SwiftVets.com

[Fort Campbell]

Reforming America’s health care system has become a defining domestic issue in the presidential race.

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry wants the federal government — that is, the taxpayer — to become the country’s catastrophic insurer. Other Democrats openly assail any private involvement in health care.

“Does this mean that the American way is wrong and that we should switch to a Canadian-style single payer system?” writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman (search). “Well, yes.”

Before Americans embrace those who advocate joining the Canadians in government-dominated health care, they ought to take a look north. Just as American pundits and politicians are calling for us to adopt policies that put us on a path to a Canadian-style system, Canadians fed up with rationed care are questioning their own.

A July poll conducted for the Canadian Medical Association (search) found that 40 percent of Canadians now grade their health care system as a C or worse.

“Year over year, Canadians have identified that their confidence in their health-care system is eroding,” said former CMA president Sunil Patel.

The reason is simple and the problem is structural.

In theory, Canadians enjoy an almost ideal system — the government pays for all necessary health care, which is delivered by private practice physicians and independent hospitals. The day-to-day reality is starkly different. When Canadians need care, they face a series of waits: one for access to a primary care doctor, another for access to scarce diagnostic equipment, and another for the necessary procedure.

Between 1993 and 2003, the median waiting time from referral by a general practitioner to treatment increased by 90 percent, from 9.3 weeks to 17.7 weeks, according to an annual survey of physicians by the Vancouver-based Fraser Institute. For cancer patients, the waiting time for medical oncology more than doubled from 2.5 weeks to 6.1 weeks, and the waiting time for radiation oncology increased from 5.3 weeks to 8.1 weeks.

That’s the experience of 58-year-old Don Cernivz, who noticed blood in his urine in fall of 2003. He waited three weeks for his first diagnostic test and then another month for an MRI (search). Actual treatment for his cancer of the pelvis didn’t commence until May of the following year.

“The waiting time is ridiculous at the hospital,” his daughter complained to the Calgary Herald. “He is in pain.”

The waits for care are not aberrations, but the logical result of the incentives of a government-supported system. To the government, health care costs are merely the checks it must write. To the patients like Cernivz, however, costs are broader, including the value of lost or diminished work while waiting for care and the diminished quality of life, while waiting in pain.

Government planners control monetary costs by shifting non-monetary costs on to patients. The system then prohibits Canadians from avoiding those non-monetary costs by paying out of pocket for their care, unless they leave the country.

That’s exactly what former champion figure skater Audrey Williams did. After waiting two years for a hip replacement in Vancouver, B.C., she traveled to Washington State and paid $25,000 to stop the pain.

“I couldn’t wait any longer,” the 71-year-old Williams told the National Post. She could barely walk, wasn’t getting enough sleep, and pain pills had upset her stomach. “I wanted a life.”

Canadians are finding they now have to wait for primary care, not just advanced procedures.

One Canadian tells of a 5-year wait to see his wife’s general practitioner. Nearly 4 in 10 Canadians reported waiting longer than they thought reasonable for access to a family physician in a poll conducted for the CMA in the spring of 2004.

"At the moment," writes CMA president Dr. Albert Schumacher, "millions of Canadians would love to find just one family physician, let alone choose from among several."

Nearly half of doctors and nurses polled in July reported that their patient’s conditions had worsened while waiting for care.

And the waits only promise to get longer, as a stagnating pool of physicians struggles to serve an aging population that isn’t allowed to pay privately for care. That’s the reality of a health care system dominated by the government, and the reality Americans need to be wary of when considering options for health care reform.

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Sally C. Pipes, a Canadian residing in the U.S., is the president & CEO of the California-based Pacific Research Institute. She is the author of "Miracle Cure: How to Solve America’s Health Care Crisis and Why Canada Isn’t the Answer," with a foreword by Milton Friedman.

[RogerRabbit]

[BuffaloJack]

I have Canadian friends who work on this side of the border. Many of them use American doctors because they can't get timely appointments and treatment on the Northern side of the border. It may cost them more, but at least they don't suffer waiting for positions to open in the waiting line. I sure don't want that kind of healthcare.

[truthseeker]

Not Canada, but I suppose relevant to this.

Someone showed me this recently:

http://www.nhs.uk/england/aboutTheNHS/waitingTimes/search.aspx

It's the UK's National Health Service website. You can search waiting times for various medical and surgical specialties. Enter some typical UK postal codes for various locations in the country, and look how long it takes to get, say, ENT surgery or a cardiology appointment, or neurosurgery or cancer surgery, etc.

[wwIIvetsdaughter]

If Her Majesty Hillary had been successful during her husband's administration in doing what Scary Kerry wants to do to our health care system, Bill would of been added to a waiting list instead of getting his recent triple-bypass. The waitlist time in Canada I hear can be up to several months and Canadians either flee south to the good old USA and pay out of pocket or hope they do not die waiting.

[Rurik]

I find it curious that the very people who are most vocal in bashing the government-run Veterans health care system are the same ones who are also most vocal demanding that the entire health care system should be run by the government.
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Hating John Kerry continuously since 1971.

