Thank goodness Canada’s got socialized healthcare!
As we are constantly told by lefties who are trying to englighten us about our own dismal healthcare system, all Canadians (and Britons, Swedes, French and Japanese) love their healthcare system, and would never, ever trade for our medieval, benighted healthcare system.
Like Danny Williams, premier of the Canadian provinces of Labrador and Newfoundland, who’s getting some much-needed medical attention:
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is set to undergo heart surgery this week…
Wow. Best of luck, Mr. Williams. Glad to see that you are covered by Canada’s first-class healthcare system, which serves the health needs of its citizens so very very well…
…in the United States.
CBC News confirmed Monday that Williams, 60, left the province earlier in the day and will have surgery later in the week.
Oh.
Does the Mayo Clinic give deference to CanadaCare? They don’t seem interested in giving it ot those with Medicare. Appears that that gov run program doesn’t cover the clinics out of pocket costs. Maybe Danny has the extra-special CanadaCare, for extra special Canadians. Something on the line with what the US Congress gives itself!
Canada actually pays a reasonable amount of reimbursement for treatment in the US, unlike Medicare.
I know that many of the Canuk snowbirds with winter homes in Florida managed to get “emergency treatment” down in Florida rather than wait the usual 18 month waiting period in Canada for hip replacements.
from your own link, Mitch:
“The premier’s office provided few details, beyond confirming that he would have heart surgery and saying that it was not necessarily a routine procedure.”
Which at least suggests that the reason for his visit to the US was that someone here had experience with some unusual sort of heart surgery, not a deficiency in the Canadian health care system.
You seem to ignore Mitch all of those individuals in the United States who are now going out of the country for FAR less expensive but apparently highly qualified routine procedures. It has become a new form of tourism, combining health care with vacations. It suggests that there is a deficiency HERE in the US, and that we do NOT have the “Best Healthcare System in the World”, by any – ANY- of the usually applied metric.
We’re having a similar discussion over on Penigma, where we have just added a guest author, an MD, who writes about health care issues and medical ethics. I just put up an article from him on ‘defensive medicine’.
Dog Gone, if you read the same story about “medical tourism” that I did, it was a shallow article that made its points using anecdotal stories and quotes from the Costa Rican minister for tourism. Shoddy journalism, given credence only by the foolish.
Dog Gone said:
“Which at least suggests that the reason for his visit to the US was that someone here had experience with some unusual sort of heart surgery, not a deficiency in the Canadian health care system.”
So a lack of “unusual” experience is not a deficiency? Really? And when you say “usually applied metric”, I wonder: applied by whom? Partisans who want things arranged in a way that suits themselves?
Which at least suggests that the reason for his visit to the US was that someone here had experience with some unusual sort of heart surgery, not a deficiency in the Canadian health care system.
No, DG, it absolutely suggests a deficiency in the Canadian system. Canada is a modern country with ample resources. You would think that there is a Canadian heart surgeon available who could handle the needs of Premier Williams. But it would appear there isn’t. That’s a deficiency.
You seem to ignore Mitch all of those individuals in the United States who are now going out of the country for FAR less expensive but apparently highly qualified routine procedures. It has become a new form of tourism, combining health care with vacations. It suggests that there is a deficiency HERE in the US, and that we do NOT have the “Best Healthcare System in the World”, by any – ANY- of the usually applied metric.
It’s nice to have choices and I don’t begrudge anyone wanting a little tourism with their medical work. But that’s the key — the choice is available. Are you arguing that routine procedures are unavailable in the U.S., DG? That’s not the case, now is it?
I had major surgery in 2007. The wait time between initial diagnosis and surgery was a week. If I had lived in Labrador, I’d have had to wait 13 1/2 weeks (per this article from the CBC)just to see the specialist and up to half a year to get the surgery. In the deficient healthcare system we’re saddled with here in the U.S., I saw four separate specialists (neurosurgeon, otalarynologist, neurologist and endocrinologist) on the same day I received the initial diagnosis.
This guy has been compared to Liberals in DC….force the little people into poorly run public schools, but they send their kids to elite private schools.
