If Canada became a state, Canadians would have ‘much better’ health coverage, says Trump
If Canada became a state, Canadians would have ‘much better’ health coverage, says Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadians would have 'much better' health coverage if Canada became the 51st state.
U.S. President Donald Trump says Canadians would have “much better” health coverage if Canada became the 51st state.
He made the remarks during a briefing in North Carolina, where he toured areas struck by Hurricane Helene on Friday.
“I would love to see Canada be the 51st state,” he said. “The Canadian citizens, if that happened, would get a very big tax cut -- a tremendous tax cut -- because they are very highly taxed.”
“They’d have much better health coverage. I think the people of Canada would like it,” said the president.
Wealthy people would have much better access to trivial / cosmetic medical procedures... Sure... I'll grant that
He's preying on some real issues with our system, such as the chronic lack of primary preventative care for the majority of the population in places like Montreal. When it takes months to see a doctor who rushes you, the private options prevalent in the US start sounding attractive.
So let's make sure this fool has no leg to stand on by properly funding our public healthcare system, treating our healthcare workers right, and by reducing the barriers to the recognition of foreign healthcare workers' credentials.
That just sounds exactly like the US system though but you have to pay for it. My girlfriend has been dealing with medical stuff lately and was being bounced around between places with a month or more waiting time between each one. And whenever something came up that she would want to ask her primary care provider about it would be a few months for an appointment. The US system as far as I can tell doesn't really have much better wait times yet people still act like it's better here when my experience is it very much isn't.
Isn't private healthcare still an option? Not that it should be the case, but I'd much rather pay a thousand a month (which is cheap) for my family to have prompt access to primary care and virtually nothing (?) for hospital trips, specialist etc.
I'm not sure how it works in places with UHC, and my job pays 100% of my insurance now, but a few years ago I was paying $1200 a month where my employer split the cost and still had to pay $300 for every doctor visit for me and about $50 for my son. Anytime any of us were in the hospital we had to ask at every step how much something would cost because we've ended up with a few hospital bills totaling up to crippling debt that we'll never get out of.
Even with my insurance costing me nothing now I still pay ~$200 for every doctor visit because we never hit out deductible of ~$6000 which keeps getting raised every few months. We definitely could hit that deductable but we'd still end up owing money for every little thing. I avoid going to the doctors because we can't afford it. We have to save for any tests/procedures at this point, I've been putting off an echo and stress test that I'm supposed to get every 6 months for about a year and a half, my heart medication just doubled in price, an ultrasound for my pregnant wife cost us $800 last month and for some reason it didn't apply towards our deductible.
Paying 1k$ a month for doctors is completely ridiculous in Canada. I'm comfortable right now but that would completely break my budget.
It is an option I guess for the rich rich, but for the vast majority that's just not a thing that we'd consider "reasonable", much less "cheap".
Employer health insurance covers dental, drugs, eyes though. So people that don't have it struggle and that's not nothing. Which is why the government just passed some limited coverage but it's not universal as it should be.
So you see: completely different mindset.
Hey no fair, give it to the current citizens first
What is with the huge amount of idiots who would rather pay hundreds or thousands a month in insurance and healthcare costs just to save a couple hundred a year in taxes? Its actually unbelievably dumb.
Yank here. So, we don't have broad public healthcare because it keeps middle class people terrified of losing their white collar jobs. It also appeals to American racism, putting barriers up for people of color and the working poor to get equal treatment. Many Americans would happily screw themselves over to ensure someone else (they hate) has it worse.
We have hours long lines at private urgent care, and seeing a general practice doc takes 3 to 6 months of wait time (if you're lucky). Also, I'm queer. If The U.S. did have broad public healthcare, it would instantly be weaponized against all LGBTQ+ folks.
Tldl, in the States it's mostly about keeping the middle class terrified of losing their jobs, and ensuring there are working-poor people to sneer at.
Won’t you think of the poor healthcare execs? How will they afford their home in Aspen???
Better healthcare is easy, with a small loan of a million dollars.
