Having grown up in a nation that has socialized healthcare (thank you Tommy Douglas), trying to wrap my head around the US system of healthcare is, to be honest, somewhat difficult. Obviously there are those in Canada that believe that we should have an advanced two tiered system, one in which those that can afford private care have the choice to go outside of the socialized system to get it. Of course, that begs the question – what happens to MSP rates when people that have money start complaining that they shouldn’t have to pay into it. In France, 5% of your yearly income comes right off the top for healthcare – which means that those that make more money pay more into the healthcare system. Hard to believe, isn’t it, that a country exists in which the rich actually pay more to ensure that those with less are covered. Maybe that’s why they have the best healthcare in the world.
Anyway, with regards to US healthcare…
Earlier this spring I traveled to North Carolina to stay with my friend Dale Earnhardt Junior. I flew from Vancouver through Chicago to Charlotte, and once there discovered that my bags had not been forwarded on from O’Hare airport. The problem was, as I mentioned in an entry at the time, that all of my medication was in my luggage. Foolishly, I had not packed my weekly pill dispenser in my carry-on luggage. So, in short, I found myself in North Carolina at 1am with no medication.
For those of you that are on medication, especially those of you that take anti-depressants of any kind or other medications of that ilk, you know that missing a dose can cause some pretty severe side effects, such as the feeling that you have the flu, the shaking of your limbs, and so forth. So, being that my only option was to go to a hospital in an attempt to get my pills covered for the evening, I did.
In the end, after some two and a half hours, I was charged roughly $500 dollars (US) for the visit and a few pills. Luckily, the next morning, Dale’s sister Kelley was able to set me up with her physician and he called in a prescription for me to a local pharmacy. My bags wouldn’t arrive for another two days, so it was a good thing that I was able to get my medication without having to go back to the hospital, wait, and then see a doctor again simply to get a prescription.
Now, the strange thing is, having paid in full at the hospital that night, I now have a collections agency calling me saying that I owe $175 dollars (US) more for that visit, even though I paid in full. Of course, the people that have called me have absolutely no real information about my visit to the hospital, nor any knowledge about me paying at the time. So this is a further $175 dollars on top of the $500 dollars that I originally paid.
In short, to see a doctor for no other reason than getting four pills, it cost me $675 dollars (US).
Here’s the kicker. Were this exact same scenario to happen in reverse, were an American to find themselves in the same situation in Canada, they wouldn’t have had to pay for a thing. Also, having spent plenty of time in waiting rooms in various Canadian hospitals, I can attest to the fact that it wouldn’t have taken any longer. Truth be told, I was the only person in the waiting room at the hospital that night, compared to the usually half-full waiting rooms at places such as St. Paul’s or VGH.
I’m not going to sit here and say that there aren’t things about Canadian healthcare that need improvement, because there are. I also firmly believe that MSP payments need to be increased, even if only by $10 dollars a month.
Better yet, let’s steal France’s system and be done with it entirely.
