American conservative is forced into Canadian single payer health care. Hilarity ensues.

[ProfessorPlum]

http://ayoungmomsmusings.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/how-i-lost-my-fear-of-universal-health.html

I started to feel differently about Universal government mandated and regulated Health care. I realized how many times my family had avoided hospital care because of our lack of coverage. When I mentioned to Canadians that I had been in a car accident as a teen and hadn’t gone into the hospital, they were shocked! Here, you always went to the hospital, just in case. And the back pain I had endured ever since would have been investigated and cared for with whatever X-rays, Physiotherapy or even Surgery that was needed, which would have been at no cost to me. In our particular province, even chiropractic care was provided after a car accident by the provincial care insurance.When I asked for prayers for my little brother who had been burned in an accident, they were all puzzled why the story did not include immediately rushing him to the hospital. When they asked me to clarify and I explained that many people in the States are not insured and they try to put off medical care unless absolutely needed, they literally could not comprehend such a thing.

Gee, you don't say?

[Fumesucker]

1. I liked this comment..

I had a wide array of options and flexibility when it came to my birth, and care providers that were more concerned with my health and the health of my baby than how much money they might make based on my birth, or what might impact their reputation best. When health care is universal, doctors are free to recommend and provide the best care for every patient instead of basing their care on what each patient can afford.

It's really too bad we aren't going to be getting this here in the USA..

[ProfessorPlum]

2. this is also good

Since all of these benefits are available to everyone, I never heard Canadians talking about capping their incomes to remain lower income and not lose their government provided health coverage. Older people in Canada don’t have to clean out their assets to qualify for some Medicare or Social Security programs, I knew older people who went in for procedure after procedure, and we never heard about dwindling resources, kids paying for their parents medical expenses, or being forced to use up life insurance or funeral savings in order to get the health care they needed. I heard of inheritances being left even amongst the middle classes. Something I had only heard about in wealthy families in the USA.

but people are impervious to facts

[xchrom]

3. +1

[mountain grammy]

10. It is really an unbelievable contrast

A friend traveling in Germany, fell and broke her leg very badly. Ambulance to hospital, surgery and one full week in the hospital until well enough to fly home. The care was excellent, her leg healed fine.. total bill to her: $4000. In the good old USA: my husband's 1 hour knee surgery, 4 hours in outpatient surgery, pre and post op: $11,000, doctor's bill and MRI not included. My fellow Americans: grow a brain, the facts are right there in your faces.

[Kablooie]

4. We won't get it right away but the ACA may be the first step towards a bigger change in the future.

[millijac]

5. Wow, I've been following this former fundie's blog

for a few months now. Universal health care isn't the only progressive ideal she has embraced. Her husband was a Pastor in a very strict church in the Quiverful movement before announcing that he was in fact transgendered. In the meantime, she realized she was probably bisexual. They left the movement and conservatism behind, stayed together and are working through these changes and the issues growing up in that movement has caused while raising 4 very small children.

It's quite a story and they are a brave couple.

[longship]

8. A transgendered man and a bisexual woman, a perfect confluence.

I wish them all the love they could share.

[neeksgeek]

6. My Finnish suitemate in college...

was stunned to discover that I had no medical coverage whatsoever. This was the late 90s and I was over 24 (or whatever the age was then to still be on your parents' insurance). I went through four years of undergrad hoping I didn't have any serious health problems. The school infirmary could take care of some basic things like a cold or the flu, but if you had a serious problem, they'd just send you to the hospital, where of course you would generate a big bill.

[jade3000]

7. Coverage = bill collectors

Generate a big bill is right. Basically in the U.S., if you have a little bit of income but not enough and no health insurance, you can get health care ... it'll just be forced on you in a semi-emergency when you can't think straight, and then you'll have bill collectors on hunting you down for the next five to ten years and your credit will be shot.

I'm speaking from experience. One ambulance ride and three nights in the hospital was about $8,000 or so. I was already almost maxed out on my credit card. My job was part time with no benefits. Ugh What a crappy system. After that happened, I made sure any job that I got had health insurance. That was the number one priority. Now I'm doing better, at least for the time being.

[gopiscrap]

9. Hope the conservative has a change of heart

I was born in Germany and when I was 6 weeks old contracted a case of encephalitis and was in intensive care for about 3 weeks and then in the hospital for about 3 more months, the cost? $47.58 in German Marks that would be about $975.00 Today..fast forward to 1993 (at this point I am a US citizen for 25 years and living in the US) and I got cancer for a second time. First time hit me pretty hard financially but was able to barely hold on the insurance company dropped me (no because of ACA can't happen) and so I was uninsured and accumulated $193,000.00 in bills...we lost every thing we had and we are still climbing out of that hole! No country should do that to it's citizens.

[demwing]

11. You know, when the planet heats a bit more

Canada will have agricultural wealth, health care, and peace. The US will have deserts and dust bowls, insurance mandates, and a militarized police force.

Maybe we out to follow animal migrations and move north, eh lefties?

[tex-wyo-dem]

12. You know, it's funny....

A lot of my conservative acquaintances have followed a certain pattern....they are all tough talk about being independent and not needing any government help, or anybody else's help for that matter. But as soon as their luck runs out and they experience a traumatic event in life (serious illness, bankruptcy or other financial hardship, etc), they are the first ones to take advantage of what the government has to offer, and then thy complain that there's not enough and say "see, the government can't do anything right."

[cbrer]

13. Sickness as a commodity

Treatment as a product.

Brought to you by the GOP!

[lovuian]

14. He got an education and better healthcare

what has been done to the American people is FRAUD and Robbery of the highest order

[Jim Lane]

15. The author, an opponent of reproductive rights, also makes a good point about abortion.

She's still uncomfortable with publicly funded abortion. She realizes, though, that many abortions in the U.S. occur because a pregnant woman decides she can't handle the medical expenses associated with carrying to term (including all the health care the child would need for the next 18 years or whatever). In Canada, those expenses (including excellent pre-natal care) would be covered.

Although the Canadian system funds abortions, the abortion rate is significantly lower than that in the U.S.

We could tell the fundies here that their opposition to single-payer is helping to kill millions of babies every year, to throw their own terminology back in their faces.

[Lex]

16. This really is a good read. I had a friend post a link to it on Facebook this morning.