Akitu,Now, I'm only chiming in with my personal experience as of late with Canada's healthcare, which by no means am I arguing for.
Ideally, from my perspective - the perfect system is somewhat of a hybrid between the quality of the services in the states and the general access to serious medical claims of a universal healthcare system.
To use recent examples from my life - my wife has had to leave me to go to the closest majour city for medical procedures for almost 2 full months since November (being gone the entirety of November and Jan 19-Feb 8) and had to take my son with her because I have no babysitter or day-care service for him while I was at work. These trips were such an emergency, that I had to take time off work with no notice and actually be flown down from our city here.
The hospital in my city is very large, as it has to serve almost all of northern Manitoba, yet does not have the resources to perform a CT scan or an MRI. As soon as we were flown down to Winnipeg (capital), we were told that it could be up to a week just to get in for the MRI she was requiring. After this first week, we were informed there were more delays and it could be another week - being the husband I was legally required to escort her and my son to be covered by our "awesome universal healthcare" that paid for us to be flown down, but not for a place for us to reside. I had actually been expected to take all of this time off work without compensation or penalty. Keep in mind we were flown down for emergency purposes.
It was a very similar scenario this past month as well - again, all covered by our "awesome universal healthcare". Personally, if it meant not dealing with this BS and actually having her condition figured out (which they still haven't), I would gladly pay a small fortune for medical treatment.
Now, this is a personal example of how universal healthcare isn't exactly the greatest. Doctors and surgeons are only allowed to do so much work in a standard work week before they're not allowed to do anything further, and medical resources can be extremely limited sometimes. Am I glad I don't have to pay a dime for any of this? Yes. Am I upset by the fact they're pissing around and not really taking it seriously? Hell yes. Am I bothered by the fact that my own tax dollars are paying for them to not care? You better believe it. Would I want it changed? Dependent on what the final result would be.
Take this story as you will, regardless of which side of the argument you represent, but just keep in mind free is free and paid is paid. If you want the premium, you gotta pay a little extra. I'm of the opinion every health system needs reform, and that perhaps a bit of a hybridization between the two existing systems of "Free, but good luck finding someone who cares about their job" and "Fixing my heart cost me my arm and leg" wouldn't be a horrible thing.
Praying your wife gets back to 100% very soon!
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