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Health Care Reform-Question about Canadian Health Care

Posted: Dec 3, 2009

So....a friend is for our US health care reform (already retired and on Medicare) because he had no trouble going to Canada to get laser surgery on his eyes so he wouldn't have to wear glasses and states there is nothing wrong with the Canadian system....but, and I'm asking a serious question here, how long do people really wait for emergent surgery if they belong to the Canadian system versus the American system as we have it now?

How did Canada get their health care system up and running? Did they take away from Medicare (if the Canadians have that type of system) as this government wants to do (take $500B from Medicare to float the payments)? How did they get the scores of people that signed up for it? Did they force people into this system or did they all sign up willingly? What are their monthly costs?

Where would I go to research their program? I really want to compare ALL government run programs by other countries before I decide whether our health care reform is going to be half decent, but have limited time to do it on my own, so if anyone has any resources they can supply to me, I would be grateful. I'm trying to compare other systems to what they are trying to pass now.

I still believe we should reform the fraud in our Medicare system before taking on another "boondoogle" and want facts and figures to digest the info. I was reading the bill again today since changes were made and they still have the abortion part in it plus the "tax" for those who do not join.

You mail email me privately if you want UNLESS you are going to bash. I will delete all those emails.

TIA for your input.

;

Try Google. - SM

[ In Reply To ..]
All it takes is a simple Google search to get the answers to your questions. Here is one link, but there are many, many more from which to choose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_Canada

Canadian Healthcare - travelinMT

[ In Reply To ..]
I don't think you can compare other government run health care plans with what would be put in effect in the US. They are just that...Govt. run and each Govt. is going to run it differently.

As for health care access...there is a reason the wealthy Canadians cross the border into the US for care. In a word accessibility. I have several Canadian friends who have told me their own horror stories. I can give you 5 different cases right now:

Middle aged man who thought he was still a teenager went snowboarding (for the first time. Fell and tore every ligament in his knee, it took him 6 months to get an MRI.

Woman with a suspicious finding on her mammogram, it took her 3 months to get an ultrasound. I worked QA in a Hospital (took a 10-year break from transcription, our standard for quality of care was 72 hrs. maximum...We called them sleepless nights...no patient should have to wonder for 3 months if she has breast cancer or not.

A male in his late 50's was having heart problems, severe edema...took him 2 months to get the cardioversion they determined he needed. The doc told him since no appts. were available to go ahead and go to Mexico on vacation and they would do it when he came back. He was a mess in Mexico, edema like you would not believe, short of breath and you could tell he just was not feeling well at all.

Female in her mid 20's fell while skiing on a Friday afternoon resulting in a compound fracture of her tibia taken off the mountain by ski patrol and to the hospital in ambulance when she arrived the orthopedic surgeon had left for the day and there was no other surgeon on duty until Monday morning so they kept her on morphine for the pain all weekend.

Young girl early 20's with a severe thyroid problem. The medication that worked for her was taken out of their list of available/covered drugs. She was in Mexico trying to find the medication down there because what they had switched her to was not working (she said the original one was too expensive) so they quit letting the docs prescribe it.

None of this can be considered quality patient care, these standards are unacceptable in the US and do not fall under our quality of care guidelines.

These are 4 people I know personally and one was a friend of mine's sister. Clearly, their system is not what we are used to in health care standards.

I go to Mexico several times a year and the resort I stay at is a favorite of Canadians. I can tell you I have never seen so many people walking with canes, wheelchairs, walkers in one location. When I talk to them around the resort, they are all Canadians...something in their system/quality of care is definitely NOT working. It might be because their best doctors come to the US because they can't make any money in Canada.

There are just first hand observations/information I have and it just doesn't look like something I want to see the U.S. end up with.

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