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James Barry

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    • Family, friends, and co-workers of mine have been able to receive treatment promptly in most cases. A well-off woman I know could not wait for a hip replacement and paid out-of-pocket to have the procedure done in Dallas. (I believe the wait time in Canada is a year.) There are also regional considerations in a country as vast as Canada, where the population is concentrated heavily along the US border. A former next-door neighbor of mine, an ear surgeon, makes a one-week visit to northern Canada once per year. So if you miss his visit by a month, you would wait 11 months to see him. (I might add that the trip is made primarily at his expense, so credit where credit's due.)

      Post: This deserves a rant. The United States approach to paying for healthcare is a joke.

      Link to comment from August 17, 2024

    • And before I get corrected about "government-paid", I'm aware that it's taxpayer-paid. I mean that the government handles the paperwork.

      Post: This deserves a rant. The United States approach to paying for healthcare is a joke.

      Link to comment from August 17, 2024

    • Canadians do not have the opportunity to opt out and buy private insurance. We can pay out of pocket to a private clinic ---- very rare --- or we can travel to another country and pay there. A physician who accepts money directly cannot participate in the government-paid program, and I don't know of a single doctor who follows this route. Your last point is correct: the system works pretty well.

      Post: This deserves a rant. The United States approach to paying for healthcare is a joke.

      Link to comment from August 17, 2024

    • Was your colleague's field "income inequality"? After all, you don't have to be against it!

      Post: A Time to Spend

      Link to comment from January 13, 2024

    • Absolutely! We all have things we won't spend extra money on. For us, it's premium economy or business class seats. Although I always ask my wife, "You do realize that the people at the front of the plane get to the destination first?"

      Post: A Time to Spend

      Link to comment from January 13, 2024

    • There's a backwards-bragging community on HD. It reminds me of the movie "Metroplitan", where someone is accused of being a "public transportation snob" --- a person who considers taking the bus morally superior to taking taxis. Here, it rears its head on old cars, and people attempt to one-up each other with their frugality. No doubt, plenty of people spend an outsized amount on cars, presumably because it's one of the least-expensive ways to look wealthy. Here's my take: driving an old car doesn't make you worse than someone who drives something new and fancy. But it doesn't make you better, either. Awaiting the flames!

      Post: A Time to Spend

      Link to comment from January 13, 2024

    • Good point. He doesn't actually clarify if he said "I don't want kids" or "I don't want kids, I want a Porsche instead".

      Post: Parting Ways

      Link to comment from November 24, 2023

    • Your ex-wife isn't here to defend herself, but I think you're better-off without a spouse who won't even tolerate a discussion about what you might wish to purchase. (I suspect that there were pre-existing issues.) I had a different experience. I purchased a Porsche (for cash) while my wife of thirty years was staying with her parents. (She was helping her father recover from surgery.) I texted her and said, "I went shopping today" and she replied, "Oh good, to the supermarket?". I said, "Uh, no, to the Porsche dealer." She replied, "Great, I'm glad for you." It might interest readers to know that, apparently, 97% of Porsches built in the last 25 years are still running today. Another rumor, also unverified, is that 60% of all Porsches ever made are still operational. We keep ours at our winter home in Arizona, where it spends half the year in storage. We put about 10 000 miles a year on it and have it serviced frequently. Our local mechanic says "it'll run forever" if the oil and key components are changed when necessary.

      Post: Parting Ways

      Link to comment from November 24, 2023

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