Essentially nobody is complaining about the quality of care available here. The problem is that only the rich can really afford it. Most people will avoid going to the doctor if at all possible, just because they can’t absorb the cost even if they’re just told to take an Aspirin and sleep it off. Long-term care for anything serious is just impossible to recover from financially for most people - it literally bankrupts entire families. With how hard it is to move up a prosperity bracket, that’s a devastating blow that is often felt for generations.
I think your view might be slightly skewed because you have free care available, and can go to the US or Mexico for better options if you can afford it. Here, if we can’t afford it, we have nothing, or we assume tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
I guess my point is less about the quality of American care, and more about the quality of Canadian care. I hear so many Americans online hold up the Canadian system as a shining example of what healthcare should be, while I’d do pretty much anything to avoid having to deal with the system up here. It’s really a “grass is always greener on the other side” thing both ways I think.
Think of it as “worth the price”. Canadian healthcare is definitely worth the price, given that the price is zero. American prices are so high that nothing could be worth that, so it’s not even worth the price of an ambulance. Oh, yeah, they charge for the ambulance ride.
Almost everywhere in the world they charge for the ambulance ride. Except, some countries have state funded providers with super low subsidized prices or even free. And the private providers have to compete with that which keeps prices affordable. So using an ambulance is not a bankruptcy inducing event.
Essentially nobody is complaining about the quality of care available here. The problem is that only the rich can really afford it. Most people will avoid going to the doctor if at all possible, just because they can’t absorb the cost even if they’re just told to take an Aspirin and sleep it off. Long-term care for anything serious is just impossible to recover from financially for most people - it literally bankrupts entire families. With how hard it is to move up a prosperity bracket, that’s a devastating blow that is often felt for generations.
I think your view might be slightly skewed because you have free care available, and can go to the US or Mexico for better options if you can afford it. Here, if we can’t afford it, we have nothing, or we assume tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
I guess my point is less about the quality of American care, and more about the quality of Canadian care. I hear so many Americans online hold up the Canadian system as a shining example of what healthcare should be, while I’d do pretty much anything to avoid having to deal with the system up here. It’s really a “grass is always greener on the other side” thing both ways I think.
Think of it as “worth the price”. Canadian healthcare is definitely worth the price, given that the price is zero. American prices are so high that nothing could be worth that, so it’s not even worth the price of an ambulance. Oh, yeah, they charge for the ambulance ride.
Almost everywhere in the world they charge for the ambulance ride. Except, some countries have state funded providers with super low subsidized prices or even free. And the private providers have to compete with that which keeps prices affordable. So using an ambulance is not a bankruptcy inducing event.