According to published data, the death rate from seeing a doctor is higher than from owning a gun.

Let's outlaw doctors and keep our guns. John

 

So some (not all) American mail men do not deliver mail to your door because they are afraid they might be shot?
Guns for civilians are stupid.

Don't say that too loud across the border, I'd reckon that at least 75% of our town owns guns, and if anyone tries to take mine they'd better have one bigger.

This may shock you AG but a lot of college campuses allow students to have guns down south.

Outlawing guns doesn't do any good, because anyone who would use one against someone is going to end up getting their hands on one anyway. Why make it a shooting gallery against sitting ducks?

 

According to published data, the death rate from seeing a doctor is higher than from owning a gun.

Because of the very high price?
In Canada, medical care has no charge for citizens. Taxes pay for it. So we are glad to see a doctor. Guns scare us to death.

 

Because of the very high price?
In Canada, medical care has no charge for citizens. Taxes pay for it. So we are glad to see a doctor. Guns scare us to death.

But don't you have to wait 6 months to get in to see one?

 

But don't you have to wait 6 months to get in to see one?

I phone my family doctor and get an "emergency" visit the same day, sometimes the next day. A non-emergency visit in 2 days. No charge.
I can go to a clinic or hospital and be treated immediately. No charge.
A specialist can be seen in a week or in 6 months depending on the severity.
Also no charge.

I think Eskimos and Native Indians wait a long time to see a doctor in Canada.

 

Friend of mine hurt her foot, wasn't sure if it was broken or not, just hurt.
Within 24 hours of calling I she got an x-ray, bruised a ligament.
If I felt the need I could go get an MRI tomorrow, for no reason.
Of course, It cost. But thats why we have insurance.
I guess its a trade off.

 

Yeah, there have been a lot of lies about public health care for other countries in the USA. Forums like this are good for reality checks.

 

Because of the very high price?
In Canada, medical care has no charge for citizens. Taxes pay for it. So we are glad to see a doctor. Guns scare us to death.

Nah, as I recall, the study compared Canadian health care to American gun ownership. It was used in a debate against taking away our guns.

Oh, BTW, no charge is not no cost. You pay for it dearly in taxes and lousy service. Our news has been reporting on a deathly ill baby for whom the Canadian hospital refuses to do a tracheostomy. Its excuse, it would cause too much pain. I guess it can't afford even a little local anesthetic, like novocain, if you have a fatal condition.

John

 

Friend of mine hurt her foot, wasn't sure if it was broken or not, just hurt.
Within 24 hours of calling I she got an x-ray, bruised a ligament.
If I felt the need I could go get an MRI tomorrow, for no reason.
Of course, It cost. But thats why we have insurance.
I guess its a trade off.

Maybe AG can tell us how long he had to wait after diagnosis to get his cataracts fixed.

He may also be able to explain why so many Canadians have insurance that pays for services in the USA.

John

 

Yeah, and how many people never get any medical care because they can't afford it, and wind up dying for lack of simple care. A lot of facts wind up distorted in this argument. In the US money is the key subject, always, and if I have mine who cares about anyone else?

 

@Bill Marsden: Your "it" is a little ambiguous. In the US, we have a Federal law that requires medical services be provided to anyone on a health care provider's premises regardless of insurance or ability to pay. It is called EMTALLA (also spelled EMTALA) and known widely as the anti-dumping law, but it goes a lot further than just prohibiting patient dumping.

Sure, some individuals and providers have done dumb, seemingly heartless things. But those acts are no more representative of health care given to poor individuals in the US than are the mass shootings at a Walmart representative of every day Walmart shopping.

A great number of people who claim they couldn't get medical care are simply looking to blame someone else for their own stupidity and to make an easy buck in a lawsuit. The recent case of the man having a heart attack who tried to drive to the hospital by himself is an example. He was at home. He had a wife. Why didn't she drive him? Why didn't he call 911? Sure, the receptionist's response can be second-guessed, but she didn't cause the problem, and we certainly don't know all the facts surrounding why she didn't rush outdoors to help the man.

Regardless of those unknowns, that response was not the result of inability to pay. It could have been Bill Gates in the car and the response would probably have been the same.

Some glitzy hospitals (Mt. Sinai in LA, for example) made the news a decade ago for patient dumping and may still be doing it, but that is hospitals and largely non-physician administrators. It is a representation of what what non-physician management of a NHS will bring.

In contrast to the administrators, you will be hard pressed to find physicians, nurses, and other people directly involved in patient care who would even consider denying care to indigents. Many of those caregivers voluntarily put their own safety at stake everyday in our emergency rooms. Remember, the fight doesn't at the steps of the hospital. I have seen prisoners feign sickness to get taken to an emergency room, because it is easier to have your friends help you bust out of there. They don't care who they shoot in the process.

John

 

Sounds good, except it might as well not exist. Too many people I have known have died from simple lack of medical attention, or waiting for attention of the bureaucratic sort. Yeah, stupidity, it can be terminal. Dying because they are too poor and dumb, serves them right. But hey, we have ours!

I spent the last few years growing up in the country, after being an Air Force brat all my life. I compare what I have seen to what I hear during the so called medical care debate to how Americans visiting medical clinics in England and France.

Right now the emergency room is the last resort, to the point of them being nonfunctional in many cases (for public hospitals). One of the problems is there are flavors, what works in one part of the country doesn't in others. And not all nurses and doctors are saints (though I respect the profession highly), my personal family has experienced a case where a hospital was willing to leave my nephew in law crippled, to the point of calling the next hospital arguing against obvious treatment, because they (my family) couldn't pay at that time. No jobs, no health insurance. A situation a lot of people are in now.

So if it works in your part of the country I am happy for you, many areas it doesn't. Yet the lie's continue, especially about other countries heath programs. They are so far ahead in many ways, yet people do not want to see it.

This is a sore subject with me, and and is the last I will say on the subject on this thread. The lies during the health care debate were both sickening and self-serving. They haven't stopped. The propaganda effort is amazing and depressing both.

Note: I am not referring to you Jpanhalt, when I refer to the lies. One of the biggest lies out there is we have the best medical system going, this is only true when you add the proviso, if you can afford it.

 

Well, we sort of agree on one thing. Our system today is not as good as it could be.

It was much better, excepting advances in technology, and less expensive in1965. The perception of "free" medical care from the government is the big lie. With government plans to control distribution of care come enormous costs, even greater inequities, and poor quality -- also known as "unfortunate lapses" by defenders of government care.

John

 

It appears that in todays society it's impossible to live without money; unfortunately not just in the proverbial sense.

 

It appears that in todays society it's impossible to live without money; unfortunately not just in the proverbial sense.

John

 

There was a great potential for a better system there, especially if technology was mixed properly.
But now its all lost.
Coulda Woulda Shoulda

 

It appears that in todays society it's impossible to live without money(

I have been retired for 11 years. Every day is a Saturday. I have savings in my retirement plan that I occasionally use to buy a new car or a vacation.
My government pays me two pensions. I also get money from my government when I fill in my income tax form each year.

I live in a suburb of the biggest city in Canada so things are more expesive than out in "the sticks".

Whenever I buy something I ask for and get a senior's discount.

 

...Every day is a Saturday...

When my father retired from the Navy, he only asked for a watch, showing just the date.

 

When my father retired from the Navy, he only asked for a watch, showing just the date.

I haven't worn my watch ever since I retired.

 

That must be kind of nice.

So you are using the sun to tell the time?