Posted on May 6, 2017
What features of the Australian universal health-care system should we incorporate into ours?
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Responses: 7
I can't speak to Down Under's version, but I lived in Canada for 2 years, where it's also universal, and I can tell you that it is TERRIBLE. Wait times for anything other than emergencies is atrocious. Something like a year just to get your teeth cleaned. I wound up in the e-Room once, and that trip had me going back every day for a week, and it was a giant pain in the ass. Most Canadians I knew did nothing but talk shit about the whole system. LTC (Join to see)
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LTC (Join to see)
Yes, many Canadians go to the to the United States to pay for the hip replacement surgery or knee replacement surgery because the wait times are too long. My wife is lucky she had exclamation when she had a brain aneurysm in the operate on her brain and she was in the hospital for three weeks. That would have probably cost me a quarter million dollars but she's alive and well now and you'd never know she had open brain surgery. Her scar line follows her hairline and she's doing excellent. I can see where Canada is not helping us out with the EU and NATO commitment to a 2% of GDP and Canada senior population exploding right now too. Canada situations probably a C-. The biggest problem I see the United States is workmen's compensation fraud. Medical fraud and litigation it's way too out of control. Attorneys make money doctors make money insurance companies may make money but it's pretty hard when everything's going up way more than the cost of living. Until we have litigation reform and prescription drug price reform, we're never going to solve this problem. I believe Canada has price controls on their medicines but it's against the law for them to sell to Americans hands the Pharmaceuticals are making tons of money on even medicines that have been around for 50 years they jacked up the prices and they're trying to see who can get away with the most. I saw this concerning an author discussing this on the public broadcasting PBS news last week.
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SN Greg Wright
LTC (Join to see) - Oh, I'm not defending our system at all, it's broke too. I'm just throwing a dose of reality into the ring because everyone thinks that universal health care is The Shit. Funny thing, though, when you remove the money that capitalism brings -- suddenly, there's no incentive to have the best system, the best doctors, the best logistics that get people seen in a timely fashion.
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SMSgt Lawrence McCarter
A lot of work needed to make either private or Government controlled systems work. In both cases the excessive expense breaks the systems. In Government systems often though with excessive wait time people may die before the treatment, guess that saves money for them.
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ITS UNIVERSAL , they all get it regardless of gender, color or preexisting conditions, just like in most European Countries. I grew up in Poland and even back then we had universal health care so why cant US do the same ? Oh wait, its all about stuffing their pockets with money !! Talking about the CEOs of all Health Insurance Companies and whomever is connected to them.
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I really don't know. But I do think it's an indicator we've elected a man who really doesn't have a discernable core set of principles, except perhaps self interest. I doubt there's ever been a GOP politician who's ever looked so wistfully towards a nationalized public health care system. In fact, prior to the ACA, such a thing was exactly what the GOP wanted to avoid.
Interestingly, though, the Cato Institute; a Libertarian and free market think tank fond of deregulation, and the 2nd Amendment; produces an annual Human Freedom Index. The US, again, isn't in the top 10. The countries which are have a few things in common, to include national health care:
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/human-freedom-index-files/human-freedom-index-2016.pdf
Interestingly, though, the Cato Institute; a Libertarian and free market think tank fond of deregulation, and the 2nd Amendment; produces an annual Human Freedom Index. The US, again, isn't in the top 10. The countries which are have a few things in common, to include national health care:
https://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/human-freedom-index-files/human-freedom-index-2016.pdf
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