A comparison of US and Canadian healthcare, Using babies! Options

[mipadi]

United States

• Wife with previa placenta, c-section, 9 days hospital - $50k+
• Son 3 weeks immature, 3 weeks in NICU - $140K+

Welcome to American health care. I do have insurance so with that it will be about $20K out of pocket for me. And most importantly my son is now 5 weeks old and thriving.

Canada

I'm a Canadian in Canada, father of two. I created an account specifically after reading the above comment. This isn't a horror story, or even a story of near-disaster, just what happened, but I couldn't help but notice a contrast.

In the last weeks of my wife's first pregnancy, she began experiencing some stomach pain. We went to the hospital, she was checked out with a bevy of tests, discharged, and sent home when she appeared to be doing better. Gas, we all thought. After more pain a few days later, and some discussion with the nurse over the phone, we agreed that this needed to be checked again. My wife was diagnosed with an unusual affliction that can affect pregnant women, and that it was best treated with the baby removed.

They tried to induce labour (to no effect), she was given an epidural, and eventually it was decided that this was best handled with a cesarean. The deed done, all was well. Mom and child #1 stayed in the hospital for a few days, receiving checkups and the assorted 200-point-inspections that newborns seem to need. I brought them home, life was good. A nurse came to our home within a couple of weeks to see if we needed anything. At some point my wife went in to a nursing clinic at the hospital to get help with breastfeeding.

Pregnancy #2 came along a couple of years later. As a consequence of history, there were a couple of extra appointments with the obstetrician, an extra ultrasound (I think)...and about three weeks before the due date, my wife started getting pains again. The ob's general take was "let's not mess around - let's just go with the cesarean...how 'bout this weekend?" Another surgery, another stay of a few days.

I paid for parking. I paid to get some photos of the ultrasound in a cutesy envelope, and I paid something like $10 or $15 so my wife would have a phone in the hospital room. I never saw a bill. I don't know how much all this cost. I'd never think this is all that remarkable except that I keep hearing that it is.

I don't really know what things are like in the U.S. I hear horror stories, of course, but I've learned not to trust what you're told about a foreign health care system. I don't know what it's like in the UK or France since I've never lived there.

As for what goes on in Canada...I don't suppose it comes as a surprise to most of the crowd on this particular board to be told that you are being lied to. Horribly, horribly lied to. As the debate rages on in your country, my wife and I are frequently exposed to the things you're being told about the system in my country. She laughs out loud, and my stomach turns.

This isn't a polemic. I don't know that you can really walk away with more than "I heard from some guy that it's not so bad." You folks should do what's best for you and your country, but you deserve good information and a good debate to make your choice.

[brooklyneast05]

i don't get socialism i don't think. i don't get where the motivation is. if there is no profit, and no reason to succeed, and no competition. i don't see how it would work. it's never worked anywhere. people say that no where has ever established true socialism. well there has to be a reason for that doesn't there? what would make the US able to establish true socialism when no one else can? if capitalism is the devil then why do people want to come to america in the first place.


duno, i don't think i can even picture somewhere where everyone is equal, maybe that's my problem. everyone owns the means of production. we all have a dandy life and go about doing whatever we want with no incentive at all and only taking what we need. i don't get how we would even go about establishing something like this.


anyway does this mean you aren't in favor of what obama is doing nate? since you're in favor of a single payer system and obama has said he isn't in favor of a single payer system.

[NoSex]

i don't get socialism i don't think. i don't get where the motivation is.

even i support a mixed economy.
but, you still seem to be a bit confused. if i were you, i would start here:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/598einstein.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

click around. most of your questions should be answered.

anyway does this mean you aren't in favor of what obama is doing nate? since you're in favor of a single payer system and obama has said he isn't in favor of a single payer system.

a public option, in competition with the private industry, is better than nothing, but it's still rather sad. we need to have a single-payer system, like the rest of the world, it's just that certain fat cat's bank accounts can't handle it. if only everyone knew exactly how much money the private industry has put into lobbying the house and senate... perhaps we could all see much clearer than.