Blaming immigrants for the American healthcare failings is meaningless unless you have proof that they're the root cause of the dysfunction. It reads well on an Internet forum, but, like many things here, it ain't necessarily true.
I've not experienced American Medicare, but I have experienced American health care. My wife dislocated her shoulder and we presented ourselves at the emergency department of a hospital in the Pacific Northwest. She received excellent care. It was the middle of the night and there were zero other patients present. We were fortunate that the head of orthopedic surgery was on duty and he realigned her shoulder quickly and professionally.
Two hours she was discharged, to the tune of $10K. Yup, ten thousand dollars. One line item was for a cloth sling that billed out at $150. Extortionate is the only word I can use to describe the cost of that event.
Driving through America, I'm astounded at the sight of billboards advertising hospitals. Really? Is this an good way to spend healthcare dollars? On advertising?
What is your experience of the Canadian health care system?
I'm sorry your wife hurt herself and I hope your she's doing well. But regarding the cost, someone has to pay for my "free" medical care. Since they don't get enough from patients like me who are on Government Medicare with low payments to the hospitals and doctors, they have to offset their loses by charging others more.
Of course, you have to look at what other things cost in your country. America doesn;t have a VAT tax. So a Nikon here costing $1000 costs $1400 there. Plus everything else costs more in your country because of VATs and higher taxes of all kinds. So in the end you're paying a lot for medicine. It's just that you don't see it as directly as when you get a doctor's bill. You've already paid for it. The fact is, your government is pulling a
bait and switch. They tell you how free medical care is. Then they make up for their losses by adding high taxes for your cameras.
The reason you don't see advertising in other countries is because there's no competition. No one cares about competing with others. It doesn't matter. In Britain it all belongs to the government anyway.
Health care is like any other service or product. The more competition you have, the better it is for the buyer. If you want patients to come to your hospital, you have to do better than others. That forces doctors and hospitals to compete and to try harder. Patients get better service. What do you think would happen if Canon was the only camera manufacturer? Do you think they'd keep improving the equipment and lenses? Lack of competition reduces quality whether it's with cameras or health care.
