I want to know what nurses think about socialized medicine.

Nurses Activism

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I'm doing a report on Socialized medicine and dont know much about how people feel about it as I live in Idaho.What are any of you Canadian nurses feelings about it? Good or Bad?

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

I have seen many posts and several news articles showing that healthcare in the US isn't always working and many are without benefits and hard pushed for health care. I remember seeing a new clip on CNN on a PCP who understands that his patients are having difficulties with money etc and looking at alternative ways for patients to pay even to the extent of not charging anything for their care or accepting payment on what the patient can afford and even taking food as payment.

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Why not just search one of the multiple threads on this topic?

There is usually two or three a month and not all of them get closed....

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Specializes in Psych, LTC, M/S, Supervisor, MRDD,.

Honestly, I didn't see multiple threads on this. There are multitudes of threads about nurses in USA pushing for "universal healthcare." I haven't seen many from nurses abroad weighing in on their countries healthsystems. Plus, Im sort of new to this site and am very interested in this topic. So, sorry if u all are answering a redundant question.

I feel I have a pretty wide view of healthcare in the USA.....Dr's get rich, administrators get rich, Pharmacutical companies get rich....while the uninsured and underinsured die or do without to afford healthcare and meds. I see it ALL THE TIME!

Unless u have awesome health insurance and don't become too ill to work for that insurance...USA is great! Otherwise, you better have LOTS of money in the bank or qualify for medicaid.

P.S. Mark Perry, I know just as many people bailing out of the USA to go to other countries so they can get the healthcare they need!

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Specializes in Rehab, Med Surg, Home Care.

I would like to know where the "cracks" or weaknesses are that people "fall through" in other systems. Like in the US it is not uncommon unless you have a very good financial/ family support system for something like cancer to have a catastrophic effect in that if the breadwinner/ healthcare insurance holder becomes too ill to work, healthcare can become inaccessable for the entire family. (I am not counting COBRA: it is just not realistic for a family, even if fortunate enough to be receiving the average unemployment income of $1200/ mo to cover rent/ food/ utilities/ transportation, etc, etc. to be allocating $1000 out of that sum for medical insurance alone!) Do other countries do a better job of providing for this sort of event?

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Really? What is your source of this information?

Insurance cos. raise premiums to offset the costs assoc. with tx chronic dzs. This is common knowledge.

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Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.

People do fall through the cracks in the UK but a lot is due to the patient not returning or not turning up for appointments. Generally because it is 'free' (and I use the term freely as we all know in the UK you pay for it in most cases via national insurance) people expect care regardless on the cost. If surgeons provide private care in the UK and work for the NHS then usually NHS is supposed to come first.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.

I'm going to merge this thread with another one that popped up yesterday, one I merged with yet another. So when you return to this thread, please start at the beginning and read it all the way through. Thank you.

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Specializes in Psych, LTC, M/S, Supervisor, MRDD,.

Thank you Janfrn for all the merging of my redundant questions. I'm still trying to figure out how this site works. Sorry.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Thank you Janfrn for all the merging of my redundant questions. I'm still trying to figure out how this site works. Sorry.

No worries. It's not a big deal; we just like to keep all our ducks in a row... Now back to your regularly scheduled discussion!

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Insurance cos. raise premiums to offset the costs assoc. with tx chronic dzs. This is common knowledge.

With respect "common knowledge" is not a fact. Also, you specifically said "preventable chronic disease" and presented it as if it was the only reason insurance premiums get raised -- that is a misleadingly simplistic view of the industry. If any insurance company raised its premiums solely to offset costs of policy pay outs their profits would not have continued to rise historically.

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Specializes in Med Surg, OB/GYN, Surgery, Home Health.

I would like to know how all this "free healthcare" is going to be paid for. Who is going to pay for it? Nothing is free! My husband and I already pay enough taxes for three people. He has his own business and with federal taxes (no state~we live in FL), medicare, business insurance, unemployment insurance, we see about 56% of our money. Now will we have more taxes taken out for "free healthcare"? Will I have to get a second job? Oh boy!

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Specializes in Psych, LTC, M/S, Supervisor, MRDD,.

I don't think you'd see your taxes go up anymore then what u pay for insurance premiums now out-of-pocket to private institutions...that may or may not cover u if u became ill. Atleast, from what I understand, u couldn't be "dropped" from coverage and most insurance companies now have a"cap" on what they will pay. Some of those "caps" are easy to reach if you have to have a major surg. or have mulitple treatments. I think this single payer/ universal plan would benefit small business owners more than anyone else. It's a HUGE expense to buy healthcare for your family + employees if that is what u do now.

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