Essayons!
Fight Build and Destroy

[shawa]

I have first hand experience with this issue. My mother-in-law
lived in Canada and was a victim of this system.
Rita passed away one year ago, I loved her dearly.
She was having stomach problems, discomfort and nausea.
Had to wait almost two weeks to see her doctor. By then she
was having trouble keeping food down. Doctor wasn't sure what
was wrong, said he would make appointment for her to get a series
of tests, gave her some meds to help her nausea and sent her home.
Next day he called to tell her she couldn't get the tests done for 3 1/2
weeks. SHE DIDN'T MAKE IT THAT LONG!
She had constant vomiting and pain,and within a few days became bedridden and weak. My sister in lawwanted her in hospital but they said no beds were available. After two more days, my sister in law called an ambulance to take her to emergency, hoping they would admit her.
They did, but it was too late.
The next morning, before the doctor saw her, she collapsed with a heart attack and stroke. After she died, they told us that she had a twisted bowel that had turned to gangrene and eventually poisoned her whole
system, causing organ failure. I have so much anger that she had to suffer and wait. Had she gotten a quick diagnosis she could have had surgery and be alive today. She was a wonderful woman and I miss her terribly.
My brother in law saw his doctor who suspected Lung cancer. He had to wait a month to see an oncologist who confirmed it was cancer. But it would be five months before he could get into a treatment center.
He is now undergoing treatment and I pray that it works, but that cancer advanced for six months before he got into treatment.

The system is impossible! Canadians pay high taxes but there is no way
the government can carry the cost of good health care for the whole population. So they have to resort to rationing. They limit doctors on how many procedures/surgeries they can do per month. Hospitals can only
have a certain number of beds available. A whole wing of the hospital
was closed to cut costs. They have centralized treatment centers. So
many people have to travel hundreds of miles to get treatment.
Everything involves waiting lists!

I'm telling you people you don't want a single payer health system run
by the government! Sure it's tough paying health insurance premiums.
But don't fall for the idea of FREE health care. Sure it's FREE but you might die waiting to get it!!!

[GM Strong]

Don't forget what the Red Queen wanted to do.

The Libs don't care if it works in reality as long as it sounds good in theory and makes them feel good.

Canada is a disaster.
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8th Army Korea 68-69

[Nomorelies]

If you hate America vote for Kerry:

From the great debate you are now left to believe that America is badly broken and only John Nuance Kerry can fix it.

1. The war in Iraq is a collassal mistake. We cannot win without the help of France and Germany. A vote for Kerry will convince those countries to help us because we cannot do it ourselves.

2. The coalition is a pack of losers. Britain, Australia, Poland, Italy don't count. They are the bribed and coerced. The only nations that count are France, Germany and Russia. Kerry can fix that.

3. Allawi is a puppet. The man is a no goodster. Iraq can only be brought under control with the firm hand of a dictator. Let Saddam Hussein return to power. Iraq was much more secure under Saddam.

3. Our healthcare system stinks. We need to go to Canada to find out how to fix our system. Kerry can fix that.

4. We are a disgrace to the world. In order to get back in the global good graces we must get rid of Bush and elect Kerry. Kerry can surrender at once and grovel at the alter of Chirac.

5. Only the courageous and intelligent membership of the United Nations can solve the problems of the world. We must humble ourselves before this council of great men to regain our popularity in the world.

6. We must furnish Iran with the enriched nuclear fuel it needs for its power plants. They do not have enough oil. If we give them what they want they will stop building reactors.

7. We must hold bi-lateral talks with North Korea. Only John Kerry knows just the right "surrender" words to use with the little desot. After all, he is French and has lots of experience in negotiating surrenders.

8. John Kerry can remove the troops from Iraq and let the French, Germans and Russians have the reconstruction contracts. And, while they are at it he will go ahead and let them have the oil production contracts as well. It would look bad if we liberated this nation and then actually had any little financial benefit as a result of our exercise in generosity. It would prove that we have no interest in nation bulding. Leave that to others who already have dirty hands.

9. John Kerry can raise our taxes to pay for Bush's mistakes. After all he did not need a tax cut so why should we?
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Nomorelies Make a donation HERE

[CandiM]

On 11 November, 1994, my mother went to the OP department to have an abdominal ultrasound looking for suspected gall stones--What they found instead was strong indication of malignant tumors in her liver--

Toward the end of what turned out to be a long day of testing, the radiologist who read the ultrasound, x-rays and CT scans sat down with us and told us that, while the indications weren't good, we should be glad that she was being diagnosed and treated here, rather than in Canada because they already had a biopsy scheduled for less than three days later and would be able to begin treatment immediately--She told us that she, as I said, is a radiologist and that her father is a surgeon who both used to practice in Canada--She said that two years earlier, preliminary testing on her mother indicated a malignancy (I forget offhand where she said it was)--She went on to tell us that the resulting biopsy was delayed so long by the requirements of the Canadian system that, by the time it was done, the cancer had metastasized and was no longer operable when it had been when first identified--Not even having two physicians in the family enabled them to pull any strings and her mother died needlessly from a cancer which could have been treated and would have been had she been in our healthcare system rather than Canada's--

Both she and her father decided after that that they could no longer in good conscience continue practicing under a system that did not allow them to give proper priority to their patients--They both practice here in Illinois now--

I didn't need to be told, but it was nonetheless comforting then to be told by a physician who is in a position to know that, with all it's flaws, we still have the best healthcare system on the planet--

Old health insurance saying: "If you think that the United States Postal Service is well run, you'll love a government-run healthcare system"--Think about it--C
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“I haven’t seen anyone milk this much out of a bad boat ride since Gilligan” -- Dennis Miller