Canadian Healthcare from a Canadian...

[jsarno]

Here is an e-mail from a friend of mine that lives in Canada, I thought I would share because this seems to be a pressing issue, and will be even more so when the presidential debates heat up:

Canadian Health Care

I saw on the news up here in Canada that Hillary Clinton introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives with the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about this great medical plan that we have in Canada:

1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every month of $96 for Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great eh? What they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that, and I am not sure of the exact amount, goes directly to health care, our #1 expense.

2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is more like a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough so he can tell you 'yes, indeed, you are sick', or 'you need an operation', but now the challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting lists out the ying yang, some as much as 2 years down the road.

3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to prescribe drugs. Have a pain, here is a drug to take -- not what is causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour for Government reimbursement.

4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.

5) Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the emergency room waiting for treatment.

6) Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it required that his hand be put in a splint -- to our surprise we had to pay $125 for a splint because it is not covered under health care, plus we have to pay $60 for each visit to the doctor for him to check it out each week.

7) Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a waiting list. Died before he could get treatment.

8) Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case and embarrass the government, then money suddenly appears.

9) The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the problem, but it never goes away. They are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they don't call it a tax anymore--it is now a user fee.

10) A friend needs an operation for a blockage in her leg, but because she is a smoker they will not do it. Despite paying into the health care system all these years. My friend is 65 years old. Now there is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because they are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in Canada is a health care system for healthy people only? That should reduce our health care costs.

11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.

12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes, junk food and anything else that could kill me, but I am not allowed by law to spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be jumping the queue. I must wait my turn unless I am a hockey player or athlete, then I can get looked at right away. Go figure. Where else in the world can you spend money to kill yourself, but are not allowed to spend money to get healthy.

13) Oh, did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at taxpayer expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no premiums?

14) Oh, yeh, we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the health care system have to pay for their needles because it is not covered by the health care system.

I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the states you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject. Step wisely and don't make the same mistakes we have.

Several years ago, I went to Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati to visit with Lewis Foster, an esteemed professor of The Cincinnati Bible Seminary (now Cincinnati Christian University). He had just returned from an extended visit in England. While there, he had what the doctors thought was probably a heart attack. I was talking with Betty, his wife. She said they went to the doctor who thought he probably had a heart attack, but couldn't be totally sure as he did not have an EKG machine in his office.

The doctor explained that there was a 3-month wait to get into a hospital, regardless of your problem. They asked if the doctor thought he could make it back to the states, and the doctor 'supposed' he could. They arranged a flight as soon as possible. Betty said he had a rough time of it, and they had an ambulance waiting at the Greater Cincinnati Airport to bring him straight to Deaconess Hospital. He did recover. Betty went on to explain that there was no incentive for a doctor to buy any expensive equipment as it would put nothing more in his pocket to do so. That certainly opened my eyes to the 'lacking and failures' of a socialized medical system.

Someone once said, 'If you think medical treatment is expensive now, you should see what it costs when it's free.'