Im Dead…..lol
I spent thirty years in the States and seven years now in Canada. I can say with absolutely certainty that the US system is fucked. I've never paid a dime in Canada.
I got major surgery in Canada. I took out my wallet to show them photoID. Then I put it away.
My entire, full bill for surgery? I paid for parking.
No thank you.
My wife went to the ER after hurting her foot, it was an hour wait and the only cost was $40 for a set of crutches.
I like our system.
In the US you'd have a 4 to 6 hour wait, $3000 to hospital for using the ER, $2000 for the doctor, and if there were scans and such a $$$$$ for using them! Oh also they will take months to bill you but also send it to debt collectors if you don't pay it for a month so then all of your personal data is sold and you get harassed to pay your debt!
Here's a fun one my wife got:
She picked an in network doctor for her treatment so insurance would cover it. She got a large bill anyway because the office that the doctor worked in was out of network.
It's literally impossible to get insurance coverage. You can pick the doctor or building (I've read anesthesiologists can be separate too.) But you are going to pay a bill that insurance won't cover.
… if you’re lucky.
Agreed. My fiancee had some pregnancy complications that resulted in numerous visits to the ER, including one that then required ambulance transfer to a bigger hospital an hour away and a 2 week stay there. One of the weeks she had to share a room and I couldn't stay overnight, but I was set up with a social worker who arranged a paid for hotel room for me a couple minutes away. Overall, I ended up paying $10 for parking at the big hospital (the social worker gave me a pass after I paid the first day), and maybe $20-30 on some really good Nanaimo bars from the lobby coffee shop. The family we shared the room with was in a similar situation, but since they lived further away they were flown in by air ambulance from their hospital, also at no cost.
A lot of Canadians have to wait exorbitant amounts of time to see a doctor, it's not always fast and effective service.
Oh you got cancer? That specialist can see you in 6 months when you're already dead.
Don't get me wrong free healthcare is great in that it's free, but that doesn't always guarantee it's good or fast.
That's not accurate, that is repeating the line private places want you to say about provincial or national care.
I had cancer. When test came back positive, they got me in the next week for surgery, then to the center to do the paperwork and scans and predental work. They then needed another week or two to have 3d scans used to define the radition paths for the machine, and set up hospital visits and chemo. I was done treatment in 2 months.
The six month wait seems like BS unless you have a source.
Dude Americans pay more out of pocket for healthcare than any other country and get worse results.
Like, I have no idea what state you reside in but I have had months long wait times to see docs in the USA. Your made up example can be applied to the USA just the same except we're just paying more money for the privilege.
Our system is absolutely fucked.
Tired of this lie, tbh.
The waits are probably, on average, a little longer, sure. The "someone is waiting an absurd amount of time with an obvious visible problem and they've died while waiting" is pure privatization propaganda fueled by people going to the hospital for things like prescription refills and being shocked when they're pushed to the bottom of the list over and over again while people come in with genuine, time sensitive problems.
6 months? You think 6 months to see an oncologist is rare in the US?
Are you including the number of people who don't seek any care until they end up in the ER with acute symptoms because they couldn't go in to get regular screening or preventive care?
And before you say that should be covered by the ACA you are still ignoring that hospitals are open 9-5 and the people who can't make it to the hospital are working the job they need for health insurance during those same hours, provided they have transportation and can take off more than an hour to wait for the primary care to visit them.
Not to mention, if the cancer hasn't progressed to stage 3 or 4 by that point, the health insurance won't likely be paying for the most effective treatment, they'll be paying for the treatment "they have on record for effective treatment".
And who's to say you can even get into an oncologist familiar with your cancer? Then may feel more comfortable referring you to a John Hopkins, or Mayo Clinic, or one in California. So now you have to pay for transportation and living expenses in another state while you get treatment and don't work. Some insurances might cover this. Most won't. Some companies will foot the bill. Most will laugh at you.
6 months? It's a 5 month wait to get a new primary care provider here. Fuck your 6 month complaint.
