A question about heath care outside the US?

I recently watched a documentary about the heath care system in America, and was surprised to find out just how horrible it really is. There were cases of hospitals throwing out patients because they couldn鈥檛 afford to pay the bill and cases where the insurance companies would deny treatment because they didn鈥檛 feel it was necessary. In one case, a man had cut the top of his middle and ring finger off and had to choose between paying $60,000 dollars to put the middle finger on or $12,000 for his ring finger. Even the volunteer workers the helped during 9-11 where saying that they couldn鈥檛 get medical help with the breathing problems the developed from working at the disaster site. One of the women has an inhaler that she pays $120 a moth for that would cost the US equivalent of 5 cents in Cuba. It even said that a lot of other countries had longer life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates with government run medical care.

The questions I wanted to ask was, in countries outside the US, do you feel like government run health care works? Do the people in those countries end up paying outrageous taxes in order to have these programs available for every one? If you had to choose between the care you are getting now or switching over to something like the US has would you?

I have a friend who grew up in the US, and moved to Canada. They pay about 60% income tax JUST into the healthcare system. The maximum lawsuit amount you can get, if one of their doctors messes up, is $100,000 - AND, you don't get pain & suffering, or puntative damages.

If your child has a hearing loss, the current wait for hearing aids is 18 months.

If you were watching that Michael Moore film, it's mostly fiction. Trust me, world leaders and the wealthiest people of the world do NOT flock to CUBA when tehy need medical treatment. Countries WITH socialized medicine, have massive waits for treatment. Need open heart surgery in the UK? The wait is about four months - 30% of the people DIE before their turn for surgery comes up.

Yes, the US has higher infant mortality rates than 27 other countries. We're also almost the FATTEST country in the world. That obesity is what's cutting our life expectancies, AND increasing the infant mortality rates.

Also, MOST of those other countries do NOT have babies delivered in hospitals, by obstetricians - they use MIDWIVES and HOMEBIRTHS. The more birth interventions there are, the more chances there are for things to go wrong. AND, the longer you keep a newborn in a hospital full of sick people, the more likely they're going to contract something deadly that kills them.

The US has the best medical care for the most amount of people, and the least wait. Only 15% of Americans are uninsured for health benefits, and the majority of THEM are very healthy, and don't require regular medical treatment.

Right on the money, MB.