Health Care and our dollar - those silly americans

As an American...and mother of 2 children...plus 2 step children...I actually had this argument/debate with my supervisor (putz) this week. I just signed up for our company's health care because DH switched jobs and suddenly we did not have any. They will pay for ME, but for my entire family to be insured it would be $900...or 3/4 of our house payment! I expressed how disgusting it was and about how a national health care program was a GREAT idea...the young, single, MORON...was adamant that it was a terrible idea to have the government have control of such a thing. I told him it was disgusting that you have to be a paycheck away from living on the streets before you qualify for government help. BUT the people who DO qualify, or are savy to the workings of the government programs live better than most of us on the programs. There NEEDS to be a change. Although I do not care for Michael Moore, I agree very much that there needs to be a change in our country that puts our health above the almighty dollar!

From what I understand - you still 'pay' for it in Canada - in the form of higher taxes...much higher taxes.So, the $900 would still come out of your check - it'd just go to Taxes, rather than your health care insurance. I could be wrong...but this is the way it was explained to me by a good friend from Germany, where they have 'state insurance'.

Brandy- I actually pay a premium for my health care. It works out to $264 every 3 months. I am sure we have higher taxes - not sure HOW much higher. I will find our percentages. The percent goes up as you get into highter tax brackets....so I get confused. What adds to the confusion is that you don't pay that higher tax on ALL your income, just the amount in that tax bracket. I'll look up the percentages :D

As an American who is living in Canada (so not sure if you really want my opinion!), I've lived under both systems. And neither are all good or all bad. JMO but Michael Moore is not the person to listen to in order to get the whole picture on any issue. I was going to try to hear him out but turned it off after about 20 minutes. As much as people would like to believe that government health care is wonderful, they need to live in the system for awhile. It is true... at least in our province, we pay premiums for what the government provides and what we don't pay directly in health care costs we pay indirectly through taxes. That would be fine if it were fair. And universal... they call it universal but it isn't. Not EVERYTHING is covered. We pay for LOTS of things, some of it basic care. But I end up paying for procedure that other people need (some procedures that I don't support) when some of the things I need aren't covered. Some government entity is deciding what is elective or not. For all of us. That just doesn't seem right to me. And the biggest struggle I have with this is that I end up paying for someone else's health care even if they are living a risky or unhealthy lifestyle. I pay for a smoker's lung cancer treatment and a drug addict's rehab and a mountain climber or stunt skiier's fall off a cliff. ANd even if I work my butt off (AND PAY FOR) preventative type efforts to stay healthier in hopes of not needing as much health care (things like exercise, seeing a dentist/eye doctor even psychologist regularly, all which come out of my own $$$$) I am still paying the same as the person who isn't trying to live healthy. At least in the US, I would be paying premium based on my health not on the collective health of the nation. It is really nice to know that I can go for care and not have someone ask me for money up front here in Canada. I do appreciate the hard work of those trying to run this overwhelming health program and make it the best that it can be. But access is a problem. Wed AM DD cut her face. Went to the doctor's office. CLosed. They don't have enough staff to keep it open all day. Went to an urgent care clinic. Wait would have been 3+ hours because it was full of people who can't find a doctor. Plus they don't have equipment to care for a child with Bug's injury. Finally ended up in an ER, sat on the floor in the hallway for almost an hour before even seeing a triage nurse, much less the doc and then getting treatment. And that was just one incident. It took FIL 5 months AFTER having a stroke to get in for an MRI in order to diagnose WHY he had the stroke in the first place. And I won't even go into the wait time for cancer diagnosis and treatment for my MIL. (that's when I turned it off... when Michael Moore admitted that there are "waiting lists" here but emergencies get seen right away... huge generalization and not always true). And I've heard story after story of this since I've lived here. Is the US system perfect? Nope. Not even close. But I got good care there. And had great access to some great doctors. And I was single, paying my own way on a lower income. I may be an anomoly (sp?) but I don't think so. Guys like Moore only see and speak of one side of things... America is all bad. Not true at all. There is lot that could be done to help those families in the lower middle class afford care without jeopardizing future. There are programs for low income and seniors that the government pays. There needs to be something like a "hard work subsidy" for those willing to work fulltime but can't afford the premiums. Or something to help small companies support a program for their workers. I think that would be helpful and a good start. But government run health care is by no means a solution. You take the decision making out of the hands of the people who really need control of certain decisions. Neither system is great. But neither is all bad either. I believe everyone should be able to access health care and not have it break the bank in a time of need. But there are other issues surrounding this that aren't even addressed. Things like good stewardship of the things you've been given. Are people saving to care for themselves in a hard time? Are they spending as if this "will never happen to me". There is personal responsibility mixed in with all of it. But my heart does go out to those who are working very very hard to support their families and can't afford health care. There definitely needs to be a solution to that. Take it FWIW... just my little view on things.