“…we do NOT have the “Best Healthcare [sic]System in the World”, by any – ANY- of the usually applied metric.[sic]”
Yeah, I guess…just so long as survival isn’t included as one of those “usually applied metric” [s], I guess you have a point there ol’ gal….it’s at the top of your head, but it’s a point.
pfffft.
Which at least suggests that the reason for his visit to the US was that someone here had experience with some unusual sort of heart surgery, not a deficiency in the Canadian health care system.
Buncombe. L’nN are about a one-hour flight or four hour drive from Montreal and Toronto – Canada’s major cities, home of whatever passes for their major hospitals.
You seem to ignore…
No, DG, I didn’t “ignore” them. They were well outside the scope of an article about Premier Williams.
Can the American system be improved? Certainly. Would socializing it improve it? HELL no.
we do NOT have the “Best Healthcare System in the World”, by any – ANY- of the usually applied metric.
Again, untrue. Healthcare tourism is in the same category as exporting manufacturing jobs; it means someone has exercised a choice to get a service overseas. By the way, do you honestly believe it’s the poor and underinsured that are going to Costa Rica?
Indeed, it’s utterly absurd to call medical tourism a sign of weakness in our system; it’s a sign of strength in the regional healthcare system, if anything.
By the way, I notice you ignored 🙂 all the hospitals and clinics sprinign up on the US side of the Canadian border for exactly the same reason…
We’re having a similar discussion over on Penigma, where we have just added a guest author, an MD, who writes about health care issues and medical ethics. I just put up an article from him on ‘defensive medicine’.
Well, I would love to get some of the Canadian MDs I know who moved to North Dakota to practice.
We’re having a similar discussion over on Penigma, where we have just added a guest author, an MD, who writes about health care issues and medical ethics.
Must be one of Penigma’s neighbors. . .
“it absolutely suggests a deficiency in the Canadian system.”
Spot on, Mr. D
Medical Tourism is a definite trend (I can vouch for this from my Day Writer job). The issue isn’t that the care is better abroad, in fact, the selling point is that the care is as good as what people get in the States, but for far less money. It’s also worth noting that many of the doctors and specialists at these clinics in, say, Belize or Costa Rica, are U.S. trained and use technology and treatment protocols developed or refined here.
Cost is the driving factor…you get similar quality care for less. For elective and even non-elective procedures many U.S. health plans not only allow members to get care out-of-country, they encourage it. It may be worth looking into why the costs are different (cost-shifting of care for non-insureds is one factor in the U.S.) but people aren’t leaving the country in order to get better care or to by-pass waiting lines for treatment, which are both common motives for Canadians. There are also documented cases of pregnant Canadian women being taken to U.S. hospitals both because of a complicated delivery requiring advanced neo- or perinatal care, OR because there were no beds or ob-gyns available closer to home even for routine deliveries.
Any time any lefty wonders why they have the reputation of being elitists the should watch Obama’s Nashua, NH Town Hall meeting:
http://www.shallownation.com/2010/02/02/obama-new-hampshire-town-hall-video-speech-meeting-in-nashua-2-2-10/
Obama thinks the people of this country are children. If Bush had been this paternalistc and condescending in trying to sell the Iraq War both the left and the right would have been rioting in the street.
American healthcare is great. Which is great for those of us who can afford insurance.
Labrador and Newfoundland are to Canada what North Dakota is to the U.S. of A. Not a lot of rocket surgeons up there, if you know what Angryclown means.
“If Bush had been this paternalistc and condescending in trying to sell the Iraq War both the left and the right would have been rioting in the street.”
Yeah, the lying worked out much better.
No, AC, Newfoundland is treated by many Canadians (and especially the Quebec folks) much like New Yorkers treat Mississippi. Last I heard over 30% of Newfoundland was on the equivalent of welfare.
Prithee, good sir clown, what is a “rocket surgeon”?
And Nerdbert, Newfoundland is treated by many Canadians much like New Yorkers treat the rest of the US of A. (btw, The 70% that aren’t on welfare are working in Fort McMurray)
Clown, I have banned you from reading my comments. If you keep this up, I shall have to invoke “rule 42”.
mnbubba, you might ask the Clown what I think of City folk; upstaters aren’t without sense, but folks from the City leave a lot to be desired when they leave their little island.
