Someone else beat me to it, but being Canadian who moved to the US, I can kind of see where some people are coming from.
If you're young healthy, have a good job and are a bit short sighted, you're way better off in the US (with little to no insurance or a crappy high deductible plan) in term of take home pay.
Even if you're not healthy, if you have a lot of money, you're also way better off since wait times in affluent cities are way, WAAAAAY, _WAAAAAY_ better.
When I lived up north, getting an apointment with my family doctor was a 3+ month deal, most people didn't even have a family doctor because almost none took new patients, wait times for surgeries were so high my grandma almost died while waiting for hers (and did end up dying because of lack of care in the end). And i think in some places they're talking about no longer covering some services like regular check ups?
I had a bunch of lingering non-critical conditions I never got checked until I moved to the US, because it just wasn't worth the trouble, and was able to get everything squared away in record time since I did.
Something that isn't always brought up too is things like dental, which wasn't covered up there so you needed private insurance anyway, and very few of my employers offered compared to my US employers.
It's completely messed up and only benefit people who don't think far enough or have money up the wazoo, but for those, the socialized system would be worse.
To provide a contrasting experience, in Canada I had a family doctor who would see me with a couple day's notice, and 99% of people in the community had a family doctor. However, it was a relatively affluent suburb, which means a lot of doctors lived there.
Dental coverage is a valid point, I was surprised at how many things weren't covered under my company plan.
Fair point. That is from good old Quebec, and friends from Ontario do tell me it's better over there. My anecdotes do match with numbers and stats I've seen at the time (but it's been a while since I've lived up north).
>Something that isn't always brought up too is things like dental, which wasn't covered up there so you needed private insurance anyway, and very few of my employers offered compared to my US employers.
Most employer provided dental plans have a $1,000 or $2,000 cap.
If you're young healthy, have a good job and are a bit short sighted, you're way better off in the US (with little to no insurance or a crappy high deductible plan) in term of take home pay.
Even if you're not healthy, if you have a lot of money, you're also way better off since wait times in affluent cities are way, WAAAAAY, _WAAAAAY_ better.
When I lived up north, getting an apointment with my family doctor was a 3+ month deal, most people didn't even have a family doctor because almost none took new patients, wait times for surgeries were so high my grandma almost died while waiting for hers (and did end up dying because of lack of care in the end). And i think in some places they're talking about no longer covering some services like regular check ups?
I had a bunch of lingering non-critical conditions I never got checked until I moved to the US, because it just wasn't worth the trouble, and was able to get everything squared away in record time since I did.
Something that isn't always brought up too is things like dental, which wasn't covered up there so you needed private insurance anyway, and very few of my employers offered compared to my US employers.
It's completely messed up and only benefit people who don't think far enough or have money up the wazoo, but for those, the socialized system would be worse.