Thread: There was no waiting for medical care in USSR

I keep hearing people talking about having to wait for medical care in places like Canada where health care is free, but no one seems to remember that health care in USSR was also free and we didnt have to wait. and even if we would have to wait, these poor American people, the way it is now they can forget waiting, because they won't have the money to go to the hospital period. anyway, it seems unbelievable how naive many people are and I guess ignorant do not deserve health insurance, so there is justice after all. considering I still have my health. i think the sickest thing, sicker then any one American, is the world and the system, THAT'S who really needs to be healed or put to rest.

In Communist Russia Healthcare pays YOU!

when Hungary was communist their government paid doctors poorly ... Doctors lived on cash stuffed in an envelope give to them by the patient ... good dope pusher could make more money!



... but while you Russians were enjoying those ghetto looking hospitals - we were driving nice cars!



Why are we trying so darn hard to be ANOTHER third world country?

I don't believe for one second that you didn't have to wait for health services. Numerous studies have proven that wait times significantly increase when health care is free.

I went to a clinic last week to get a referral to a specialist. I had a 3 minute wait because it was a walk-in (no appointment) and then the doctor, a cranky, possibly homicidal arabic woman who seemed to hate me looked at me like I was a piece of garbage and, without speaking, wrote off a phone number which served as my referral.



Seeing as it's my health insurance that is public and not my health care, I wont go back to that privately owned clinic again. I'll go back to my family doctor who is further away but is excellent and, I suspect, literally saved my son's life at childbirth and has never once mentioned it outloud. The specialist took my call and booked an apoitnment for the following weekend. So that's either, technically, a one week waiting period - or more correctly, a zero day waiting perdiod as it was me that was not free until the following weekend, not the specialist.



The spcialist, by the way, is also a private clinic. 80% of all medical sevices in Canada are private. It's insurance (access) that's public.





I'm willing to accept that the horror stories that I hear in US media are true and actually happened to somebody up here. I can only speak from my own experience though, and I have never met or spoken to a Canadian who had to wait an inordinate amount of time for medical treatment. Any time at all really. My grandma lived to 102 and my mom's been in hospital so often she's in the staff photos... I don't remember them having any complaints other than the food.





I wouldn't want USSR style public health care. It's the insurance that's vital - people can make their own choices on providers and clinics.

Incidently, kid was born sunny side up and wife was torn a new one. Kid was jaundiced so wife stayed three days in hospital until that cleared up. It was made clear that women discharge themselves when they are ready. The other moms that night were out the next day, nurses told me that they expected Asian moms to stay longer to recover as that's culturally expected.



For top notch care and difficult delivery I can fault them for threethings total:



a) I had to pay for parking.



The food for patients was awful



c) The cafeteria in the hospital was a freaking DONUT SHOP! Are they trying to drum up business? Salty soup and cancer-ridden donuts. Perfect for a hospital cafeteria.





If this is biggest complaints against public health insurance. I think we're doing Ok for ourselves.