These are full quotes taken from a forum site of which I am a part... the site is a cross section of people from around the world. A thread was started for people to tell their medical stories, the good and the bad. This is a personal issue for me, not a political one. I wanted to know what was going to happen to my family in a more socialized health care system. There has been a lot of ignorance on both sides of the political spectrum so I wanted human answers to my questions. This is incredibly insightful because these aren't quotes from a documentary with an agenda; they real people telling real stories... read through them and make a decision for yourself.
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I live in Victoria, BC, Canada, and when I was twenty years old I fell down a flight of forty stairs at a local night club, cleanly breaking my ulna and nigh-shattering my radius. It was bad enough that I required steel plates and pins which remain in my forearm to this day. I broke it on the Friday night, stayed in a small but comfortable ward in the hospital with four other patients until my surgery on the Sunday morning. I stayed in the hospital the Sunday night, then asked if I could stay the Monday as well and talk to a physiotherapist about what I should do to have the bones heal as quickly as possible with minimal muscle damage/loss. They obliged. I wasn't feeling so hot after talking to physio, so I was offered a further night's stay at the hospital, which I accepted. So in all, I was in hospital from Friday night until Tuesday morning.
Total cost to me for a three day hospital stay, surgery, and eventual rehabilitation: if I recall correctly, I paid $50 for my full-arm cast.
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I live in Massachusetts, where health care is mandatory. Since I run a start-up business and don't make a ton of money, I was able to sign up for the state health care plan.My doctor works 3 minutes from my office, I was able to pick her myself. I have a $10 co-pay, and since I'm a healthy male, my visits are infrequent. I love my state run health plan.