[ahelwer]

Currently: high salary and partner is in medical residency for the next number of years. After the only candidate who actually wanted to fix your ridiculous healthcare system dropped out of the presidential primary, my desire to continue living here has dropped precipitously. I'll probably end up moving back to Canada before long, or some other country that doesn't literally drive you slowly insane.

[kortilla]

Curious, as a high salary earner, you must have good health coverage. Do you still feel that the Canadian healthcare system with it’s infamous delays, etc is better?

[ahelwer]

Basically: yes, absolutely. Canadians in general love their healthcare and my personal experience with it has been nothing but positive. My frustration with American healthcare is augmented by how much better I know it can be. I pay $500/month for shit-tier health insurance here and actually using the healthcare costs even more money!

Most of the drawbacks you've heard about Canadian healthcare have been promulgated by the many many entities whose pockets are lined by this idiotic system continuing to grind forward.

[kortilla]

Ah, so you’re not with a company that has a good healthcare plan. This is part of what leaves the US healthcare system so broken. The experience is drastically different if you have an employer with a “Cadillac” healthcare plan.

A recent tech company I worked for in the Bay Area charged about $50 pre-tax twice a month and I paid nothing out of pocket. The gulf between good healthcare coverage and bad coverage is what’s obscene in the US.

I haven’t seen an argument for how the good coverage is worse, which is why I always ask.

[pm90]

Third world countries have rich people who live with a substantially higher standard of living than the rest of their society, and yet we don’t consider that fact as evidence that the country is doing well.

The existence of premium healthcare plans for the high earners or the wealthy is not a reflection of the healthcare system. It’s how much access most people have that matters, statistically.

[kortilla]

Not rich or wealthy, this is middle class. 60% of Americans are happy with their healthcare.

If it was just the rich that did well, it would be trivial to get consensus to vote for change.

[vangelis]

The argument is the US health care system is worse. People like to bring up wait times, but your wait time is infinite if you can't afford a specialist / non-acute care.