Private healthcare

[CRFSaver]

Re: Private healthcare

While I am still up in the air about government supplied healthcare, I will say the people I know up in Canada absolutely love it. It is not perfect but what is? From talking to other people (nothing scientific), the general medicine is wonderful but you have to wait for a lot of specialists. Is it true that the doctors up there are government employees and not private contracters?

[VJW]

Re: Private healthcare

I don’t know of any federally elected official in this country who has advocated “government supplied healthcare”

No, Canada does not have a ‘Socialized’ healthcare system like Britain, where the physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers are employees of the government.

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[CRFSaver]

Re: Private healthcare

So what happens, do people just go to the doctor and the doctor/hospital/clinic bills medicare/medical agency?

[pennywise]

Re: Private healthcare

Yes, this is what happens. If a person has Medicare or Medicaid they go to the doctor, clinic, or hospital and they (the provider) bills the insurance. With high copays people will not go and have to wait to go to ER which increases costs. Our system is poor. The middle class is stuck with all the bills and they can't get healthcare for themselves. No I will not pay for what others get for free, I will continue to legally move assets as they belong to my daughter not the doctors (who are very greedy). All should have healthcare or return the system to all pay for healthcare. The pyramid schemes only work for a few.

[VJW]

Re: Private healthcare

I’m assuming CRFSaver’s query was in regards to Canada ?

If so, yes, in Canada, you have private-sector physicians and hospitals, but the costs are covered by a single -payer insurance plan, which is run by the federal government. Not unlike what the majority of the American Fortune 100 corporations do by self-insuring, Canada basically self-insures. No billing, no paperwork, no premiums. They eliminated entirely the huge billing departments of their hospitals.

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[CRFSaver]

Re: Private healthcare

So the only concern I have with a program like that, is how are new procedures and medicines approved? Part of the cost increased in healthcare have come from advances in health care (medicine and procedures). And I am asking this because I have no clue how it works. How do you ensure that new procedures and medicines get into the system? I believe even in medicare things enter private sector medicine before they are allowed and paid for in medicare. How do you provide a large enough return to justify the R&D for medical device and pharma companies. No I dont mean big Pharma like Pfizer but the smaller shops that come out with specialized products.

[VJW]

Re: Private healthcare

So the only concern I have with a program like that, is how are new procedures and medicines approved?

By the medical community, the same as it is here.

Part of the cost increased in healthcare have come from advances in health care (medicine and procedures). And I am asking this because I have no clue how it works. How do you ensure that new procedures and medicines get into the system?

Same way they are here. It's private-sector medicine.

I believe even in medicare things enter private sector medicine before they are allowed and paid for in medicare.

Are you referring to experimental procedures ? I assume that would be handled in Canada the same way it is handled by Medicare here. Medicare is a single-payer insurance program as well.

BTW, bone marrow transplant surgery came from Canada, as did many other break-through medical procedures and drugs.

How do you provide a large enough return to justify the R&D for medical device and pharma companies. No I dont mean big Pharma like Pfizer but the smaller shops that come out with specialized products.

Perhaps I failed to make it clear. Canada’s medical system is pretty much the same as in the U.S., it’s the health insurance system that is different.

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[CRFSaver]

Re: Private healthcare

I thought they had price controls on prescriptions though?

[VJW]

Re: Private healthcare

Indeed they do, as they protect their consumers. The pharmaceutical companies still make healthy profits, but without the price–gouging and exploitive profiteering that we’ve seen here in the U.S.

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