN commie.
When the US goes full taxpayer-funded medical care, where will rich Canadians go for their medical care?
Your call is very important to us………
Remember when Presidents could tell jokes – (Reagan).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9AdLnjP0M
We in Popular Social Science are proud to present President Reagan’s best communist jokes:
…you know there is a ten year delay in the Soviet Union for the delivery of an automobile. And only one out of seven families in the Soviet Union own automobiles. There is a 10 year wait, and you go through quite a process when you are ready to by, and then you put up the money in advance.
This man laid down the money, and the fellow in charge said to him: Come back in 10 years and get your car.
The man answered: Morning or afternoon?
And the fellow behind the counter said: Ten years from now, what difference does it make?
And he said: Well, the plumber is coming in the morning.
I could see a Neurologist tomorrow if I needed to, but then our system here is so cruel and heartless.
@GeekNerd; Actually having rich Canadians going to the states for elective (or to jump ahead of the queue) surgery benefits both parties. When a Canadian checks in for a new hip or knee he’ll get a walletectomy done and everything that could be billed will be billed ($10 aspirin anyone). That’s not a critisism, in fact that’s what helps your hospitals pay for patients that can’t cover their bill or to keep departments running. By the way, the provincial health plan will reimiburse the patient what the province would have paid for the surgery which is usually a bunch less then the US hospital. In addition everyone that was behind this person who toddled off to the states moved up one in the queue. \it’s a win-win, just a touch embarrassing.
I live in an “under-serviced” area in N. Ontario. It is not that far north, either.
My experience with the health care system here in Canada is abysmal. No family doctor for over two years. Go to a clinic (1 hour drive away).
To get a prescription refill, I need a separate appt. for each medicine. they need to be on different days.
I don’t blame the doctor, as I guess he needs to pay for his office and staff, but….There is no alternative for the patient.