As far as the ER is concerned, my wife is an ER doctor in San Jose, CA. You’re right about immigrants coming in for treatment – however, they do get referred to the County for follow up treatment for free. They have to make an appointment and wait a few weeks to be seen. They are a bigger problem in some hospitals, but not all the hospitals.
The real problem is foreign people who are supposed to be temporarily working in the US, who are enrolled in an insurance plan, show up on a Sunday night, with a baby who has a rash, demand to be seen for a non-emergency, pay a $100 deductible co-pay, occupy a bed for a couple of hours, get tested for a number of things to verify it’s only a rash (which generally costs $5,000) and then sent home and told to follow up with their family doctor. The rash doesn’t go away in a couple of days, they don’t follow up with the family doctor because they don’t elect to have one, they go back to the emergency room, demand to be seen, the doctor orders $5,000 more tests, tells them everything is fine go home and make an appointment with their family doctor. The rash goes away the next day.
My wife tells me this is the equivalent of 80% of the people she sees in the emergency room. The other 20% are real life threatening cases. Oh, and there is a 2 hour waiting list, sometimes much longer.
The US health care is a complete disaster.
RE: Vancouver
Vancouver’s Recovery is actually due to the Japanese investing in RE there during the 90’s. Whistler/Blackcomb is Japan’s 2nd hottest winter destination. It is N. America’s number one ski resort according to the Snow Skiing Industry (not for total visitors). They [Japanese] did a fantastic job developing the area – it should be a model for every ski resort in the US.
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