Why wouldn't it work over here?

[Alyosha]

I've heard stories about wait times...never had a problem. Hospitals are hospitals. I've been to them in the US and the UK, they're not much different.

Um, um, I have a hard time with this one having been to hospitals this year in both.

Right now in the US hospitals post their ER wait times and you'll see 14 minutes to an hour in VA. I've sat all day in the UK before.

I have a family doctor. I have to make an appointment just like anyone. Usually the next day, depending on availability. But there are walk in clinics as well.

Do you pay for walk in clinics or are they free?

If I need treatment I get it. The few times my doctor has referred me to a specialist at a hospital, it was the next day. X rays or ultrasound same day in the same building as my doc.

Interesting. You can get an xray and ultrasound same day here.

Dental work and eyecare are separate and not covered. I have private insurance for those.

Right.

Again, you're paying for both national health and for private doctors. I'm really not seeing the benefit to a system like that.

We have our extreme poor covered and if we allowed open competition in health care we'd end up slashing prices like this:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013...-transparency/

[Common Sense]

Um, um, I have a hard time with this one having been to hospitals this year in both.

Right now in the US hospitals post their ER wait times and you'll see 14 minutes to an hour in VA. I've sat all day in the UK before.



Do you pay for walk in clinics or are they free?



Interesting. You can get an xray and ultrasound same day here.



Right.

Again, you're paying for both national health and for private doctors. I'm really not seeing the benefit to a system like that.

We have our extreme poor covered and if we allowed open competition in health care we'd end up slashing prices like this:

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013...-transparency/

Experiences vary...I was in a hospital in London and we waited 30 mins. In Toronto my experiences have ranged from 20 mins in the middle of the day to almost 4 hours at night (they had to call in a plastic surgeon).

Walk in clinics are covered under our provincial healthcare called OHIP in Ontario. You don't pay to see your doctor, a walk in or hospital. Chiropractic, dentist, optometrist etc..you do pay or can be covered by private insurance.

Your extreme poor are already covered. I don't know what you mean by "paying for both national health and for private doctors"...all doctors are private.

[Alyosha]

Experiences vary...I was in a hospital in London and we waited 30 mins. In Toronto my experiences have ranged from 20 mins in the middle of the day to almost 4 hours at night (they had to call in a plastic surgeon).

Walk in clinics are covered under our provincial healthcare called OHIP in Ontario. You don't pay to see your doctor, a walk in or hospital. Chiropractic, dentist, optometrist etc..you do pay or can be covered by private insurance.

Your extreme poor are already covered. I don't know what you mean by "paying for both national health and for private doctors"...all doctors are private.

So again, you pay more than once, both in your national version of the income tax and in the Ontario tax, and you pay again if you want more expedient services, and you pay again for dental and eye...not seeing the benefit again to this system.

Why not just try to get the cost of health services to be cheaper?

[Common]

I drove to disney early this morning, one of my daughers her husband and my two grandkids are down for a week.
We were sitting at one of the pools and next to us was a canadian family 30ish. They were very nice and their grandpa and grandma was there so we were all talking.
I asked them how their health care was and they all said very good no complaints at all. Thats the horses mouth.
Theres many canadian snowbirds in fla and in our vfw we have a room for canadian veterans to meet. Ive never had a canadian say they didnt like their healthcare. This is not intended as an endorsement of the ACA. I dont have the ACA

[Common Sense]

So again, you pay more than once, both in your national version of the income tax and in the Ontario tax, and you pay again if you want more expedient services, and you pay again for dental and eye...not seeing the benefit again to this system.

Why not just try to get the cost of health services to be cheaper?

I pay taxes and then yes I pay for additional coverage (if I want), but I know I pay much less than my American counterpart. The portion that's missing is the profit for insurance co's for my basic coverage.

The fact is we pay less here for the same coverage.

Trying to reduce the cost of healthcare and changing your insurer from private to govt are not mutually exclusive. I'm all for reducing costs. I'm also for every one of my fellow citizens being covered. Just look at what percentage of GDP is spent on healthcare between countries.

One way to save a ton of money is to make healthcare accessible in the preventative and early stage. That means having access to doctors before you get sick. Often the cost is a factor in people not seeing a doctor. That's not true in Canada.

[Common]

The truth is not a single one of us know what to do with healthcare in this country.

Health care is disgustingly expensive here and it was expensive and going up steadily before Obamacare existed.
Drs Visits, All medical tests are exorbitant. The price of prescription drugs in the US is DISGUSTING and fricken criminal

I take one pill for colitis a day. 90 pills of this medication costs 4300.00, for a non life threatening ailment.
Ill bet in canada it costs 2,000 and in china it costs 6 bucks.

We as americans have to demand this constant Wild upward rise in costs stop. This is bad side of unbridled capitalism where some benefit and the rest get hammered

Listen can any of you honestly say to me. You think its ok that millions of americans before obamacare should not have healthcare ? Should parents that work and cant afford insurance have to worry about thier kids if they get sick not getting good treatment.
America is better than this. Im not touting obamacare, im not defending it and I didnt like the way it was shoved down everyones throat.

I do believe every american should have decent healthcare.

[Animal Mother]

In the military we had the equivalent of single payer and it pretty much ate ass unless you were close enough to go to Bethesda. I'm not sure I'd trust these assclowns with running a socialized health care system.

[Common]

In the military we had the equivalent of single payer and it pretty much ate ass unless you were close enough to go to Bethesda. I'm not sure I'd trust these assclowns with running a socialized health care system.

No argument from me there. This country will never get socialized medicine, theres waaay too much money and power in the way to ever get that done. Honestly I have no answer, I admittedly dont know.

I was with my grandkids today and I couldnt imagine them not having the best health care possible and I think every Dad and Granddad feels the same way. The truth is too many americans cant possibly afford health insurance.

[Polecat]

What makes you think the obscene profits would cease? All it would accomplish is add another layer between the patient and doctor. Monopolies do not work. Much of the chatter on these sites is complaining about too much power, and too many rules, and you want to give ALL the power of your healthcare to the government. DUMB!

The government would not operate the facilities. It would set rates. The idea is that we stop lavishing riches on insurance executives, medical equipment tycoons, pharmaceutical moguls. AND hospital administrators.

[Captain Obvious]

In the military we had the equivalent of single payer and it pretty much ate ass unless you were close enough to go to Bethesda. I'm not sure I'd trust these assclowns with running a socialized health care system.

VH Hospitals are typically among the worst from a quality perspective.

There's a reason for that too.