sitnspin

I'm sure he had life insurance, but yeah -- other members of the family were pretty badly injured, so there are ongoing medical costs. But a lot of it is just the MMA community's wish to do something for his family after they've suffered such a loss, so they're raising money for them. I'm sure, given the choice, they'd pass up on all the donations if they could have Ryan back, right?

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Nimmy

medical costs in the US are terrible, we are very lucky 2 benefit from a free health service

sitnspin

Same here. I've never had to pay for a single hospital visit, from physicals to x-rays to various surgeries. It's hard to believe that in the US you get charged by the stitch and aspirin, and unless you have some kind of third-party medical coverage, you're screwed.

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Kentified

It really is, it baffles me how people can look to make so much money off of people who need help. It reminds me of that Lois and Clark episode in like season 2 when an ordinary guy inherits Supermans powers and starts charging people for saving them from disasters. (Yes, I watched Lois and Clark... It was a good show. )

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Jras0001

It is true that here in the states medical care is high, but with that we also get more choices than we would if we had a national health care plan. Here, if you can aford it and you arent happy with your doctor or the treatment, then you simply go to another or go to a specialist. There is no one to tell you "sorry, we wont cover that treatement because its too risky or it costs way too much with a low survival rate." You can choose whatever doctor or treatment you want and that you or your insurance is willing to or able to pay for. My sister-in-law lives north of london now and has experienced both systems and has said that she prefers how it is here. You just have more freedom within this system. Unfortunately, there are those who dont have or cant afford insurance and thier medical bills are high. Sadly, that is a side effect of a system like the U.S. has.

Thanks for the answers about the Bennet fund raising...I was just curious.

sitnspin

I don't know how things are in the UK, but here in Canada, it works exactly the way you say your system does, in terms of choice over your doctor and method of treatment. They might be feeding you some bad info in order to make you feel better about the state of health care in the U.S., but we've got everything you've got, and it's free.

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Jras0001

What type of tax rate is there in Canada?

sitnspin

It's higher than the states, but not by much. The bulk of our income tax is federal, and then each province takes some too, at their own rate. For example, someone making 50k in Ontario would pay 22% to the Federal government (this isn't including any deductions), and another 6% to the Province.

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Jras0001

I see, thats not too much different than the states. Some states, such as New Hampshire, doesnt have its own income tax but you still pay into federal. However, property taxes are insane and vehicle registration every year is pretty bad too.

angryjonny

I was watching the news the other day and there was a woman talking about her husband who had several surgeries then passed away and the medical costs were over a couple million. That was just for one person. So I imagine with the whole family being seriously injured as well as Ryan passing away the bills are ridiculous.

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Jras0001

Ya, it really depends on the types of surgery hes having dont. If he was having some really experimental stuff done where only like 2 doctors in the world can perform the procedure, then ya, its goning to be very expensive. It also depends on how much care is needed in the hospital. If he spent the entire time in the intensive care unit, then it would be very expensive for that as well.

Bomber

Canada Trumps U.S. in Healthcare, Harvard Study Says

Americans are less healthy than Canadians and have poorer and less accessible healthcare despite spending about twice as much on it per capita, according to a study published by three Harvard Medical School scientists last week.
(snip)
Himmelstein, however, said he believes that American satisfaction stems from what he calls the “Iron Curtain". "Americans are not allowed to see what’s going on in the rest of the world” for fear that they would demand another system, he said.

Himmelstein said that administrative costs accounted for one cent of every dollar spent on healthcare in Canada, but 15 cents for every dollar in America.

“Americans are getting extraordinarily poor value for money in our healthcare system,” he said.

The results are based on the Joint Canada/U.S. Survey of Health, a random phone survey conducted in both countries in 2002 and 2003, and were published last Wednesday in the American Journal of Public Health.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513741

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