(no subject)

[gfish]

Anyone who wants to see what is (as far as I can tell from my POV in Vancouver) a representative view of how Canadians view their healthcare compared to the US can read through the comments on this story.

And the really funny thing is, most Canadians have no idea how bad it can be in the States. They just don't quite get what it means to not have insurance, having grown up in a civilized country and thus never having faced that particular horror. Or, for that matter, the lesser-but-still-quite-nasty horror of being insured but not being sure how much it will cover until the surprise bill shows up a month later. Or knowing that they'll look for any excuse to drop you if you should ever really need the coverage. Or... blah. Pisses me off all over again just to think about it. I'm going to miss my BC MSP coverage.

Comments

[adularia.livejournal.com]

Have you ever had to buy the coverage outright, though? You can be insured as part of a pool much more easily than accepted for coverage as an individual applicant. I know your title was 'consultant' for a while - were you actually on your own?

I've also read some pieces on Kos about ill people getting fired for petty excuses if their company is penalized badly enough by the insurer - which of course is highly illegal, but that doesn't mean it's impossible, so I at least want to check that out - and then if they can't get into a new employer's pool before COBRA goes away, or can't pay for COBRA, they become uninsurable except by the state.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

I know it's essentially impossible to obtain worthwhile insurance except through employment, and that's certainly a problem, but it's a different problem.

I've read those same pieces on Kos. None of the authors struck me as remotely credible. Which doesn't mean it's never happened, but I'm not yet persuaded it's a vast epidemic.