(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]

For people with chronic conditions, a full year of no financial assistance for anything that could be vaguely construed as related to one's pre-existing condition is just about like not having insurance.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And often it's an either/or thing - you can afford the insurance or you can afford to pay for your treatment out of pocket, but not both.

(I also think the 'vaguely construed' part is very important. I think a lot of people when thinking about pre-existing conditions think of them as very fixed and specific things, but if you're looking at it from the point of view of a company trying to weasel out of paying for something, quite a lot of pre-existing conditions have a whole host of things that *MIGHT* be related, and how can you prove one way or the other? Heck, who has the energy to get into that kind of argument? A lot of people don't, or don't even realize that they CAN argue things.)

(To be fair, I do not think all insurance companies are evil. But I think the way things are now is ridiculous. It really did relieve quite a lot of stress I didn't even know I was under when I was living in the UK and finally qualified for NHS coverage.)

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Sure, but it's just about like not having insurance followed by having insurance, which has to be less-worse than not having insurance followed by not having insurnace. (Kris's point that you may not be able to get there is a separate, valid issue).

[adularia.livejournal.com]

We can compare notions of relative badness all day, but a person can easily become bankrupt or homeless from medical bills in 12 months.

Edited to add: or, y'know, die from forgoing treatment.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Sure. And that's a tragedy. And I never said otherwise.