That’s absurd. There’s plenty of money in them, which is why they flourish underground and across the border. Private insurance won’t pay for most alternative theropies because most (with a few exceptions, possibly) of ‘em don’t work beyond a placebo effect.

Your theory needs work.

I don’t know the cuban system, I do know Cuba is poor and America is rich and Cuba has a lower infant mortality than the USA and has enough physisians to send thousands to Venezuela and Pakistan. To Pakistan to help earthquake victims.

And we do know under the Batista regime the Cubans were as illiterate as other South American people. Now they provide doctors and teachers to other poor nations.

Once I was put on a six-week wait to get a fibroid tumor removed (that’s a girl thing) but in fact did not wait the six weeks because I started to hemorrhage after five weeks and needed emergency surgery.

When woke up a nurse was leaning over me. “Lady, are you lucky,” she said. I couldn’t ask her what she meant because of the dadblamed breathing tube, but I have my suspicions.

I wouldn’t have blamed “the system” for the delay because usually fibroid tumors ain’t no big deal, but during the wait I had called the doctors a couple of times because of excessive bleeding and was told I still had to wait the six weeks.

Her son needed a hernia operation and was checked into a specialty clinic within a month and the operation was done. Total cost: $0 (and that’s Zero Canadian dollars, which is even cheaper).

I have good US medical insurance through an extremely large pension plan with mega clout — as a result I can go to a limited number of doctors and after my $3,000 dollar deductible I “only” have to pay 20%.

Oh yeah, Canada’s system sucks… sure it does.

But there is something to be said for never making a payment, never filling in a form. When you go to hospital they put you on a ward with only your name, address and Dr’s info. When you leave you just ring a cab.

And it’s truly universal access.

We get none, of course. And the last time I was paying attention to obstetric practices (which has been a while), there was a big push from somewhere to shove women out of the hospital the next day after an uncomplicated childbirth. Back when I was having babies (my youngest is 21) the standard was 2 to 3 days, max.

Amen to that.

Without going into the particulars of my situation, all I can say is that I am thankful every day to be living in Canada and paying my taxes for decent medical coverage. This being said, there are stories every day in our papers about unacceptable medical situations that are attributed to our medicare system. However, I suspect that such situations exist everywhere, including in countries like France and Norway. I am also sure that many more people in the States live with sickness and die to due to a lack of proper medical care than anywhere else in the Western world.

There are no foolproof solutions, but I think that the States has definitely shown the rest of the world which road NOT to take when it comes to keeping its population healthy.

I’ve lived most of my adult life overseas–four years in London, the rest in Japan. My first two sons were born in London. They were born in a private hospital rather than the NHS. As expats we had private insurance as well and this hospital was one of the best for natural childbirth. After care took place through the NHS. Within a week of being discharged (five days in hospital for a natural birth/seven for a C section) a midwife visited me in my home to check me and my son. Affiliated with local GPs are health visitors. The ones I met were former midwives. They had scheduled hours when they were free for mothers and babies to drop in and talk one on one about any problems or issues regarding the baby and or themselves. After my second son was born, the health visitor called me because she knew I had no family close by and simply wanted to check that I was doing okay and even came by to visit once. I wonder how many American women would benefit from that kind of after-birth support in place?

Here in Japan, everyone is covered. I go to any doctor I want and pay 30% of the cost for myself and my sons. My husband pays 20% as we’re covered through his employment. You are either under health insurance provided by your employer or by the government. My municipality (home to Tokyo Disneyland, so a good corporate tax base) provides free health care for all children under the age of six. Prices are set for visits, treatments and medicine. A first visit to the pediatrician for strep throat for my 9yr. old this past Monday cost me 1,030 yen (less than $10). Follow up visits for the same condition will be about $5. Antibiotics for him for four days cost me 960 yen (about $8). My boys get sick, I go to the doctor the same day. It’s first come first serve but I’m usually out with in an hour or an hour and a half.

My friend in San Diego broke his collarbone on a Friday while skiing in New Mexico. He’s CFO of a venture capitalist company, pulling six figures and living in La Jolla. At the nearest emergency care center, they packed his shoulder. While he made arrangements to fly back to San Diego (this was a holiday weekend) his wife called various orthopedic specialists in San Diego trying to get him an appt. She was told two weeks at the earliest. (Excuse me! He’s supposed to walk around with a broken collarbone for two weeks?) His boss pulled strings to get him into a top specialist on Tuesday. He then had to figure out how to get his insurance to cover it since this doctor didn’t accept that insurance. How can anybody claim America has the best system when stuff like this happens?

Last, there’s my mom with asthma who couldn’t wait for Medicare to kick in at 65 since she paid $400 to stay insured with Kaiser and $200 plus for asthma medication. Too bad she only earns about $500 a month in social security.

The American system is broken. There are better ways.