For example, I’ve had to haul more New Yorkers out of the Presidentials than I care to count. Walking the White Mountains where folks have died in blizzards in every month of the year (I’ve seen 100mph blizzards in August up there on Mt. Washington) in t-shirts and sneakers with no water? Darwin would be proud.
Actually, a buddy pointed out that in the last few years the Newfies have done pretty well, taking themselves from last to 3rd best in poverty. When I was out there last the Newfies had been slammed into poverty by the Canuks putting the Grand Banks off limits and low commodity prices. But now the Newfs have much more oil and mining coming on strong and some fishing has been reopened. They’ve managed to get to 2nd highest GDP/capita in Canada which is a big comeback.
DiscoStoo – the vast majority of Americans have insurance. So why screw up the system for everyone? Why not just come up with a solution to deal with the 14–40 million who don’t have insurance?
Here is an oldie but still a goodie…
Why do Newfies want Quebec to separate?
.
.
So their drive to Toronto will be 6 hours shorter!
This is a province where a candidate once run on a platform to build a facility to manufacture outboard engines. So they can strap them to the coast and tow the Island to warmer climate. No kidding!
Joking aside, Newfies are wonderful. I got to know quite a few of them over the years. Countryside is absolutely gorgeous.
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Do they have insurance that actually covers care? I’ve had insurance that would have putatively covered a major injury, but still would bankrupt me after deductible and 80/20 coverage because I was working full time making $13 an hour.
The solution for those 14-40 million people is a low-cost public plan they would have the option of purchasing. How is that overhauling the whole system?
Wrong again stooj.
How do you know it would bankrupt you? You ASSume too much. Care providers can work with you by giving discounts and payment plans.
Most insurance is mandated to cover stuff from port wine stains to chemical dependency…. pregnancy….
Hardly the coverage a straight and narrow young man in seminary school needs; you have to agree.
Those 14 million can be absorbed into current programs while we take a serious look at small meaningful reforms.
Without knowing the details of your plan I can’t say, Disco.
However, in MA, they have found that people will jump onto the public plan when they have medical problems and they will then jump off of it when they feel healthy. If people do this you’ve screwed up the ‘shared risk’ aspect of insurance.
There is also the ‘two tier’ issue. Any plan that becomes the plan of last resort — the one for poor people — will not be payed for by poor people, but by the middle and upper classes. It is in their interests to put as little of their tax dollars as possible into the plan. Downward spiral, here we come!
In MA the cost of mandated health insurance varies depending on age, location, and coverage, from $100/month (high copayment and deductible) to $900/month (low copayment and low deductible).
In MA, if you make $13/hour, carry the cheapest mandated, subsidized insurance, and need, say, a $25,000 medical procedure you are still headed for bankruptcy court.
Those 14 million can be absorbed into current programs while we take a serious look at small meaningful reforms.
They why aren’t we doing that? How do we “absorb” them into private plans?
In MA, if you make $13/hour, carry the cheapest mandated, subsidized insurance, and need, say, a $25,000 medical procedure you are still headed for bankruptcy court.
Tell krod that. He doesn’t believe it. I say that we can do better.
Disco, “We can do better” doesn’t apply to the proposed legislation anymore than “We can do worse”.
Y’know, Stu, I would love to have cheaper health insurance that duplicates the coverage myself & spouse have now. That costs the comapny I work for and me about $10k/yr.
Back in ’00 I had a bicycle accident. I fractured my skull and collarbone. It took an air-ambulance ride, several nights in a hospital hundreds of miles from my home, and the attention of a neurosurgeon before I went back to work. I was out for about three weeks. The total bill was ~$30 thousand dollars. That would probably be considered cheap these days.
I worked for a good company and had good insurance. My time off was covered by sick time and my share of the $30k bill was around $2k. A lot of that was for the air ambulance. My insurance didn’t cover it.
I didn’t like paying the $2k out-of-pocket, but I could pay it and I did.
I have a feeling that most people believe that paying 5% of their income for their health insurance is fair.
I don’t think 5% will do it.
“Then why aren’t we doing that?”
Becuase Obama would rather take over the whole system, stooj.
You know his Liberal Fascist tactics; ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ and ‘if you don’t have a crisis, then make one up’.