He is such a nerd… is this from May the 4th?
Cuz those are C3P0 and A2D2 socks. 
As to the weird rumours in the US about socialized medicine…
Its weirdly hard to combat. They think we’re being overly dramatic when we won’t travel to the US without travellers insurance. But I don’t know how to explain that we think its abhorrent that a trip to the ER can bankrupt someone… Its literally like speaking another language.
I heard about the PM’s socks on the radio, so pretty sure it’s for Star Wars Day.
The one I find people in the US have a hard time believing is that although yes, our taxes are higher, and prices are often higher, we somehow still have a similar standard of living.
I’m no economist, but I think it’s because we don’t have things like non-socialised medicine. The talk about pre-existing condition evaluation, rules about which hospital you go to depending on your insurance, the whole co-pay thing… that sounds like a lot of extra overhead, and it has to drive prices up.
John Green has an old video about the cost of health care in the US versus everywhere else, and no, its not just overhead, its just more expensive because it is. Because doctors in the US get paid more than anywhere, and because everything just costs more, because it does. Partly because there is no socialized medicine negotiating group prices on things, but mainly it seems it costs more just because they can charge more.
Look at the costs of epipens. Canadians don’t pay that. Because our government negotiates a price for the entire country. So we didn’t see an increase in price. But in the US, because there is no central body, it shot up 500%.
Running health care like a for profit business is the problem. It can’t be run like that. It need to be a public utility, not a profit generating machine.
Yes, it drives prices up, which means that some parties make more money that way. It’s a perverse incentive, where everyone in the transaction (hospital, doctor, pathology lab, pharmacy, pharmaceutical manufacturer, insurance company, etc) makes more money with higher prices, but the patient is screwed.
It’s not even possible to find out what something will cost before the procedure. I have literally sat in someone’s office crying because I needed to know if a single session of physical therapy was going to be $100 or $1000 or $10000, and they would not say. It ended up being $300 but I didn’t know that until three weeks later when I got a bill in the mail. Edit: this happened while I had no insurance at all.
Yeah see thats insane. Even for the ancillary stuff up here that we have to pay out of pocket for or thats covered by work benefits (drugs, dentists, glasses, physio, etc) - we know how much it costs.
I’ve paid for a friends osteopath appointment because it was $125 for an hour and she didn’t have benefits. But we know how much its going to cost up front. How can they not give you a price? Thats literally insane.
I got an IUD, but I got a special tiny one and everyone warned me every step, from the nurses to the OBGYN to the pharmacist that THIS model costs $150 instead of the usual $100. So… what happens in the US? How does one get an IUD and how much does it cost? How can you decide what to do if you don’t know how much it costs?
Exactly. The people in the offices seem like they have always had the type of insurance that just covers everything, so they have no idea what it’s like.
What did I do? I just didn’t get the UID I wanted for that exact reason. I’m now edging up toward menopause, so I probably won’t get one.
Here’s my short story from the horrors of the US health care “system.”
(and yes, I know it’s nothing like the travesty that other folks go through)
I needed a CAT scan- no biggie. Drink this goop, show up at this time, needle in the arm, etc etc etc. The office for this is across the hall of the building that my doctor is based in, and is run by the same group. Convenient, like that. BIll comes some time later.
Now, let me stop here to inject this: I have, by most in the US’s standards, very good health care. Lots of things covered, relatively small co-pays, etc etc etc. But it’s a Tiered plan.
What’s that? Oh, it means that some providers are Tier 1, and are pretty inexpensive to use. Some are Tier 2, which are more expensive. I guess there’s a Tier 3, but I’d rather not know about it.
Anyway, back to the story.
Bill comes, and what do you know, the place that did the CAT scan is a Tier 2 facility. Or a Tier 2 provider did the scan in the facility. Or something. So instead of a Tier 1 (with, in this case, a $50 co-pay), I get a Tier 2 (with a $1000 co-pay). And there’s nothing to be done about it. Pay up, sucker.
That’s what happens on a “good” health plan in the US.
TMI - when I got my current IUD 2 years ago (my third one, go team IUD!) and I’m just so used to scheduling a replacement IUD appointment 7 years in advance, I said something like “Ok, so I’ll see you in 7years to get this one replaced” and my doctors looked at me and said “… you’ll be 50 is 7 years…” - hahahah RIGHT! OMG THANK GOD THIS IS MY LAST ONE! Bring on the menopause I am fucking done with this menstrual bullshit!
