I'm not insured, I've got socialised healthcare...

Amanda Palmer is generating quite some chatter on Twitter these last few days with her hashtag #insurancepoll.

i asked everybody on my feed what their current situation was:
quick twitter poll. 1) COUNTRY?! 2) profession? 3) insured? 4) if not, why not, if so, at what cost per month (or covered by job)?

The feed is a fascinating snapshot of the healthcare coverage situation of people both in the US and abroad.

One thing I found particularly interesting was how every once in a while, someone living in a country offering socialized healthcare would answer "no" for question 3.

(1st and 3rd tweets in pic above)

There seems to be people in some places in the world for whom socialised healthcare is such a basic service that when asked "are you insured" they would think you mean whether they have private health insurance.

I chuckled a bit, but when you think about it, it's not such an unreasonable assumption...

Indeed, in many places, the public program does not cover all health-related expenses. For instance, in Quebec, drugs, dental and eye care are not covered past a certain age. Private insurance companies offer coverage for these services, and many of the Canadians responding "yes, insurance covered by employer" are actually referring to the complementary coverage.