I am wondering if there are any nurses out there who either work in a country with socialized medicine or nurses here in the US who are savy in the area of socialized medicine. I have to wonder just exactly how I personally would be effected if Obama got through a plan for socialized medicine. Personally yes I realize I would have the coverage to see my doc, get my scripts, etc. But how would it effect me as a nurse? All of us nurses? How do nurses get paid? Would they all work for the government then? Would that make out pay better, worse or would we see little change?
I got thinking about this after I watched the movie SICKO over the weekend. Not sure if anyone has seen it.....take a couple hours and watch it. Its very interesting. Makes me want to move to France!!! LOL
Anyways after watching it I started wondering what kind of pay the nurses get in this kind of system compared with how we do things now.
I was hoping there would be some people who are more knowledgeable about this stuff then me.
Specializes in Flight Nurse, Pedi CICU, IR, Adult CTICU.
I wanted to clarify my concluding points; I wanted to specify that when it comes to licensing, the gov't is only giving a license to people who have followed the steps required to achieve that license; the gov't certainly isn't making just a few people do all the work so that everyone gets a license.
And regarding regulatory agencies like the FDA and USDA, they are regulatory agencies overseeing an almost entirely free-market system that does not guarantee that everyone get's the same kind of beef or produce; people get what they pay for. Using these agencies as examples suggest that the plan would be to almost entirely privatize healthcare, including delivery AND reimbursement, and just have the gov't oversee it while letting the free market determine prices, and not troubling itself with who might be eating Spam vs. who is eating Kobe Beef.
Specializes in Flight Nurse, Pedi CICU, IR, Adult CTICU.
I would also like to put my in. You dont see people in socialised medicine countries lying in the street dying for the want of medical care contra to popular belief.
Who said that?
BTW, does it matter where they are when they die? On the street or in their house waiting for an appointment?
Some of the finest research around is done in countries with socialised medicine.
The United States ranks #2 in the most recent year available.
What you do see here is people almost dead coming to the ER for treatment just before it is too late but then having to stay days longer than anticipated because the illness is too far gone-People are frightened of how much money they will have to pay to come to the hospital-and this happens all the time not occasionally.
In case this story has been misinterpreted, it does NOT say that health care or health services are being sold through private enterprises. It refers to registration for health care and services, ie getting your insurance cards. This part of the package has been shifted to the private sector in the same way that driver's and auto licensing has been.
I also did not see any references to anyone dying in the streets in any of those links. They talked about emergency room waits. Tell me, do all ERs in the US see every patient, treat them and street them within an hour or two? When you can prove something like that your argument might be a little more credible.
I live in Canada, and have for all but three years of my life. While our health care system isn't perfect, it doesn't discriminate on the basis of ability to pay. Everyone has the same rights and responsibilities regarding health care from coast to coast.
I have been a nurse for nearly 15 years. My hourly rate of pay is $40.43, with an evening premium of $2.50, a night premium of $4.25 and a weekend premium of $2.75 per hour. (So if I work Saturday night I will be paid $47.43 an hour.) I get 4 personal days, 11 statutory holidays, 20 vacation days, 3 professional development days per year and I earn sick time at the rate of 1.25 days per month. If I have to work on a statutory holiday I'm paid time and a half. Overtime is double time. My extended health benefits, dental and vision care, disability and life insurance, pension and RRSP contributions are paid 75% by the employer. Incidentally, I DO NOT work for the government. I work for the health region in which my hospital is located. The government provides the money and the legal oversight, the region provides the health care. Physicians are paid according to a fee-for-service model (which is not adequate and is subject to reform) and are not told by the government what they can do for their patients or what they can't. Hospitalists are paid a salary by the health region and believe me, they are not hurting. Access to services can be delayed due to a number of factors that are not important to this discussion, but are also not limited to the Canadain system.
There are so many misconceptions and outright lies about what socialized health care is and isn't, most promulgated by people who don't understand it and don't want to. Thank you OP for wanting to know.
You make about double what I make in the US, and I get no paid vacation days and no bennies or ins. at all.
In case this story has been misinterpreted, it does NOT say that health care or health services are being sold through private enterprises. It refers to registration for health care and services, ie getting your insurance cards. This part of the package has been shifted to the private sector in the same way that driver's and auto licensing has been.
I also did not see any references to anyone dying in the streets in any of those links. They talked about emergency room waits. Tell me, do all ERs in the US see every patient, treat them and street them within an hour or two? When you can prove something like that your argument might be a little more credible.
It says that the gov't could not sustain two of their gov't health and registry offices, and is now using private registry services.
I also didn't see any references to anyone dying in the links about American health care...but they talked about ER waits...and you just made my point. When they tell me that Canadian wait times are better, then they can't introduce American wait times as evidence of an inferior system...such as was done.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Just keep in mind with today's exchange rate, the pay rate of $40.43 is equal to about $33.00 US.
The Canadian loonie is worth about 20% less than the US dollar.
And when I buy goods in Canada, I pay the prices in Canadian dollars. I just returned from a holiday in the US and I paid the same dollar price in US dollars for restaurant meals as I would have in Canada in Canadian dollars... and the exchange rate was actually 32% more, but the meals were not 32% better for it. Books and magazines are selling for the same price on either side of the border, the Bandaids I bought in the CVS pharmacy while I was away are about $0.90 cheaper in Canada in Canadian dollars for the identical packaging, many of the grocery items I buy are priced similarly. That argument also holds no water and it really doesn't contribute anything to the discussion. I make enough money to live comfortably, travel, indulge my hobbies and save for the future and that's what the original focus of this thread was.
Specializes in psyche, dialysis, community health.
I'm a nurse here in the USA. This June, I have the opportunity to do nursing in Ireland. I'm jumping at it. I'm anxious to see firsthand how their nationalized healthcare differs from our healthcare system here in the US.
in. You dont see people in socialised medicine countries lying in the street dying for the want of medical care contra to popular belief. 
Honnête et Sérieux
283 Posts
I wanted to clarify my concluding points; I wanted to specify that when it comes to licensing, the gov't is only giving a license to people who have followed the steps required to achieve that license; the gov't certainly isn't making just a few people do all the work so that everyone gets a license.
And regarding regulatory agencies like the FDA and USDA, they are regulatory agencies overseeing an almost entirely free-market system that does not guarantee that everyone get's the same kind of beef or produce; people get what they pay for. Using these agencies as examples suggest that the plan would be to almost entirely privatize healthcare, including delivery AND reimbursement, and just have the gov't oversee it while letting the free market determine prices, and not troubling itself with who might be eating Spam vs. who is eating Kobe Beef.
Thanks for letting me clarify.