General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Canadians starting to demand the privatized USA Health Care system....... [View all]laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)I was referring to the 'stories' here people were talking about - how they all have friends who have some random 'Canadian friend' who waited forever for some surgery or another.
I realize the whole thing was a study based on actual wait times.
I also think that Americans don't realize the vastness of Canada, nor the challenges to the medical delivery system because of that vastness. It's why reports of wait times have to be taken with a grain of salt. Circumstances can be vastly different across the provinces because of concentration of populations.
Canadians of course can buy private insurance - but it won't cover the things that the provincial health plan covers, just the additions (as you said, dental, vision, drugs). The other poster was arguing he'd want to dump the government plan and have the option to buy the private plan for basic services. That doesn't happen, and I was told the reason for that is to avoid a 2-tier system where the people with private insurance (and presumably money) have their own insurance and hospitals (and highest paid doctors) and the 'riff-raff' get the public system. This way, with no option for private insurance for stuff that's already covered, everyone is treated equally according to their condition and not their pocketbook. As you said, that is probably why that poster disagrees with not having the option - he's hoping for preferrential treatment.