"Free" Health Care

[aka Heidi (Away)]

Hey everyone! I was wondering what you guys thought of free health care. Do you have it where you live? If so, do you like having it? If not, do you wish that you did?

Where I currently live (Canada) health care is universal and free. You can walk into an emergency room and get care for no cost. It is an absolutely wonderful service, because if something does go bad, you don't need to worry about dishing out the cash.

I really don't mind that we have such high taxes. I *think* we are in the top 10 (20?) highest taxes in the world. I don't mind one bit, though, because I feel like my money is going to a good place. I know that some people are disgruntled that their money is going to people that are always in the hospital, but again, it gives me piece of mind for the future. What if one day I had to have surgery, or got cancer? There's no way I could dish out tens of thousands of dollars, and having free health care there would be a Godsend.
In addition, we don't have to pay for medication, scans/tests, doctor's visits, etc. It's a blessing for me, and I wish everyone had the privilege.

The only downfall is that fact that things can take time. Because health care is free here, the system is a lot slower and "clogged up". In my city, floors are often full and it takes quite a long time to get into the doctor or a test. For example, I had to book an MRI a year ago and only got an appointment a month later. So yes, it's a lengthy wait. Specialists (my nearly one-year-old son is deaf, and we still haven't seen a specialist yet) can take up to a year to see. It's not uncommon for people with the money to travel down into the USA and pay for tests and have them done that very day!

However, I believe that overall healthcare is a good thing. Though some people may take advantage of it and it make slow things down a bit, it really is a blessing for me. With two (soon to be three) children, I've done to enough doctor's appointments, maternity wards, and had what feels like a slew of tests. I'd be a lot less wealthy if I had to pay out of pocket for them.

[Rosabeth]

One of my biggest gripes with the US is this bad rap that "socialism" gets, even though most people just yell "socialism" any time they have to help out another person. I'm personally in favor for a health care system like what Canada and a large part of Northern Europe has, but I'm not sure we'll be seeing that soon. I personally love the Affordable Health Care Act despite some of its flaws because I think it's a step in the right direction even if it isn't as all encompassing as I'd like.

I'd be all in favor of paying higher taxes if it means more services. A free, universal healthcare system benefits society as a whole, not just me, and I can see the benefit in such a service. Also, though this isn't particularly related, higher taxes in some Scandinavian countries and even middle eastern countries lead to free university for citizens which is something I would definitely be in favor of.

I understand the problem with the "clog" that you speak of, Heidi, and while that's definitely a downside I think it's worth it in the long run as long as the emergency services still run efficiently.

When I was 16 my dad had to have a colectomy where all but six inches of his large intestine was removed because he had colon cancer. It was a hugely expensive operation, easily topping out at $75,000 or more, and if we did not have the excellent insurance provided by my mom's work we could have had to go into debt just to save my dad's life. There's so many people that don't have such good insurance who can hardly afford such a costly surgery and I wonder if people think about that when they dismiss a universal health care system.

[aka Heidi (Away)]

Speaking of free services (like health care, and university as Rosabeth mentioned) - those countries pay the highest taxes in the world. But what else? The people are also the happiest in the world as a whole. I think that speaks volumes about taxes and priority.

[Aly]

I am a very strong advocate for universal health care. I don't mind paying taxes if it goes to something that matters like that. I don't mind paying for Billy's soccer accident if his parents have to pay for my strep throat, so to speak.

I obviously can't predict this, but I don't think there would be much of a difference if the US would switch to universal health care. I had to wait in the emergency room for four hours to get a scan for my head after I got shot by a paintball gun too close. My brother had to wait two hours to get a pitch fork out of his foot. My mom had to wait several months to see a specialist for her pain management (just a class!), so I don't think we'd be too much affected by it.

Plus, the issue with us NOT having universal health care, is that so often we get people that don't have health insurance going to the emergency room, clogging up the system for things like colds when my mom's friend had to wait to get seen for chest pains that turned out to be a heart attack. If everyone got a chance to see a doctor, I'd hope to see emergency services speed up a little bit.

[Deleted]

I'm all for free health care. I've lived in Canada most of my life and I've always just considered health care a right, not something priviledged people should get. I think in terms of government systems, I lean more towards capitalism than socialism, I believe in earning your own money and having a right to do what you want with it. But with health care it's kind of different. I think to say that you don't want to pay higher taxes because of people that are frequently in the hospital etc. and because maybe you yourself have never been in the hospital or needed health care is kind of narrow minded.

Personally, I've only been to the hospital once and that was when I was born. xD But I can almost garantee that everyone knows someone who has. A little less than a year ago my mom had a stroke, both my grandfather's had cancer, one of my aunts did, etc. After my mom's stroke she had serveral MRI's, CT scans, etc. and to pay for those would have been crippling for our family- and it's not as though we're a low income family. Even something like an ambulance is a few hundred dollars (I think for my mom it was like 600?) and for a low income family that's not an easy hurdle either.

I just think it should be a right to be healthy and be given help if you need it. When I really think about it, it blows my mind that the US- one of the biggest first world countries with excellent human rights- doesn't have free health care. I realize it's much more complicated than all that, but still. xD