Would you rather reach in and pick an item from
Sack 1, which contains [rusty nails, angry scorpions, razor blades, one fun sized candy bar]
Sack 2, which contains [various candy bars, one rusty nail]
The US is sack 1 in this metaphor. People should improve the canadian system, but there's no reasonable take that they're at all similar
That's hyperbolic, but in any case if I'm going to die from either country's healthcare shortfalls I'd much prefer my family not be left with mortgage sized debt at the same time.
Horseshit.
Triage works well here once it kicks in. It can take a long time to see a specialist, but if you have a good GP who is concerned about life-threatening disease, the system goes into very high speed.
Chronic disease is another issue, but that is more a problem with philosophy than implementation.
My dad is pretty wealthy and he flies to Mexico to avoid waiting. US healthcare is way too expensive even for him.
I don’t have a good sense how long specialists can take but it seems to vary.
Funny, because I know plenty of people in Ohio who have gone to Canada specifically for better and more affordable medical treatment.
I know people in AZ and southern California who do the same thing but to Mexico
To be fair, I know people from Ontario who had to travel to Buffalo for diagnostics, because they had to wait for over 9 months in Ontario, and the cost of few thousand dollars was not that great to them.
and the cost of few thousand dollars was not that great to them.
How wonderful for them....
That is Doug Fords doing, he is purposely dismantling the system for his buddies when have private care setup
That's basically it, right? Per person it treats, the US system is a lot less efficient. It works "better" by leaving some people outside to die so the rich don't have to worry about waiting or sharing.
Trump, and anyone giving him a platform, can go fuck themselves!
Canada dont believe the lie!
Whoever is whispering dumb shit in Trump's ear needs to go away.
Stephen miller, the microdick nazi filth.
Luigi would disagree.
That's really the only public figure you can trust on issues of health insurance in the US, everyone lese is lying as First Lady Trump's statement confirm... Again.
When he says, "They'd have much better health coverage" he's talking about the rich people. Not normal people!
He doesn't consider normal people, people.
The rich people won't have any better coverage, either. I know someone who had his daughter flown to the Mayo Clinic for mono. Yes, her case was very bad, yes, they were Canadian, no, that's not an option that is available to the majority of us, and no, being part of America won't appreciably improve their options more than that.
Eat shit orange rapist.
The media needs to stop reporting 'neutrally' on this bullshit, and call it out as expansionist lies.
The owners of the media support Trump. When this shit is all over the oligarchs need to be in jail and their wealth given back to the people.
Eh. At that point you're reading someone's polemic. I find myself basically filtering out the opinion and adjectives again when I read those kinds of things, to get back just the facts.
I wouldn't call it better in any way, but if you're as rich as Trump I guess it might be. The article concludes with the average US health payment prominently in it's own paragraph.
Yeah, Luigi delivered a message of love.
You keep your $1,300 insulin. I like my access to vaccines and $0 hospital stays.
“Mr. Trump, fuck off” will be the universal response of the western world before March.
Before March? I thought it already was on Tuesday.
I'd get shot, dead. As a Canadian I would be bound to defend the country and will murder as many america invaders and Quislings as possible, So Id be killed for it - just the way it'd go,
Sign me up too
California is already wading their feet in ceding, they should join Canada. If not as a provence then as a federation or something
I've seen a couple references to this. How serious is the discussion down there?
Size-wise, California would basically be a second Canada if it was independent. For that reason, I doubt we would jump at it (although I'd support it). There's the whole 1860's precedent that you aren't allowed leaving, though.
I wonder if they could convince Oregon and Washington to go with them. We could have a friendly American border again.
I've never heard of Americans going to Canada for cheaper medication!
/s
@HellsBelle better for people like him, who would profit.
This is what Ford and Poilievre want too, btw
Yup, PP was just at a fundraiser thrown by someone who profits massively from private health care clinic chain investments in the US.
Oh just shut the fuck up with the rhetoric.
Yeah and the clouds would become cotton candy and all rivers would turn into the most beautiful wine, and everybody would be beautiful and high 100% of the time
Uh huh