2 hours in the emergency room cost me......

[tlens]

Oh and for what it's worth:

The King's Highway 401 (also known as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway) is a highway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world.[4][5] Together with Quebec Autoroute 20, it is the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, along which over half of Canada's population resides. Colloquially, the road is known simply as "The 401", spoken as "four-oh-one".

 

[sandy2330]

Now who's getting defensive. Minnie may be a little too much on how great Canada is but I think she's going on the fact that our economy seems stronger right now. Our strng dollar has insulated Canada from may of the increases the US has seen on things like groceries and to a lesser extent, even gasoline. Our gas prices have risen but not nearly as dramatically as they have in the US. We don't have anything resembling the sub-prime mortgage problem. Hosuing prices and starts are up in many parts of the country. This is the first month we've seen a large slump in new car sales. I think that's where she is coming from.

That was sarcasm.

I would not move to Canada. Too cold for me.

I love where I live. I have a beautiful home and in comparison to her I pay far less in property taxes.

I also work with Canadian citizens and they are in the US because they can get a higher paying job for the same position and pay less in taxes. They both love and hate the Canadian health care system.

 

[jodifla]

Not true. I just don't want to pay for it

In this case, YOU AREN"T PAYING for anything.

OP is. She's just cautioning about how crazily expensive a trip to the ER is.

 

[tlens]

Too cold for me.

I love where I live.
QUOTE]

Me too...on both counts.

 

[Charade]

You're right - my healthcare costs me 8% of my income. But that does include my state pension. And of course it covers me in my entirety, with no excess to pay. It also covers everyone else.

What's the breakdown? How much toward each? Are there caps on that? IOW, does everyone who has a paying job, regardless of their income level ($50,000 or $1,000,000), pay the full 8 percent? What's the pay out of the pension for each person when they collect? Do those who put in more get more out or does everyone get the same?

If there are no caps, that means that the "rich" and/or healthy are paying for the poor and/or sick. I'm not passing judgment on that but that's the way it is. IMO, that's wealth redistribution. It's something that many in the US are against.

 

[sandy2330]

Too cold for me.

I love where I live.
QUOTE]

Me too...on both counts.

DH loves the cold and keeps talking about going to that area (sorry forgot the name) where you can see polar bears. I tell him to have fun and to not get eaten by a polar bear.

 

[minnie56]

Utopia?? Did I say that?
Heck no--no place is perfect.
I was not even born here!

We are talking Health Care here and the consenus keeps coming up that we are over taxed?? Yes--we pay taxes--but we are satisfied with how they spend our taxes and the benefits to us thereby. That's all! How can anyone who does't live here know how efficiently it works??

 

[Kath2003]

What's the breakdown? How much toward each? Are there caps on that? IOW, does everyone who has a paying job, regardless of their income level ($50,000 or $1,000,000), pay the full 8 percent? What's the pay out of the pension for each person when they collect? Do those who put in more get more out or does everyone get the same?

If there are no caps, that means that the "rich" and/or healthy are paying for the poor and/or sick. I'm not passing judgment on that but that's the way it is. IMO, that's wealth redistribution. It's something that many in the US are against.

It's a fixed percentage of what you earn above a certain amount. I'm not sure how it's distributed. The NHS also receives funding through other means, like tax on alcohol and tobacco.

Pension wise: everyone's entitled to a basic amount (about $200/week). The more of this income tax you pay, the more money you get as a pension, so yes, if you pay in more, you get more out.

Yes, it is wealth redistribution to an extent. Very very few people here have a problem with it. They know that if they were ever to need assistance, they'd get it. It's an attitude thing. The US is very much 'This is MY pile of gold, don't touch!'. The UK is more 'OK, it's my gold, but I'll share it if it means that it's better for everyone (including me if I were to ever run out of gold)'.

I know where I'd rather live, that's all.

 

[minnie56]

That was sarcasm.

I would not move to Canada. Too cold for me.

I love where I live. I have a beautiful home and in comparison to her I pay far less in property taxes.

I also work with Canadian citizens and they are in the US because they can get a higher paying job for the same position and pay less in taxes. They both love and hate the Canadian health care system.

Well I have no idea where you might be--but it is not always cold here and we don't live in Igloos either! MANY U.S States are farther North than us FYI!

 

[tlens]

DH loves the cold and keeps talking about going to that area (sorry forgot the name) where you can see polar bears. I tell him to have fun and to not get eaten by a polar bear.

I don't know where that would be. Good luck with that. I'd never travel that far north.

There are polar bears at the Toronto Zoo. That's far enough for me. LOL

 

[tlens]

OMG there is such a thing. Yes it's far north.

http://www.greatcanadiantravel.com/churchill_polarbear_tours.htm

 

[minnie56]

I don't know where that would be. Good luck with that. I'd never travel that far north.

