Re: Trump's latest lunacy

On 4/15/25 9:01 AM, Phil Hobbs wrote:
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What you said, except that I've been here for 42 years.  I'm super grateful not to be under Canada's socialized medicine anymore.  My wife's favorite cousin in Vanouver had to wait SIX MONTHS for thyroid cancer surgery.  Fortunately she survived, little thanks to the Canadian health system.
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 Yep, similar in the UK and other places :-(
 I worked at a med devices company for a few years and when I was at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN I heard a lot of Canadian accents. Hoose, aboot, and so on :-)
 Chats in the evenings revealed the usual. Wealthier Canadians carried a Mayo Care Card. The wife of one guy put it bluntly: "My hubby here would likely be dead without it". Almost made me choke up. He and I clinked a pint of IPA to that.
 A judge on the Canadian Supreme Court famously wrote "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care".
 

For dental, you can get a very low cost plan from Aetna that doesn't pay for anything, but entitles you to the insurance rate from your dentist--about a 50% discount.  It's $60 per year iirc.
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The reason is that the insurance companies demand a big discount from what the dentist's 'rates' are, so dentists don't dare charge you what they charge the companies. ...

  Yet they do :-(
 I just needed two crowns. They cost $1100 each. Should have been $300 per insurance list but the dentist tacks on a lot of stuff such as lab fees, prep, cor fee, and yada yada yada. They all do so yuo can't really do anything about it.
 Still, like you said it reduces the cost a little. A friend without dental "insurance" paif $1500 per crown.
 

                     ... Fortunately, the free market being what it is, there's an app for that. ;)
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 Surprisingly, even the government health plan for older people here in the US (Medicare) is better than in other countries. I am very involved in that with a relative and I am amazed what they cover.
 Most media constantly razz the US for bad healthcare. IMO that's largely baloney.
 Same for social security. Having lived in several countries I can compare and the US system wins, big time.