Ok Listen up Americans… I’m at Myrtle Beach and met some very nice Canadians..

@wildbill83 These two Canadians didn’t brag at all. They both think it is terrible. And they warned us not to go social with healthcare!

They seemed to understand like at least half of us Americans… the perils of this!

@Gibbon sad 😞

@Unefilletrescurieuse That's all very well but it has to be paid for somehow.

For all its faults including ironically being the financial victim of its own medical success, without the NHSI would be either half-crippled by no treatment, or regain most of my ability to walk but living in penury as I pay off the hospital bills and/or repay the medical-insurance company by inflated premiums.

The same goes for many other people with all sorts of conditions.

Be careful what you wish for; and ask yourself if your opposition to any sort of reasonably comprehensive national health service is for genuine medical and financial reasons, or merely by loyalty to party-political dogma of one sort or another.

@ArishMell This has nothing to do with me. Other than I don’t want government health! Plain and simple. It won’t work!

@Unefilletrescurieuse It can work and usually it does work, and I am personally glad it does and grateful to its staff for their care I could not have obtained privately; though I admit how well any state (not "government") health system works must obviously vary from country to country.

I do know the idea is very unpopular in the USA, apparently because many people seem to think a society that tries to look after its citizens must be Communist! Perhaps they are on very high salaries so can afford to be ill.

I am not saying any national health and welfare system is always perfect, as no humanly-made system ever is, but what constructive alternative do you have?

Bear in mind not everyone is rich enough to pay for their hospital treatment or even basic general-practitioner / dental / optical care, nor to pay hefty insurance premiums; or works for a employer benevolent enough to pay for treatment while still employed by it.

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In the UK we do pay towards dentistry and opticians' appointments, and for prescription medicines until the age of 60; unless exempt by a small range of State benefits; but the fees seem well under what must be the real costs. GP and nurse-practioner appointments, and NHS hospital tests and treatment, are all free to the patient.

Why was this introduced in Britain, back in the late-1940s? Because it became desperately obvious many people just could not afford health care. You can't just leave anyone to suffer and even die merely for being on very low, or no, wages!

In some places mutual-provident organisations a bit like non-commercial insurance companies (so not raided by Stock Market spivs, sorry, "investors") developed, and this eased the burden for many.

The Labour MP, Aneurin Bevan, who was so familiar with such people and their problems as his constituents in the South Welsh coal-mining and steel-making towns, designed the basic NHS framework as a sort of national version of that, paid for by general taxes rather than personal subscriptions. He wanted all treatment free to the user directly but it soon became apparent that this would not be sustainable, hence the partial payments for some services.

You can buy private medical care in the UK if you want, but only if you are rich enough to pay up-front or via insurance policies that are very likely hedged with complicated restrictions, exemptions and conditions (so don't fall ill), and the risk the company will claw back any pay-outs by jacking up the premium.

@ArishMell But many will die before they are seen. Yes, most of the US sees this differently from the UK. And this couple from Canada sees it differently too! They were adamant about it. We won’t always agree and can agree to disagree! We already have Medicaid for our poor. Oh yeah! So…

@Unefilletrescurieuse Just a correction that would be medicaid. And it works unlike UK and Canada. My Vickie got all the care she needed when she needed it.

@Gibbon It says Medicaid! I corrected as soon as I typed it 3 hours ago. However as a nurse I know some poor people that have both. Medicaid and Medicare. Yep they exist. I don’t know the ins and outs of how they do get both. However Medicaid is what is appropriate for this post. 🙂✌️

@Unefilletrescurieuse I never figured out the both parts either. You have to have an income, social security or whatever, to pay for the additional parts of medicare. It's a puzzle.

@Gibbon This patient was incapable of working and had both! They are well cared for!

@Gibbon Sometimes they are cared for better than people struggling and working.

@Unefilletrescurieuse I know this to be fact. She had medicaid and got better care than me when I was working and paying my share of the company health insurance. Now on Medicare paying additional for Advantage care and my hospital experience made me very thankful for it.

@Gibbon My point in mentioning this was to prove a point in my reply to the guy above, and not to take a dig at Vickie. My point was America takes care of the disadvantaged such as the client I was referencing. And ER by law can never turn anyone away!