What do you think of your country's healthcare? What would you change if you could? Serious replies only

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John Doe Profile
John Doe answered

Being in healthcare, I don't like it one bit. I think people would be really shocked to learn of the extreme waste in healthcare. Everyone, I'm sure, expects some, but it's truly unreal. In long term care alone, if a patient has an order for a narcotic medication, the pharmacy fills the prescription, sends it under lock to whatever facility....if that prescription is discontinued a day later, ALL of that medication has to be destroyed....buh-bye, money wasted! I think if waste like this was not occurring, much money would be saved. This is just one example.

DDX Project Profile
DDX Project answered

In America it's quite different for everybody. It all depends on where you work. I for one get one of the best, my employer takes care of most of it.

However I feel like healthcare shouldn't be like that. It shouldn't be something a person should be worrying about. When you go to the hospital, you shouldn't be screened for your financial capabilities. Having proper healthcare should be a universal right.

I'm all for voluntary dismissal from a universal healthcare system though. Either by choice or by irresponsibility. Like if your doctor tells you to lose weight, because it's the cause of your illness  but you refuse, you should be taken off from becoming everyone's burden.

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CalTex - Doug Morgan
@Skunky: Just to keep it real. just think what someone would think about the U.S. healthcare system by listening to one report on Fox News or MSNBC.
DDX Project
DDX Project commented
Sarah Palin goes to Canada to get treatment.
CalTex - Doug Morgan
@Skunky: It is dangerous to point to a simple statistic to arrive at an overall conclusion. While U.S. men's cancer survival rates are about 5 percentages points better than Canada (women are much closer), Canada has a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality than does the U.S. But that is not the whole story either. Below are two impartial studies which have been done which compare our multi-payer, heavily privatized system to Canada's single-payer, publicly funded system. 
 But research in the first study found that Americans are more dissatisfied with their medical system that Canadians are with theirs. And you don't see Canadians pouring across the border to get U.S. medical services, but you do see many Americans going into Canada (Sarah Palin being a famous case in point as mentioned by DDX).

(1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633404/
(2) http://www.nber.org/bah/fall07/w13429.html
CalTex - Doug Morgan Profile

My preference for all concerned would be to have a single-payer system like most industrialized nations.  However, what works with one population might not work with ours given our diversity.

Below are two impartial studies which have been done which compare our
multi-payer, heavily privatized system to Canada's single-payer,
publicly funded system.  But research in the first study found that
Americans are more dissatisfied with their medical system that Canadians
are with theirs.  And you don't see Canadians pouring across the border
to get U.S. Medical services, but you do see many Americans going into
Canada (Sarah Palin being a famous case in point).

(1) www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3633404/
(2) www.nber.org/bah/fall07/w13429.html

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