Hello, Canadians of Lemmy! Down in the USA there is a lot of conflicting information regarding the efficacy of y’alls healthcare systems. Without revealing my personal bias, I was hoping for some anecdotes or summaries from those whom actually live there.
ITT:
People born in Canada: Not great / has problems
US expats living in Canada: It’s mother’s milk
In world rankings US typically ranks dead last in a lot of metrics. Guess who ranks right next to them? That’s basically the problem, we’re so obsessed with the fact that we have it better than the US we aren’t willing to look at other countries and what they do better. As long as we don’t have “US style” healthcare that’s good enough for most people here.
and i think this is where the conflicting information comes from. i’m australian, but we have similar conversations about our medical system: it’s not that it’s bad, it’s that there can be improvements and since it’s a government system it becomes political so it seems like there’s a lot of fighting, so clearly there must be big problems!
… but the thing is, it’s sooooo much better than private medical: the visibility of the problems is a feature, not a bug. we’re discussing how to improve the system; not how to make it not shit
there are some downsides (eg if you have a boat load of money in private you can probably get whatever you like whenever you like) but overall public health literally saves lives… economic stress factoring into health decisions is such a weird thing
Doesn’t Australia have both? I’ve always been told it’s a dual system
yeah kinda… you can get private health (but it’s muuuuch cheaper than the US; eg i pay $1200/qtr which is about $800USD/qtr) and over a certain tax level if you don’t have PHI you pay a medicare levy so it becomes more cost effective to have PHI than not
PHI often gives you things like better food in hospitals, private room, cheap/free glasses, better mental health support, massage etc… the stuff that medicare pays for like surgery, doctors visits etc your PHI doesn’t pay for
medicare keeps you alive and healthy, PHI makes things comfier
Now that is interesting.
At some point we need to have a better system in America. The largest issue is it’s tied to your employer. It’s such a weird system and fairly unique.
If you don’t have a job, you have to pay for your own insurance which can be very expensive.