Yes, Canada works very well in a narrowly defined "lots of artists, and you can smoke weed" kind of way.
Few people realize that waiting lists for relatively minor surgical procedures are three years long in most cases. Need your appendix out? Better know three years ahead of time. Brute economics will be Canada's downfall. It's a bubble for now...
Yea, Im sure we just make you wait around when your appendix needs to be removed. Cause no, you wouldnt die inside a couple of weeks. Sure, the health care system needs to be worked on. But atleast we have it.
shareAs someone who actually lives in Canada and has had minor surgeries done in Canada, I can say for certain you do not wait three years for a surgery that is essential. In fact, I have never heard of anyone waiting three years for any surgery. The longest wait I've heard of is six months for A.C.L. reconstruction but that sometimes has to do with allowing the ligament to heal and swelling to go down. I've had three minor surgeries and my longest wait time was two weeks.
I'm not too sure where you are getting this three year figure but it is wrong. Plain and simple.
I'm sure that Health care in Canada is just fine. I've never been to Canada. Though I do plan to go to Quebec City someday- dont know when(the pitures of that place looks awesome)
I praise Canada's low crime rate. In the U.S. we place so much emphsis on voilence through pop culture (video games,hip hop-gangsta Rap, voilent TV Shows and movies) I dont see the crime rate coming down in the U.S. anytime soon (regardless of who's in the white house or in control of congress....because crime really isn't political issue....it's a culture and behavior issue.......we can elect all of the whoevers we want to, pass as much legislation as we want to, but none of it is ever going to matter until we change the behaviors and culture of those youngsters who grow up to become career criminals (both American parties (Democrat & Republican) fail to see and understand that..........
some believe changing the gun laws will help, but they've changed gun laws before and it honestly didn't help, Why???? because those who commit crimes aren't about to give up thier guns(for the most Part Republican leader do understand that one and get it right, but the Democrat leaders just dont get it. The Democrats actually believe that by taking guns away from farmers, merchants and sportsmen in the rual area of America is gonna stop all of the crime inner cities- and that is just pure stupidity!)
Another area that both Republicans and Democrats both fail to recognize the real issue is...Inner City poverty. I've been to East St. Louis Illinois several times. And every time I see it I want to throw up. Both Dems and the G.O.P. have always believed that the way to deal with this issue is to keep throwing more and more money into programs designed to combat poverty......and with each new group of elected offiacial, and with each new presidential administration comes new programs and new billion dallar attempts to reform......and yet the poverty never goes away, it never gets better, and then you end up with a entire segment of the population that is totally dependant on the U.S. governemnt for everything(food, healthcare, housing, paycheck/welfare) Why hasn't all the money that has been thrown at poverty ever fixed the problem???? because Poverty isn't(and never was) a fanacial problem, instead ...Poverty is a behavior prblem. Poeple are not going to come out of poverty until they change thier behavior.
Example: A young man sleeps until 2pm in the after noon, then after he gets out of bed he lays around the house for 2 or 3 hours, then sometime around 5:30pm he leaves the house and goes to a conveinant store and buys a pack of generic cigerettes and a quart of beer. Then he goes home and plays rap music as he spends the entire evening sitting on his front porch drink his beer and smoking cigarettes. Then he goes inside sometime around 9:30 or 10pm and sits up til 4am(in the morning) watching TV and starts the entire routine over again the next day........see that persons life is never gonna change until they want it to change...its a behavior problem, not a fanancial problem!
But I do know that Canada has indeed had thier problems with financing thier heathcare system. I can remember in 1994(or maybe it was 1995) the Canadian Government actually had to shut down for a couple of days each week for a period of time because the cost of Canada's free health care had caused such a great financial burden on the government that they had to shut the government down.
Canadian Government actually had to shut down
Really I think that may be a myth, if it happened it was likely intended to draw attention to something else. There'd be no need to do it cuz it's a part time job at best, they seem to be on holidays as often as they are sitting.
"...In 1994(or maybe it was 1995) the Canadian Government actually had to shut down for a couple of days each week for a period of time because the cost of Canada's free health care had caused such a great financial burden on the government that they had to shut the government down."
That did not happen.
"You got me chasin' rabbits / walking on my hands / and howlin' at the moon."
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I agree. My ACL surgery wait wasn't too long. Besides, you're better off being in physio to strengthen both legs before surgery.
shareGosh, I went back and re-read my post , and golly.
I guess I'm gonna get bashed and scorned by folks on both sides of the political aisle.
I guess liberals and conservitives alike are both gonna hate me now.. but I had to tell the truth, and the truth isn't always popular. A lot of time poeple want to hear that thier party is right about issues, when in reality there are several issues where both parties are wrong. No one wants to hear that.
