U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadians would have “much better” health coverage if Canada became the 51st state.
He made the remarks during a briefing in North Carolina, where he toured areas struck by Hurricane Helene on Friday.
“I would love to see Canada be the 51st state,” he said. “The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut – a tremendous tax cut – because they are very highly taxed.”
“They’d have much better health coverage. I think the people of Canada would like it,” said the president.
A lot of Canadians have to wait exorbitant amounts of time to see a doctor, it’s not always fast and effective service.
Oh you got cancer? That specialist can see you in 6 months when you’re already dead.
Don’t get me wrong free healthcare is great in that it’s free, but that doesn’t always guarantee it’s good or fast.
Would you rather reach in and pick an item from
Sack 1, which contains [rusty nails, angry scorpions, razor blades, one fun sized candy bar]
Sack 2, which contains [various candy bars, one rusty nail]
The US is sack 1 in this metaphor. People should improve the canadian system, but there’s no reasonable take that they’re at all similar
6 months? You think 6 months to see an oncologist is rare in the US?
Are you including the number of people who don’t seek any care until they end up in the ER with acute symptoms because they couldn’t go in to get regular screening or preventive care?
And before you say that should be covered by the ACA you are still ignoring that hospitals are open 9-5 and the people who can’t make it to the hospital are working the job they need for health insurance during those same hours, provided they have transportation and can take off more than an hour to wait for the primary care to visit them.
Not to mention, if the cancer hasn’t progressed to stage 3 or 4 by that point, the health insurance won’t likely be paying for the most effective treatment, they’ll be paying for the treatment “they have on record for effective treatment”.
And who’s to say you can even get into an oncologist familiar with your cancer? Then may feel more comfortable referring you to a John Hopkins, or Mayo Clinic, or one in California. So now you have to pay for transportation and living expenses in another state while you get treatment and don’t work. Some insurances might cover this. Most won’t. Some companies will foot the bill. Most will laugh at you.
6 months? It’s a 5 month wait to get a new primary care provider here. Fuck your 6 month complaint.
This thread is discussing Trump’s comments that joining the States would result in better health care for Canadians. Posting in a thread discussing this topic with a comment that does nothing but talk about the perceived failings of the Canadian health care system is implying that the American system is better because of the context in which the statements were made.
If you are “not talking about the US at all,” then what are you talking about? That’s the conversation: Canadian vs US health care.
That’s not accurate, that is repeating the line private places want you to say about provincial or national care.
I had cancer. When test came back positive, they got me in the next week for surgery, then to the center to do the paperwork and scans and predental work. They then needed another week or two to have 3d scans used to define the radition paths for the machine, and set up hospital visits and chemo. I was done treatment in 2 months.
The six month wait seems like BS unless you have a source.
It was 4 months wait for myself but I have seen similar threads for people that had to wait 6.
The following is from CancerCare Manitoba …
How long you will wait for cancer surgery depends on your treatment plan, where your cancer is located, and how far advanced it has become. source
I would also add you have to take into account the ‘health’ of the healthcare system in your location, ie: how many medical professionals are available for the population, how well healthcare is funded in your province, etc.
And keep in mind that a stage 2 brain cancer radiation or surgery would likely take precident over a stage 2 ovarian cancer treatment, so there would be instances when treatment times cannot be equated with each other.
Let me add to your anecdotes then, no one I know has waited more than a month. My family has some serious conditions including Crohn’s, Cushing’s, cancer and epilepsy. It’s like 5 people just in my family who haven’t waited for any of it. And the most expensive part in all of it has been the Crohn’s drugs coverage being shit on the provincial plans if you make too much money.
Tired of this lie, tbh.
The waits are probably, on average, a little longer, sure. The “someone is waiting an absurd amount of time with an obvious visible problem and they’ve died while waiting” is pure privatization propaganda fueled by people going to the hospital for things like prescription refills and being shocked when they’re pushed to the bottom of the list over and over again while people come in with genuine, time sensitive problems.
I had to wait 4 months to see a doctor for my uLMS, and I personally know of several others now with worse conditions that also had to wait months. If you search around online you will also find many more similar occurrences. Same for ER visits taking literally all day long.
In general I don’t think it is a lie, this IS happening.
How much it goes on, or how often it might be a made up occurrence, and how often that needs to happen for you to consider it a “lie”, might be a separate matter.
Meanwhile, in the US, every ER and urgent care visit that wasn’t at 3 AM was an all-day affair, and I’ve also had four-month waits to see specialists, all while paying out the nose.
I have a friend like this, goes to hospital and upset wait time for pulled muscle or rib bruising is ridiculous hours. I say make a doc or clinic appointment, but no, doesn’t want to wait a week for doc or half a day at walk in clinic… 2 weeks later still complaining. Well you could have been seen already. Lol
Dude Americans pay more out of pocket for healthcare than any other country and get worse results.
Like, I have no idea what state you reside in but I have had months long wait times to see docs in the USA. Your made up example can be applied to the USA just the same except we’re just paying more money for the privilege.
Our system is absolutely fucked.
Horseshit.
Triage works well here once it kicks in. It can take a long time to see a specialist, but if you have a good GP who is concerned about life-threatening disease, the system goes into very high speed.
Chronic disease is another issue, but that is more a problem with philosophy than implementation.
A lot of Canadians have to wait exorbitant amounts of time to see a doctor
As always, you hear more about the failures than the successes where everything works the way it is expected to.
Nobody would think of writing a headline saying “everything worked normally today”.
