21 July 2009

Why would anyone want this?

Andy pointed this video out to me...It's long-about 20 minutes, but worth it. It was a realistic look into health care in Canada-very similar to what can be expected if obamacare passes-which I pray it does not! I know our system is not perfect, but it is better than this!


2 comments:

Therese said...

oh wow. It looks like a bit of a scary system there.

We have a govt health system here and a private one. I agree with Crowler that it does create a two tear system but I think it is affordable for most people. We have a single income. It is a teachers wage which is pretty good here but we have 9 people to support of that single wage and it isn't a huge burden to us to have health insurance.

When we first had health insurance a lot of people didn't have it and would then pay out for any operations they needed as a private patient (which was quite a bit) but probably worth the risk for healthy people. Th govt changed the rules for private health insurance and if you tried to take it out when you were older and needed treatment, your premiums would be higher. This and getting a Govt rebate on health insurance has made it much more attractive to many people and probably more affordable too.

I have been treated both as a public and private patient and the private system is 10 times better. Since we have the two boys with diabetes it is a necessity for us to have health insurance. If we need to cut back, it will be from somewhere else. I would not consider not having private health insurance at all and relying on the Govt health system.

Until Tom had the pump, we saw his endocrinologist in a public clinic and the waits were horrendous. We also would have our appointment changed with very short notice. Living in the country made it even harder. I remember one time we got to Adelaide to be told that we had been sent a letter and that our appointment had been changed to 3 weeks later. Fortunately for us because we had traveled over 300 km for the appointment they agreed to see Tom.

We also were booked into an eye clinic for Tom and I had no idea. A week after we were suppose to go for our appointment I got a letter saying that Tom couldn't have a checkup again in this clinic because I had failed to show up on the date that he was booked in. I didn't even make an appointment so I don't know how I was suppose to know that he was suppose to be there.

Thank God for the pump. We see all of Tom's and Christopher's doctors privately now.

Anonymous said...

That's horrible!