Originally posted by Terry Leatherwood:
It can force you to buy things either on a cash-only basis, too, because no one will loan you money.
Well, since I pay for everything on a cash-only basis already (despite a good credit rating), that really wouldn't bother me too much. I do have a credit card (which I've used perhaps four times in the past six years) but aside from our mortgage, we just don't want to add anymore stress to our lives when it comes to bill paying. I think buying on credit is a financial morass that has led a lot people to more grief than they ever could have imagined as they signed the back of that little piece of plastic just before they stuck it in their wallet. I've tried to stress to my kids that paying cash instead of using credit cards can be done and if they are smart, they won't get into the system and over their heads like so many people seem to do these days.
I don't think any one system of health-care and health-care funding is perfect. I do think that the current US system has flaws as seen in my previous post since it's obvious that those who can afford to pay are paying rates that are probably adjusted to help cover the costs of those who cannot afford to pay...hospitals are getting supplies at costs just as low (if not lower because of bulk buying) as the vet hospital I worked at but our markups never went over 150% and that was only on specialty items we paid extra shipping on.
I think Canadians would be shocked if every time they saw the doctor or were hospitalised, a copy of the costs the government covers was sent to them. I've had four ER visits since college, my husband has had two and my son two as well, plus the two births of my kids (an emergency C-section and a normal delivery with complications on my end) and of course the childhood visits to the doctor for my kids as well. Not to mention tests,etc for when I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease a while back and to this day I could not begin to tell you what any of this costs since my husband is a municipal director and we have extended health benefits from his employer so we don't even pay the nominal provincial health insurance fee.
I have to say I don't think I'd want the headache of dealing with health insurance carriers but I do think it would be nice to see what things cost so when the next big mouth starts complaining about his federal taxes, I could pull up his family's bills and show him where some of it went.
