Why are Americans, against government healthcare?

Question

Many Americans cry that it is not free, the government will decide everything for you etc. But healthcare in Canada costs $4000 per person, while in America under your system it costs on average $7000 dollars per person. As well, Canadians are now the second tallest and healthiest people per capita on Earth. The thing is that a doctor's salary in the States is so much higher than here In Canada, while it is a decent $200, 000 annually here, in the States you get hosed with GPs making over $400,000.

In Canada, I can choose which doctor I want to see. And doctors are generally of the same good quality. If they don't make standards than they lose their Medical Licensee.

Is there something I am missing about the evils of medicare? Would it not save you thousands in your healthcare insurance bills?

Answer 1

Dont forget canadians can afford healthcare because they depend on their security from the USA look at your defense spending it is riciculously low for a country your size. Canada knows we will protect them if attacked. Canada has gone socialist, Americans dont want this and who would protect you if our country was weakened by socialist policies.

Answer 2

Well first we need to say that not all Americans are against health care. For the most part conservative republicans are against government health care. They don't want higher taxes. They don't like the idea of paying for someone else to go to the doctor. They think the government is too "big" already (whatever that means), and despise our dependence on it.

Answer 3

Because it's all about the Benjamins.

Nobody wants to lose money, not the doctors and healthcare providers, nor the insurance companies who pay the claims for services provided, and certainly not the government.

Answer 4

they are against it because they are uninformed, they are afraid it will turn into communism when in fact it will just help people. it would be a heck of a lot cheaper than what we have now. more people need to see michael moore movies lol

Answer 5

It's left over "Red Scare"  We are convinced that socialism is another word for communism becuase it's simpler to believe what you hear on talk radio then consult a dictionary.

I doubt if we could enact a real socialized health care system inside any one presidential term but any attempt to try will be met with blind hostility on top of the practical problems of converting our for massive profit system into something concerned more with healing the sick than being filthy rich.

We hate the word socialism and thats pretty much it.  We may not know what it means but we are convinced it is always very bad.  When someone says it is not always bad then they identify themselves as a red and must be destroyed.

Answer 6

Point to a government run program that runs efficiently.  Just one.

Also, since when did height stand for health?  Your country is second tallest....?!

Oh, my bad.  Those asians must be REALLY unhealthy.

Answer 7

It had show out through the world that countries that have this type of health system is bad and very expensive for the government. Not even in the Communist country this system had worked. People have to wait in line for treatment and sometimes die because their term takes too long.Everything that the government touch goes bad, see our Social Security, it is bankrupt. We in the USA have the best health care system in the world that is the reason everybody from all nation come to the USA to be treated.

Answer 8

I get to choose here which doctors I want to see, the wait time is non-existent. And we have 300 million people, Canada only has 30 million. As many other nations that have UHC - we have too many people and too greedy and incompetent government to make UHC work. And why should doctors go through a decade of schooling only to make what everyone else can make. duh!

are you retarded? height? look at the asian cultures, they are usualyl very healthy and they arent usually very tall. height has nothing to do with it.

Answer 9

Unlike Canada and Europe does America NOT have their priorities in order.  They feed the general public hogwash of the evils of social medicine---people who struggle in this country do not understand why healthcare is a privilege, and the privileged don't want national healthcare because they fear that they will be taxed for it.  What no one seems to understand is that even if it is universal healthcare, one has to pay his premium out of his/her paycheck.  It is not for free.  I've seen too many families, where healthcare was not on top of the priority list with claims that it is unaffordable--yet, they have the money for luxury items which cost beyond an insurance.  It is a matter of prioritizing and Americans just do not see health care as a top priority for them--it's sad, but that's how it is....maybe I'll move to Canada......

Answer 10

We don't need a federal health care plan, which we already have. Medicaid.

If states want to socialize heath care, then let them. WA state has done this already with their Basic Health, a state plan that covers the uninsured, a resident must simply apply for it. It is free to the poor, and the working poor are only charged what they can afford. CA has MediCal, and other states probably have other programs.

The few examples of working socialized health care in foreign countries are all smaller than the US. If the citizens of a smaller geopolitical unit want this type of care, they can achieve it more efficiently by staying small. A medical TSA would be atrocious. With our size it would not be long until euthanasia would be nationally legalized and following that the systematic killing of people that cost too much.

Oh, by the way, the wealthy in Canada come here for their health care, and with Canada's loose perscription drug laws, we go there for our self perscribed narcotics.

