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This article contains information about the socialized and/or universal health care programs in the US, Canada, France, England and China (just for good measure).

This document was born based on frequent comments and posts I see on social media. The common train of thought is that free health care is wonderful and it’s available in many countries other than the US. The countries I hear the most accolades about are Canada, England, and France, so I’ve gathered together some information on those countries, as well as China, to share with you.

Besides my family issues with Canadian universal health care (that resulted in the death of a family member) I recently chatted with an elderly friend (74) who was born and raised in Canada. He was kind enough to share his personal experiences regarding the universal health care system in his former home country.

The first point made is that many good doctors and most specialty doctors usually move to the US because the option to make more money is here. That action alone results in a shortage of good health care professionals in Canada. This not only results in longer waiting times for any care that might be out of the ordinary, the quality of doctors left behind, well, let’s just say you may be dealing with the newer, less experienced doctors or even the “C” students.

My friend shared that when his brother experienced extreme discomfort after being sent home after his gall bladder surgery, he immediately called to make an appointment to have it checked out. The brother was then told that the wait time for the next appointment was 6 months out: He died a week later. My friend moved to the US shortly after and is now a US citizen.

Now, I am not saying that health care in the US is perfect. Personally, I think between the cost of doctor’s visits, hospitals, medications, medical expenses in the US have gotten way out of hand and I agree that something has got to change. But to make a blanket statement that all of these countries have free medical care for all, well, that’s just not true as you’ll learn if you chose to read my research in the attached document.

And to address the other blanket statement that “the US should (wave a magic wand and) implement free health care for all,” is, well, that’s just silly because it’s unrealistic to think we can convert our entire health care system for 331 million people over night. Not only that, I say that because while doing some research on the topic I found that the US does have a variety of heath care programs of which all citizens can partake at no cost to them. (Still not 100% free though because there are very few doctors and nurses that actually work for free.) They are the VA and Medicaid programs. Both are truly “socialized medicine” in every sense of the word: The doctors and nurses are hired and paid by the government; all facilities, medicine, and equipment are also paid by the government. But remember, the government does get its money from taxes…so someone is still footing the bill.

As a matter of fact, what all these programs in all countries have in common is that none of them are free: They are all paid for by taxes that come out of a working person’s paycheck. The only difference is how much that tax is. Something my Canadian cohort emphasized is that the more you make, the more you pay into the Canadian universal health care system. And if you chose to get personal insurance because the “free” health care system doesn’t cover what you need, well, that’s even a higher cost to you.

Either way, I hope that in the very near future our politicians – who’s salaries we also pay – can actually come up with something more affordable for everyone. Honestly, it seems to me that France might be on to something.

I also hope you chose to peruse the attached document and adjust your way of addressing this issue.

Sincerely,