So If I ofended you, please dont be offended. I am just merely stating the facts, and the facts are that niether American Parties (Democrat and Republican) have all the answers(and in several cases they are both wrong)...and in many cases, niether party can fix any problems becasue both parties are addressing the wrong root cause of the problems ---henceforth the real reason these problems never go away.
But I'm sure to get tons of hate mail now from both Rebulican and Demcrats both now.(please go easy)
To be quite honest I think every country should have access to free medical care. It's an important service that saves lives and helps people. ;) I love Canada!
shareI am cotinually shocked by ignorant Americans who think our system is flawed. I guess your absolute paranoia about any taint of socialism blinds you to the fact that we have sucessfuly taken the good parts from the Communists and rejected the rest. For you Yankers, it's out with the baby and the water both.
My appendectomy was performed immediately. My wife had to wait for two months to get an appointment with a specialist to look at the lump on her back. The point is that emergency procedures are performed immediately, while less urgent matters are delayed to let others in who have already waited to get their turn. I don't expect you Americans to understand the concept of waiting in line though, based on my experiences waiting for the bus in New York. As soon as it arrived, the most ignorant of your citizens (the youth) rushed the door and pushed an elderly woman down into the street. In Canada this is unconscionable and would never take place. EVER.
The real problem was hit upon by another poster above. If it is taboo, and yet is seen to work with no appreciable negative effects in Canada, the answer isn't to investigate how it could work in America. Your answer is to exert influence to try and crush the good example before your sheeple can learn from it. Home of the free indeed! Arrogant! Agressive! Adversarial! The triple-a of the planet.
Stay home in your ignorance, we don't want you here. Though I suppose that it's inevitable that you'll be marching North soon enough to steal what we have anyways. Good luck with that.
The Bible: Written by people who didn't know enough to keep their feces out of their food yet.
Speaking of ignorance...
Our healthcare views were not borne by communism. They came from the Great Depression and two World Wars, not to mention cold winters. These things forced us to rely on one another and discouraged individualist attitudes. Canada's social values were forged when during The Depression, hardworking Canadian men and their families were starving and dying from sickness. Canadian communists did play a role (Think Tommy Douglas.) in establishing policy, but our shared experience is the reason you find Canadians across the political spectrum sharing a belief in social causes.
We didn't take a page from Marx.
Don't act as though there aren't ignorant Canadians. I live in the GTA and have been across the nation, I've seen the height of ignorance come from fellow Canucks. Acting as though these things don't happen here 'just because we're Canadian' is just as, if not more, ignorant than the Americans you despise. Americans have a different culture, and definitely, some f'cked up views, but you can't just whitewash an entire nation based on one incident. If you want to find the same experience that you had in New York in Canada... Try hopping on the TTC at Yonge and Bloor during rush hour.
We are a polite people, but don't try to make us out to be the perfect.
And please, separate the American people from their corrupt, perverted government. Keep in mind that for Americans who have never been here, their understanding of Canada comes from their media.
Waiting lists for some procedures are an issue. They don't get up to three years, but it can take up to a year or longer for some people to get hip or knee replacements.
You are right though, individual wait times depend on urgency. There is no way in hell a person would wait long for an appendectomy.
"You got me chasin' rabbits / walking on my hands / and howlin' at the moon."
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I was amused to learn that Canadian legend Tommy Douglas was a communist. It's a well-known fact that Douglas and his New Democratic Party were, and still ARE, rabidly and zealously ANTI-communist.
I was born and raised in Toronto and still live here. I was around when medicare was introduced in 1967 by the pro-business Liberal Party of Canada. It was initiated in Canada, amid great struggle, by Douglas's social democratic party (the NDP) in Saskatchewan in 1962.
Medicare is widely considered to be a kind of 'sacred trust' in Canada; even the most right-wing politicians in this country avoid talking about amending it (it would mean almost certain defeat in an election). But from its inception, medicare has been under constant attack (secretly of course) by massive private insurance companies and anti-medicare lunatics (such as the original poster), who throw stuff up here with no regard to fact.
Medicare has nothing to do with communism and everything to do with common sense. Unfortunately, many Americans have been brainwashed into thinking that a national health-care system equates with some kind of totalitarianism. The U.S. is the only major Western country that does NOT have medicare. And the last time I looked, France, Italy, Spain, the Scandinavian countries, the U.K., etc., etc., were still lustily flying the capitalist colours. Americans should look at the rest of the world before buying into the bullblip. But, alas, it's not going to happen. Most Americans remain blissfully unaware of other countries. Nobody knows that better than the average Canadian.
I had my appendix out in an hour when I showed up at the hospital in CANADA.
Nice try though.