On MSN Money, TheStreet had an article, “Major healthcare provider files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.”
It’s an interesting tale. A health care system that is the safety net for underprivileged communities is declaring bankruptcy. Why? Because it wasn’t compensated sufficiently for all the COVID-19 costs.
Another system whose focus is prisons and mental health facilities is also going bankrupt.
What is the commonality? Both (on the surface, at least) would seem to have a disproportionate reliance on governement funding.
In contrast, MSN Health had an Insider article, “My husband and I moved from the US to Canada 13 years ago. We love the free healthcare and the friends we’ve made.”
First, I am setting aside the reality of the author being part of an interracial couple (an uncomfortable thing in many places of the US). I also think that much of this article is more about the friendships and the freedom to be the interracial couple they are, rather than the healthcare she includes.
Our assumptions about the socialized health care that is often shared with those of us south of the US/Canada border was deeply damaged by this…
While the majority of care is free, people typically have to pay out of pocket for prescriptions, mental-health care, and dental and vision care, which can make these services inaccessible to many.
Lygia Navarro
Prescriptions are expensive! Canada is now #3 (I think the US is #1) on pricing per the CA government. Per the author, prescriptions aren’t covered (though I’m pretty sure that the underprivileged have some coverage). Yet, dental care often seems to be an indicator of overall health.
In an age of declining mental health, the lack of mental health coverage seems odd, but the truth is that mental health care had long been the realm of the upper class. Over the years in the US, mental health has become more affordable through the oft maligned health insurance system.
I know that there are very high costs for health, and certain healthcare companies seem very anti-human. Yet, with articles like these, I am more convinced that the advocacy of single-payer healthcare blinds itself to the actual care.