Oh Canada

Let me tell you about a couple of patients this week in my 21st century American medical office...as always, information is omitted to protect confidentiality, unless otherwise noted.

I was seeing a patient for an acute problem. They related that they also suffered pain from tooth decay, and had chronic dental abscesses. They went to a dentist, who required a down payment for the necessary dental work. They'll have to wait until they can save up the money.

Another recent patient came in with a serious skin infection. I had prescribed an antibiotic, and asked the patient to return for close monitoring. Unfortunately, they were unable to come for the followup due to lack of funds. I also found out later that they had been unable to afford the antibiotic I had prescribed, as well. I changed the antibiotic prescription to another pharmacy, which we thought might be less expensive.

American health care, where we add insult to the injury, literally. Heartbreaking, isn't it?

And now, I'd like to share an email that I received recently from friends who live in Canada, describing their experience with the Canadian system...

"We are using the Canadian Health care system exclusively. Our family doctor, which we choose ourselves, has to refer us to a specialist (e.g. neurologist) if we need one, and both the family doctor and the neurologist visits are paid for. We pay nothing. Some things, such as unnecessary plastic surgery, are not covered by the system.

Carol, our daughter, had to have emergency surgery a couple of years ago for a bladder tumour, and everything, including specialists, tests, surgery, etc. was covered. People do have Blue Cross for things such as private rooms and special treatment. We have no personal health insurance. I prefer to pay slightly higher taxes when I am healthy, than to worry about paying for treatment when I am sick, or to worry about getting sick.

Cynthia and John were both premature babies and had to stay in hospital and incubators for several weeks until they were big enough and healthy enough to come home. We paid nothing.

We are entitled to a yearly physical exam and an eye examination every year. Extra visits for problems between these times are paid for if they are necessary. Dental is not covered.

I definitely would not trade our system for yours.

Our system is not perfect. Many people fall between the cracks, but the government does try to rectify the problem cases. At the present time we have a shortage of nurses and doctors, partly because they graduate (the doctors especially) with huge student debts, and, after graduating, are offered a lot of benefits and high wages to move to the States, so we lose a lot of Canadian trained people to the States.

Hope this clarifies things for you. Everybody has a different story. There are long waiting times for hip and knee surgery but life threatening situations are dealt with immediately."

Compare and contrast...if you had a choice, which would you choose?

YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE! SINGLE PAYER NOW! Real people suffer and die every day at the expense of the broken American medical finance system.

BE HEALTHY