Answer 11

we want to control our own healthcare choices as individuals. most americans do not trust their goverment to provide decent levels of quality.  and it has been the u.s. system of for profit medical care that has produced most of the advances in medical technology for decades now go back to canada and wait your turn to see your gov't appointed doctor.

Answer 12

Here is what one of Canada's doctors, the author of the book 'code blue' has to say:

The head of trauma care at Vancouver's largest hospital announces that they turn away more cases than any other center in North America. He's quoted as saying this would be unheard of in the United States.

In Manitoba, which is my former home province, the premier--the political equivalent of a governor--concedes that his pledge to end hallway medicine has fallen short. Hallway medicine is the phenomenon where the emergency rooms are so filled with patients that people are forced to lie on stretchers in hallways, often for days. Overcrowding is a periodic problem. In fact, the overcrowding is worse than last year. The community is rocked by the death of a 74-year old man who had waited in the emergency room for three hours and had not been seen.

New Brunswick announces that they will send cancer patients south to the United States for radiation therapy. New Brunswick, a small maritime province, is the seventh to publicly announce its plans to send patients south. In the best health care system in the world, the vast majority of provinces now rely on American health care to provide radiation therapy. Provinces do this because the clinically recommended waiting time for treatment is often badly exceeded. Ordinarily, oncologists suggest that there should be a two-week gap between the initial consult by the family doctor and the referral to the oncologist, and then two weeks more from the oncologist to the commencement of radiation therapy. In most Canadian provinces, we exceed that by one to two months, sometimes three.

In Alberta earlier this year, a young man dies because of the profound emergency room overcrowding. He is 23. On a winter's night, he develops pain in his flank and goes to the local emergency room. It is so crowded that he grows impatient and goes to another. There, he waits six hours. No one sees him. Exhausted and frustrated, he goes home. The pain continues, so he finally decides to go to the local community hospital. It's too late: His appendix ruptured. He dies from the complications hours later.

Those are some of the examples of the cruelty of what goes on in Canada. But they don't give you the flavor of the insanity--and I'll use that term in a nonprofessional sense--of the Canadian system.

Answer 13

America .. how many people are proud to this country of yours? when the world is going cold, america is getting hot .. and you already mentioned the reason why Americans hate the government healthcare ...  the strange prices of everything ...

Answer 14

For one. Have you seen what a great job the government did with social security? Being in Canada I am sure you don't follow our Social Security..

Second you cant change the fact that thousands of people from Canada do come here for their care as opposed to staying and waiting in Canada.

Also, do you know anyone who is on Medicaid? I am guessing that is a no as well. I do.. Guess what.. medicaid is government run healthcare and it is a joke. They don't give you the meds and procedures that you need. It is bad.. real bad..

Answer 15

I do not give a rats fuzzy backside about Canadian health care. I do not want the US Government involved in my health care because of the US Post Office, the IRS, and the TSA. Those agencies are so inefficient that they have nearly destroyed the US Economy. Health care in Canada is limited where here it is not.

Answer 16

Because it would be yet another incredibly inefficient and wasteful government program.

Answer 17

No rational American is against health care.  However, it's the cost that we'll end up paying is a big stumbling block.  

And, a single payer system like Canada is no solution.  Many Canadians who can afford to do so seek medical care in the U.S.  Doesn't say much for their much hyped system, does it?

Answer 18

in a sense it is free because a hospital CANT turn you down.  However, health care in the USA is a absolute JOKE.  I owe them 20 grand right now and Ill never get that paid off.  I dont even try because if I give them any money I cant eat.  I live in the USA now but if I had a choice tomorrow id move to Canada.  This place is going right down the drain.

Answer 19

The less control the government has over our lives, the better.

Answer 20

It's not free and it is much worse than what we have had. Years and  years ago before healthcare "reform" it was not only better for everyone but it actaully covered something at a reasonable cost and the cost of healthcare period was lower.

And if you insist on using Canada as an example...if the system works so well then why do so many come over to the usa to be treated? Why because they don't have to depend on 'referrals' that can take months on end for seriouse life threatening issues. Besides have you seen their teeth? Look at the Brits teeth....there is another reason yet!

I want to choose who I see in regards to my health not told by someone that doesn't care nor do they know me!

Answer 21

The reason most Americans are against any form of goverment healthcare is -The Insurance Industy tells them they should be- for the longest time the reason given was- because we have private healthcare it is the best in the world, funny you don't hear that one anymore. Now the reasons are

You won't get care in a timely manner-You need insurances permission for most test.

higher cost in taxes- The cost is already high.

Lazy people getting free healthcare-Insurance companies make record profits year after year by cutting coverage and refusing coverage.

should I go on?