Question from UK Paramedic about life as a US Paramedic

[scott33]

For all those who chide the American healthcare system, we sure see alot of Canadians who choose US Healthcare over their "free" national healthcare:

In 2013, 41,838 Canadians went outside the country to get medical treatment, down from 42,173 people leaving the country in 2012. This is interesting since wait times for patients who had consulted with a specialist till the time they got actual treatment increased from 9.3 weeks in 2012 to 9.6 weeks in 2013.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/16/report-tens-of-thousands-fled-socialized-canadian-medicine-in-2013/#ixzz37MF0rg4C

You appear to be assuming that because some Canadians are traveling abroad for medical tourism purposes, that can only mean to the US? Medical tourism is a global and thriving industry.

Destinations, according to a University of Minnesota study that looked at Canadian companies that arrange medical tourism, include Costa Rica, India, Thailand and the U.S. Some companies even send clients to Mexico, Turkey, Poland and the Dominican Republic.

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/012214-687213-canadians-seek-medical-treatment-outside-the-country.htm

Any guessing which of those 8 countries will be charging substantially more than the rest for, arguably, similar outcomes?

ETA - According to the CDC, 750,000 US residents travel abroad for healthcare.

http://www.cdc.gov/features/medicaltourism/

Edited July 14, 2014 by scott33

[systemet]

In the hopes that this was a legitimate post, let me clarify for all parties. NO HEALTHCARE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD IS "FREE". Someone either pays for it through high taxes (up to 40-50% of your income in some European models), through insurance company premiums, or you pay for elective care out of pocket.

This is an important point to remember. Ultimately it's a decision you may as a society -- do you want to take the risk of suffering a severe medical event, and not having coverage, and receive the benefit of lower taxation, or are you willing to have the government provide mandatory health insurance, and have higher taxation.

For most first world countries, the choice is to provide healthcare as a basic right. That's just a statement, not a value judgment. But as Mikey points out, you're paying either way. The trade-off is a balance between what you're willing to accept for personal taxation versus what risk you're willing to accept from unanticipated healthcare expenses.

As an aside, some countries have marginal tax rates of over 50%, but this isn't the same thing as flat income taxation of 50%. Of course, you can argue what percentage of the tax burden comes from sales tax and costs conveyed from corporate taxation.

[Just Plain Ruff]

Thank you Systemet for bringing up a very important thing

Someone pays for healthcare - either at the initial point (taxes or insurance premiums) or the end (out of pocket costs)

NO HEALTHCARE is FREE but the media and the politicians and just plain low information voters in America all seem to perpetuate that with Obamacare that many people's healthcare will be free

No matter what, someone will be paying for someone elses healthcare.

Let's take a Emergency room visit

Total cost 2500

My co-pay = 100.00

My insurance covers 2100 of it because it's a pretty darn good insurance plan

My premiums are about 500 per month

My company has about 12000 people all paying between 110 and 700 per month

The hospital I went to negotiated a discount of 1875.00

So the bill to me is 750 because of some funny accounting numbers and because I have not reached my out of pocket or something like that

So somewhere someone or a group of someone (12000 someone's) paid 2100 of my emergency room bill minus some discount minus my actual bill of 750

I don't do the math but it's hard for me to follow as well.

But in the end, health care will still be as expensive for all of us.

[zippyRN]

Health tourism as a measure of 'failure' in a health system is a bit of a fake measure

how many Canucks or Brits travelling out of the their home country for 'medicla treatment' are going for purely cosmetic procedures because the in -country price is too high , and how many are gong for convenience becasue of percived long waits for elective procedures or becasue they don;t meet meet the criteria for referral yet ( and these clinical criteria aren;t always solely cost / demand related clinicla criteria but have very good basic science basis )