The one horror story that’s missing when Canadians talk about health care

[Victor_c3]

12. Personally, I love the VA

However, your note is funny.

It's kind of like where I work. Everyone hates working for my organization and constantly complains about how bad of a place it is to work in a recent employee survey. But the funny thing is nobody leaves. Something like 2% of the employees who work here have been here for a year or less and turnover is almost non existant. If it sucks so much, why have you been working here for 20 years? Is it because nowhere else can you make the money you make here, have a low-stress job, and have the closest thing anyone has to absolute job security anymore?

The same with the VA.

Personally, I have nothing but good things to say about the VA. It is a big organization and it is easy to get lost in the system, but that happens with any excessively large organization. I fully believe that the care providers are sincere and really want the best for veterans like me. I show up a complete mental wreck (I have a lot of pretty severe PTSD issues) and they help me with every aspect of my life. I have relationship problems, a social worker helps me out with that. I lost my job, another person helps me find work and helps me write a resume. I'm going crazy bouncing off the walls and someone else will just sit and listen to me rant. When I'm having good days and I bring my kids by, everyone stops and to talk or play with them. The VA is full of good people and has provided me nothing but awesome care. They have done so much for my life.

I lived in Germany for a number of years where they have socialized medicine and I never heard anyone say anything negative about it. I know there is a lot of propaganda out there from the health insurance industry, but I don't how people can't see the numbers and realize that our healthcare system is crap. We pay more per capita on healthcare than anyone else in the world and have a lower life expectancy than most other industrialized nations. I just don't get it. Our for profit healthcare system obviously isn't working as well as it should.

Another thing that I find funny is look at how, relatively speaking, successful and strong the German economy has been in the last several years. They have things like socialized medicine, environmental controls, and fair labor practices - all things that conservatives claim kill the economy. They currently have an unemployment rate of 6.8% (if I recall correctly) and are the second most exporting country in the world after China.