There are polar bears at the Toronto Zoo. That's far enough for me. LOL

Oh yes--Polar Bears. Maybe in Alaska..isn't that the U.S???????

 

[sandy2330]

I don't know where that would be. Good luck with that. I'd never travel that far north.

I should. He talks about it all the time.

There are polar bears at the Toronto Zoo. That's far enough for me. LOL

I take him to Sea World to get his polar bear fix. That happens to put me near WDW.

 

[sandy2330]

OMG there is such a thing. Yes it's far north.

http://www.greatcanadiantravel.com/churchill_polarbear_tours.htm

THATS IT!!!!

 

[spima3]

In this case, YOU AREN"T PAYING for anything.

OP is. She's just cautioning about how crazily expensive a trip to the ER is.

Exactly. Why everyone went off on the OP is beyond me, she clearly stated she was going to put it on her Amex. ??

For those not living in the US, the best way to look at US healthcare is this:
when you have good insurance, you are very happy with it. when you don't, you are not. I think this was a good analogy from the Frontline program: Sick Around the World:

"When it comes to treating veterans, we're Britain or Cuba. For Americans over the age of 65 on Medicare, we're Canada. For working Americans who get insurance on the job, we're Germany.

For the 15 percent of the population who have no health insurance, the United States is Cambodia or Burkina Faso or rural India, with access to a doctor available if you can pay the bill out-of-pocket at the time of treatment or if you're sick enough to be admitted to the emergency ward at the public hospital."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/models.html

I would say a large percentage of those living in the US are not alturistic enough to ever want socialized medicine.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

For the person who said he or she didn't want to be paying for other people's medical care, if you have insurance, aren't you doing this anyway? The insurance company sets its rates so that it covers everyone in the group, and makes a profit as well. So if you are healthy, but other people in your "group" have major surgeries or chronic illnesses, yes, you are paying for their health care through your insurance payments. That's how it works.

The difference between that kind of insurance and a national one is first, you have a much larger group of people, which in theory should help keep rates low. You also remove the profit element, which also should lower rates.

And by making it universal, you help to keep all the people in the country healthy, which I think is a beneficial thing.

Teresa

 

[Charade]

Sorry, but nothing is free. Someone is going to pay for it.

And I don't mean to be rude at all, but you say that you can't even afford $100 a month for medical insurance. So, how will you afford it if there was UHC and your taxes were raised to cover it? It certainly isn't going to pay for itself. Or do you expect the "rich" people to have to pay more taxes to cover everyone?

IIRC, healthcare is free to everyone even if they don't work. Don't work, no taxes but they get healthcare.

And can we please stop with the "it's FREE!!" comments. It's not. If you work, you're taxes are paying toward it. If you don't work, someone else's taxes are covering it. It's not free. Say it with me, "It's not free".

TIA...

 

[spima3]

once again:

I would say a large percentage of those living in the US are not alturistic enough to ever want socialized medicine.

 

[tlens]

It's a fixed percentage of what you earn above a certain amount. I'm not sure how it's distributed. The NHS also receives funding through other means, like tax on alcohol and tobacco.

Pension wise: everyone's entitled to a basic amount (about $200/week). The more of this income tax you pay, the more money you get as a pension, so yes, if you pay in more, you get more out.

Yes, it is wealth redistribution to an extent. Very very few people here have a problem with it. They know that if they were ever to need assistance, they'd get it. It's an attitude thing. The US is very much 'This is MY pile of gold, don't touch!'. The UK is more 'OK, it's my gold, but I'll share it if it means that it's better for everyone (including me if I were to ever run out of gold)'.

.

That's the Canadian attitude too. WE don't hear people griping about paying for other people's care. We all know it's equal...that if the care is needed you will get it. It doesn't matter if you'er rich or poor. It doesn't matter if you pay little tax or alot of tax. We're ok with that. Why? For me, it's because society as a whole benefits from having a healthy population. But again, it's a mind-set we were born into. So we're ok with it. You may not be...but the majority of people in Canada are. Telling us that we're paying for others won't change that opinion. We're ok with that. Hard to understand for some but not if that's all you've ever known.

 

[Feralpeg]

Color me confused. I thought the OP started this thread to discuss how high the charges are for simple medical procedures, not about whether or not a person should have insurance. Granted, it is easier to handle those high charges if you have insurance, but that doesn't make them right. I agree totally that medical charges are totally out of control. After one of my surgeries, I had a sore throat from having had a tube down my throat. They brought me a box of throat lozenges. On my itemized bill, they charged me $20 for that box of lozenges. I did question it, but was told that was what they charged. That's crazy. Just because they can, doesn't make it right.

This thread has gone a totally different direction than what I believe the OP intended...as it always does on anything related to health care.