Show Heifer... I do not think you will find many people in Canada , or Denmark,or Britain, or Germany, or Australia, or Switzerland, or a bunch of other countries, that do not like a socialized medical system. What you will hear in Canada is the desire to see some changes in how the system is provided to the public. Personally, I am very thankful we have the system we have in Canada, however, I would be the first to say our system needs some tweeking and efficiencies improved. IMO, if the US system was a book on one end of at book case shelf, and the Canadian medical system is on the other end of the same shelf, the proper mix would be somewhere in the middle.This is not to say that the US system is not a good system. You have one of the very best systems in the world, providing you can afford it. If you want to read about a medical system that seems to work well, Google Switzerland's heath care program and read about it. It makes a lot of sense to me. Germany and Australia have pretty good plans as well. Overall, the Canadian system is good, it just needs a minor tune up.
As I have mentioned on SP before, my family has had several long term health issues, that could have ruined us, even with health insurance, however, the cost was never an issue to us. My mother ended up having a liver transplant after having hepatitis ( from an unknown source).She had several complications following her surgery which resulted in several extensive hospital stays with extensive and specialized treatment. Here liver transplant went perfectly, however, she had several other issues develop while she awaited a liver, which eventually came from an accident victim in California. My sister was head of the Transplant unit where it was performed and she told us that the health bill would have been over $1.2 M if it had not been covered by our system. I am sure this would have been covered by a health plan in the US, if we had lived there, however, I wonder what the premiums would have rose to following this cost. I have lots of relatives in Montana, and a cousin had to have several surgeries on his heart, over a period of years. One surgery involved an extensive hospital stay, and his health insurance covered the total costs. The only problem he had was his health insurance more than tripled following this surgery to about $2500/ month. He tried to continue to keep his coverage, however, it was too much of a financial burden, and he eventually had to let it drop. He died a few years ago after several heart related problems and some hospital care, and when he died, his family sold their farm because of some of the bills they had owing. That would never have happened in Canada, or most of the other countries who have socialized medical assistance.
In regards to your examples, I have never heard of anything like them in Canada. The Canadian Cancer clinics are some of the best in the world.Canadian Cancer research is also some of the best. I have never heard of anyone with any form of cancer being told it was " non treatable" unless it was spread throughout the body to an extent that there was irreversible damage. I personally can think of three people I know who have had testicular cancer, and they have received immediate treatment, and all three are alive and living active lives today. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, several years ago, he was operated on within 48 hours, and this would have been even sooner however it took a day to do all the tests prior to surgery. I have a cousin who farms beside me, who was diagnosed with cancer , and when they opened him up, they removed all or parts of 7 organs and he had cancer throughout his lymph nodes. He took treatment and he has been cancer free for 11 years now. I lost a good friend last December to cancer to bowel cancer. He had surgery 12 hours after being diagnosed, even though they doctors called it stage 4 cancer, which is usually terminal. After his surgery and his treatment, he also went to the Mayo clinic in Rochester, MN, where they told him he had terminal cancer and told him he had approximately 3-4 months. He lived another 8 months.
In regards to dental work, it is not covered by our medical system, and I also know it is not covered in Britain, so I am not sure why the lady you referred to had to wait 4 weeks to see a dentist. Almost all dental work is your own responsibility, however, it is usually covered by health plans provided by your employer. It is the same in Britain. I would suggest that most working people here, have a dental plan that covers them and their family, through a work place dental plan.( One of the disadvantages to being self employed). In my hometown, there are several dentists, however, you have to book early to see a dentist when you want too. It you have an emergency, such as an abscessed tooth or a broken tooth, etc, I have never heard of anyone ever having to wait more than a few hours to get treatment.
Two years ago, I had a guy from New Zealand visit us to look at our cattle. While he was here, I noticed that he was eating Extra strength Tylenol like it was candy. I asked him if he was not feeling well, and he told me that he had been suffering with an abscessed tooth for over two weeks and he was trying to get by until he got to England to have it fixed.He was flying immediately to Britain after being here. I asked him why he had not got it fixed before he left home, and he said it was going to cost about $4000 in New Zealand , and a friend in England had arranged for him to get it tended to for approx $500.
By the time he had finished his visit here, this man was in sheer agony, and I suggested that I should take him to a dentist and get him some help. He agreed to this, so I drove him to the first dentist office I saw, and he went in unannounced and told the dentist his problem. The dentist started out at $1200 for the job, however, after several minutes of serious negotiations, the New Zealand visitor finally got the dentist to agree to do it for $300. He was placed in the dentist chair immediately and the tooth dealt with. This was the first time I ever saw anyone negotiate dental work, and it was a good lesson.
I am not for a moment suggesting the Canadian system is perfect. It is not. I do think there is much more right about it than there is wrong. The financial security of knowing that you have medical help if you or your family needs it, is an extremely good feeling to have. We were one of the first countries in the world to have a socialized health care system, and my home province, Saskatchewan, was the first place in Canada to introduce it. When it was introduced here, we had the same debate that is now happening in the US. It was a real political debate, and there were all kinds of stories presented, as to what was going to happen if this was brought in. The government brought it in anyways, and within a very few short years, it was introduced nationally. You will not find a political party of any stripe, here now, who would not fight to their death for our health system. As I mentioned before, there is always lots of talk about how it needs to be improved, and I think that is a healthy situation. Personally, I would like to see some changes, but when it comes to the basic premise of nationalized health care, I would never want any other system. I think most Americans would find it hard to believe that even the very wealthy here in Canada, are strong supporters of our system. I was not going to rely to this thread, however, when your response made claims about our health care program, that I had never heard of, I decided I should respond.
.....comes with being a pharmicutical foot solider 
