some what true...all meds and hospital and doctor visits are very cheap with insurance which you can get threw the government...it isn't as bad as a lot of places but not as good as others. No place is perfect.

It's not quite that simple. Healthcare and university are not necessarily gov't controlled. There are private and public institutions of each. To try to simplify, in my city there are private hospitals that are very expensive and individuals with excellent insurance go there. Then there are public hospitals that have financial programs available to help out the average citizen.

Most Americans do not have adequate healthcare so they either pay out of pocket which can ruin them financially or use gov't sponsored services.

It's absurd, true. But not as simple as your friend made it.

Where are you at?

I´m from Sweden, reckon we got quite a different system. We have (as you might know) the worlds highest incometaxes (31%), but its basically FFA for everything, including school lunches, uni., medical care, etc.

How does this insurance thing work in the U.S? Are the fees extremely high, or are they adequate or progress exponential towards your income?

Sweden Rocks. I saw a special on your country and the taxes and what they are used for. I think its a very good system, much better than ours. I live in USA and the insurance for most people is so high that they cant afford it. Sweden has done a very cool thing for its people...charge enormous taxes and use those taxes to take care of the people in many aspects of life. Cheers!

america you have to pay alot more for health care and uni.
with out health insurance i can only imagine how much higher it would be.
In Canada, health care is covered with a health card, and university or colleges are partly paid by our government.
move to canada lol

We pay an arm, a leg and every other body part for health insurance it's outrageous.

I would LOVE to live in Canada...but I am stuck here...but its all good! I do OK.

I reccomend michael moor film "sicko"

I second that..

I wish universal health care were...well...universal. Unfortunately you have to live in the right country to get it. Health insurance is expensive to maintain and when you really need it, they do everything they can to avoid giving you the coverage that you pay for. Military health coverage is a joke. They don't want to take care of the men and women who served the US (or their spouses) after they've retired.

My mother is fighting her health insurance now so that she can stay in extended care until she no longer needs round the clock medical attention. They want to remove her from extended care because she's not on an IV...forget about the two broken legs, bone cancer and titanium rods inserted into both arms and legs to stabilize the bones for radiation...they don't think she needs that extended care unless she's got an IV drip!!

If I lived in the US and saw that film, I would be looking to do something about it.

The Us has one of the worst health Care systems in the modern world, even communist countries like Cuba have better

What can we do? How do you fight a giant? Yeah, Sicko was a very good movie as all of Micheal Moors movies are. He lays it on the line.

I have only heard from my fiance that health care in U.S. is expensive..
but Darkmoon...that is terrible. How could they NOT KEEP your mother in extended care!!?? That is horrid!

Im so glad i live in Canada. Im 18 and pregnant, and my fiancee told me that in the U.S. you have to pay for ultrasounds and all the things they do while pregnant.
I would be hyperventilating if i had to pay for all these things BEFORE my baby even comes! I dont know how those young teen moms in the U.S. do it!

Its ashame health care isn't covered in U.S.

I don't normally debate things but I've been fighting insurances companies for a long time. We pay a lot and I get tired of them dictating when and what test I can have. A doctor orders a test for reason. Why send us for every other test only to end up having the one the doctor ordered the first time?

We pay 300.00 a week for health insurance and we have to see the doctors on their list or they won't pay...
I've gotten bills in the mail because a doctor sent my specimen to a lab outside the network..I fought it because how an I suppose to know which lab my doctors use.
I might as well set up a lab in my home and test myself from now.
Health care is out of control.

homerx

Michael Moore's movies are great, he is a tell it like is guy. We need more of him.
I have stories that would make your head spin on what the insurance companies did to me.

right on

omg 300$ for health insurance!
that is crazy!
what tests were you having to get done?
I think that is also how they make most of their money, they send the specimen to a different lab to get results, then just load it on the bill, and when someone else sees it they just say, well i guess i have to pay.
Good thing you fought it. Thats crazy!!

Young teen moms in the US are covered. They get medicaid. As are a very lot of low income people - but children are surely covered.

The eleventh commandment: Thou shalt not complaineth! If you go to a state hospital in South Africa you have to take you own bedding, your family has to bring you food, and they have to run around to call nurses as the panic buttons at the beds does not work.

Beline...good point