genieman77
while we're hatin' on UHC and insurance co's in general) , is anyone able to answer my question on how it's done in socialized med countries? 
are there procedures/treatments  approved/paid for  there that ins co's here deny?
(Im'a try an' google that) 
 
does anyone know?
Does anyone care if someone assassinates  Dr. Theresa Tam? (Canada's health system head honcho) 
 
 
 
 
...KTF
 
 
 
 
 

Genie,

I’ve only had two experiences with social medicine in other countries — sorry, actual experiences, no MSM links.

Coming through Heathrow in the UK, my wife was stopped by security due to her hip replacement tripping the metal detector. This happens in the US as well, but all she needs to do is show her medical card and most times they let her go right through. At the most, she gets a few second wanding and off we go.

In the UK, they had to call in three other security people and two supervisors until one of them finally understood what a hip replacement was because he had read an article in the news about Prince Phillip getting one. At that point, the profusely apologized because they thought we were of some special status due to only the privileged, rich or royalty, getting hip replacements in their country, unlike in the US where it would be difficult to find someone that doesn’t know at least one person that has a joint replacement.

The other incident was in Cleveland where my wife was for back surgery. The process takes a week with pre-surgery, surgery, post-surgery, and last check before release. Because if this, a local hotel houses most of the patients. The hotel serves a free breakfast and puts out a free dinner selection.

Because of this, the folks there for that week’s surgery cycle get to know each other. About half of the folks we talked with were from Canada. We asked why they were in Cleveland, paying out of pocket, rather than using the social medicine system in Canada.

Their response was that most back surgeries are not covered, especially for those over 50 years old. We asked why they didn’t just pay out of pocket in Canada and they said that because of so few approved surgeries, doctors did not specialize in orthopedics, so it was difficult to impossible to find one and if one was found, surgeries were scheduled years into the future. They decided to come to the US and pay full boat prices.

I’m not sure if it is still the case, and it might not be (I don’t care, so I won’t spend any time to research it), but when social medicine was first put in place in Canada it was funded through a 10% sales tax, which was in addition to any other sales taxes.

While I will agree that the US healthcare system might not be great (full disclosure, I have no connection to the healthcare industry or system), it, in my limited experience, works better than those I’ve come in contact with.