Sorry you didn’t get the tiny one. Its fucking magical. I had two copper Ts before this, and both times the first YEAR it took forever to settle in and the cramps and duration to dissipate. (yay 10 day periods!) The tiny one is amazing. I never get “poked”, I never get “blocked”, its never 10 days and the cramps are non-existent. These should be standard, I swear, why must they always give women shit that hurts us? sorry thats a rant for another time LOL
I still don’t understand why they can’t tell you how much a thing costs before hand. Thats just nuts.
“Horrors” is a good word for it. Holy crap, no wonder there’s so much bankruptcy involved when you have no idea what’s coming at you.
As @MissyPants mentioned, even with a socialised system it is not cost-free for patients. And you can wind up in debt for medical reasons (I know someone who wound up broke because they could no longer work and their meds were $1,300 a month). But the sheer scale compared to non-socialised is so different.
My cousin lives in Virginia, from Canada, his wife is from Virginia.
The stories she tells us when she visits about her thyroid cancer… is terrifying. She had nodules on both, insurance only covered taking out one. So they’re waiting a year for her insurance to replenish to take out the other. I just cannot. That is unsane. Also she was “lucky” and got 12 weeks mat-leave… which apparently just means working from home for 12 weeks… I just cannot. That’s not right!
Also, can we talk for a second about vacation pay. Cuz this is a thing that also boggles my mind. That even if you get vacation days but you can never TAKE vacations. I’m taking four weeks off this summer. This is big deal, I’ve been here for 9 years, and in your 9th year you get another weeks vacation so this year I get to take 4 weeks instead of “just” 3. From what I read not only would the average American never get four weeks off, but you would never be able to TAKE four weeks off at once. At most you’d take a week. What is up with that?
Us North Windsorites know the words (English only) pretty well, Canuckistani or no.
@MissyPants: We don’t even have the option of choosing that tiny IUD because Jesus demands we have a kid before we can get anything at all. I’m not kidding. Oh, and the two big ones we’re stuck choosing between each appear as $500-1000 charges, or more, on the bills we get because Free Market Magic!
I mean, we’re pretty annoying with that shit too, I know women that had to fight and fight and fight to get their tubes tied because, no, they did not want to ever have children, but you know “what if you get married and your husband wants kids?” - so we’re not free of that bullshit. But it is [marginally] easier to get an IUD. (Side note: we only keep ours in for 7 years, yet you guys keep the same unit in for 10, whats up with that?)
…does that $1000 include insertion? Or is that JUST for the IUD?
Yup. Sounds a bit like an iodine CT for soft tissues. Had one last spring, will be having a straight CT and a bone density scan in about 10 days. Total cost to me? Nada. Zip. Zilch.
I said it back on BBS, I’ll say it here: if I had to deal with your country’s system, I’d probably be living on the street, or, more properly, dying on the street. I’m not wealthy, and the deductibles and co-pays of even a good plan would have bankrupted me.
Which province? If Ontario, your friend probably qualifies for Trillium now.
12 years ago (or so…) I had an emergency operation to fix a traumatic injury. I was on my parent’s insurance at the time (I think? Might have been my own, though…) and I recall seeing the bill was north of 30k. I was a young healthy male with no issues, and if I’d been on some wonky plan, that little whoops might have wrecked me financially.
That’s nuts.
I suspect the combination of deductibles and co-pays would be reaching that amount if I were on an American plan. The thing with Stage 2 prostate cancer is that you get to see a lot of Heavy (radioactive) Metal and a lot of specialists spread over time, and none of that is particularly cheap even at the best prices. Even if I manage remission (looking good so far, but still too early to say for sure), I will probably be seeing specialists regularly for the rest of my life.
They might… this was the father of a friend of mine. He had pituitary cancer, and although the doctors successfully removed the gland, there were surgical complications (and you need a lot of drugs without a pituitary anyhow). He’s passed now.
Ah. Sorry to hear that.
Well, he lived a long time after the surgery – nearly to average life expectancy. Sorry if I made the cause and effect seem closer.
If you’re lucky, the price includes the “procedure”. FSM knows that 2 minutes is super valuable and should be charged out at an hourly rate hovering around its fairly priced rate of about $10,000 per hour, right? (While it should be obvious sarcasm, the rate is probably low-balled, I used the hourly rate I was recently charged for less than 30 seconds of a blood oxygen check as basis. No shit, $80 for less than 30 seconds. You see them drag this little machine in your room in the US, refuse it and loudly demand its immediate removal, they’re trying to pad your bill.)
This is where I thank G-d that I am well away from the river(s). To add insult to injury, it’s snowing this morning…