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Nope, vision and dental aren’t part of our system - and thank god because they’re much more pleasant to deal with. I’ve experienced our healthcare system both
by cal5k 6y ago
Nope, vision and dental aren’t part of our system - and thank god because they’re much more pleasant to deal with.
I’ve experienced our healthcare system both as a patient and as an entrepreneur trying to innovate. On both counts it has been brutal - the best experience I’ve had by far was when I had orthognathic surgery, which falls under dentistry and is therefore private pay and subject to market conditions.
It was night and day. I could email my orthognathic surgeon when I had questions, where my family doctor is an inaccessible black box that can barely be assed to fax (yes, fax) a prescription renewal to the pharmacy after a week of hounding his secretary.
I started a telemedicine company that was treated with downright hostility by government bureaucrats who had their own vested interests in competing with the private sector.
If you think what Canada has is great and I’m just a complainer it’s because you haven’t looked at how the rest of the world organizes care. A competently regulated private insurance market can deliver the same broad coverage at a lower cost and with better patient experience than our incompetently-run crapfest of a system.
- caconym_ 6y ago> If you think what Canada has is great and I’m just a complainer it’s because you haven’t looked at how the rest of the world organizes care. I think a system where everybody has access to healthcare is better than one where they don't, assuming the outcomes are comparable. For Canada vs. America, the data I've seen do not bear out a claim that Canada has worse outcomes in aggregate. Furthermore, from what I understand of it, Canada's system guarantees everybody healthcare. On that basis I'm claiming that it has a significant advantage over the American system. If you'd like to argue that it's not important that everybody has access to healthcare, do that. Otherwise, I'm glad you have the money to pay, and I'm certainly glad I have the money to pay (up to a point), but I don't see that as a good reason to ignore those who don't. I'm not married to any particular way of setting it up. I just care about outcomes, and it's obvious to anybody who's paying attention that healthcare in America is fundamentally broken with respect to outcomes. Vague claims that the free market will fix everything if we just let it work its magic (as seen in other replies to my comment) are not convincing to me, because why should they be? Saying something doesn't make it true. People say a lot of crazy things, and a lot of it doesn't even pretend to try to make sense.