A little note on health care

[tripathy]

Just wanting to draw attention to this story about US vs Canadian health care.

And idiot Americans can bleat all they want about the Canadian system being "socialist" and therefore no good, but what I know is this:

My brother has had juvenile diabetes since he was thirteen. He had some hospital stays when they first found out, plus he's had a few emergency room visits due to diabetic seizures over the years.

In 1994, when Da had a really bad bowel obstruction, he got the surgery he needed ASAP.

In 2003, when I first started having stomach problems, I had to see a specialist and then had loads of tests to try to figure out what was wrong. Unfortunately none of the tests could figure it out, but the point is that I could get these tests, they didn't cost me anything, and I didn't have to wait months and months for them either.

In 2004, Da took a bad fall on an icy sidewalk and ended up in intensive care for a day and in the hospital for three weeks.

In 2005, when my sister got bacterial meningitis, she was seen to quickly and basically had her life saved. She also had the experience of being a teaching case (since the Montreal General is a teaching hospital), which she found to be kind of fun ("just like on ER!"), and suffered no ill effects from the disease.

In January 2009, Da had a bad allergic reaction to something and had to be in intensive care for a few days with a breathing tube.

None of these hospital stays bankrupted us. In fact, none of them cost us a cent. My brother will never be denied anything medical because he has a pre-existing condition. Da will never have to worry about paying higher premiums because he seems to be unlucky enough to have his life threatened every few years. My family members are still alive because the Canadian system does take care of them, and does it just fine.

If we need to go to the doctor or the hospital at any time, we can damn well do so without fear of being denied, of exorbitant bills, or of insurance companies getting in the way. There is nothing between us and our doctors. We can go to any clinic and any hospital. I'm not saying that there aren't problems (one of the biggest is the long waits for elective surgeries like hip replacements), because no system is perfect, but your system ain't better, America.

I'm happy to pay for our system out of my taxes because I know that it will be there for me and my family. I feel bad and a bit scared for American friends who can't get good insurance and thus fear ever needing a hospital stay for any reason. FIX THIS, America. Your people shouldn't have to live in that kind of fear.

Oh, and STFU, Republicans, and stop spreading misinformation and outright lies about our system. You people disgust me, seriously.

Comments

[melligator.livejournal.com]

There was one article that claimed that had the greatest mind of our generation, Stephen Hawking, lived in the UK with it's rubbish, communist health care, he would have been dead years ago, written off as a cripple!

The "information" I am seeing on tv just lately is making me crazy. The town hall meeting with all the "Hitler had a health care plan too" just bewilders me. The news media in this country has a BIG habit of soft lies to its viewers and indulging people who are stupid, batshit or both for the sake of sensational coverage.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

There's so much bullshit out there put forward by some very nasty people who are working an agenda. So many people have such a great fear of change, and it's so easily capitalized upon. Of course, people being ignorant, uninformed and unwilling to actually inform themselves, and obsessed with the notion that America is the best and could never learn from anyone else are huge helpers.

God, I hate Fox News and all its related programs. Their fearmongering really troubles me. I couldn't be more happy that I live in Canada.

[gasphemer.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the US's "superior" healthcare, with its insanely high costs, I haven't been to a doctor since I was in high school. And that was a long, long time ago.

I'm tired of the sensationalist bullshit- news isn't news in the US.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

I just have so much trouble with what passes for "news" in the US. My parents always watch CTV News with Lloyd Robertson ("Canada's most trusted news anchor") and I've never gotten the idea that that news was polarized one way or the other--but then again, Canada overall isn't that polarized either, so it's harder to pick up on.

That is total ass that you have to be afraid of going to the doctor because you don't have the right kind of insurance. I have friends who do have insurance, but it's crap...they can only go to this hospital or that doctor. And that's the insurance that's offered through their job, so they have no choice because paying for it outside their job is too expensive.

Argh, it gets me annoyed just thinking about it.

[messycat.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine how much it would have cost me to have the tumor removed from my head last year! I certainly would not have been able to afford it and likely would have had to leave it until it became critical.

Not only that but just going into hospital to have a baby is rediculously costly in the US. I am happy to say I can afford to have a baby here thanks to Medicare.

I'm with you on this all the way!

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

If you were in the US you probably would have insurance through your job, so you wouldn't have had to pay for the whole thing, but who knows how big the deductible would have been, and you wouldn't necessarily have been allowed to go to the very good hospital that you did. Here you got what you needed not only for free, but it was very good care at a first-rate hospital. You deserve the best!

It's too bad, though, that the only Americans who will listen when we tell them that things are fine here are the ones who already know. I doubt that we will ever get through to the others--I doubt anyone will. Sad.

[elaryn.livejournal.com]

Amen!

A friend sent me a chain e-mail about how Natasha Richardson died because of "socialist health care" in Canada:

"SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS:

The actress Natasha Richardson died after falling, skiing in Canada. It took eight hours to drive her to a hospital. If Canada had our healthcare she might be alive today. In the United States, we have
medical evacuation helicopters that would have gotten her to the hospital in 30 minutes.

In England anyone over 59 cannot receive heart repairs or stents or bypass because it is not covered as being too expensive and not needed.

Obama wants to have a healthcare system just like Canada 's and England's. I got this today and am sending it on. If Obama's plans in other areas don't scare you, this should. Please do not let Obama sign senior death warrants.

Everybody that is on this mailing list is either a senior citizen, is getting close or knows somebody that is. Most of you know by now that the Senate version (at least) of the "stimulus" Bill includes provisions for extensive rationing of health care for senior citizens. The author of this part o f the bill, former senator and tax evader, Tom Daschle was credited today by Bloomberg with the following statement: Bloomberg: Daschle says "health-care reform will not be pain free. Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."If this does not sufficiently raise your ire, just remember that our esteemed Senators and Congressmen have their own healthcare plan that is first dollar or very low co-pay which they are guaranteed the remainder of their lives and are not subject to this new law if it passes.

Please use the power of the Internet to get this message out. Talk it up at the grassroots level. We have an election coming up in one year and nine months. And we have the ability to address and reverse the dangerous direction the Obama administration and its allies have begun and in the interim, we can make their lives miserable. Lets do this!

If you disagree, do nothing.

My response:

Whatever one thinks of the current president, that bit about the late Natasha Richardson is untrue. Here's what actually happened:

"On 16 March 2009, Richardson sustained a head injury, when she fell while taking a skiing lesson at the Mont Tremblant Resort in Quebec, about 130 km from Montreal. The injury was followed by a lucid interval, when Richardson seemed to be fine and was able to talk and act normally. Paramedics and an ambulance which initially responded to the accident were told they were not needed and left.
Refusing medical attention, she returned to her hotel room and about three hours later was taken to a local hospital in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts after complaining of a headache. She was transferred from there by ambulance in Montreal to Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur in critical condition and was admitted about seven hours after the fall. The following day she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, where she died on 18 March. An autopsy conducted by the New York City Medical Examiners Office on 19 March revealed the cause of death was an "epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head", and her death was ruled an accident."

Source: Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_Richardson#Injury_and_death)

So, the long and short of it seems to be that Ms. Richardson, thinking she was okay after her fall, refused medical attention at first and only sought it after her head began to hurt. The statement about it "taking 8 hours to drive her to a hospital" and that she "would have lived" is not true. If you refuse medical attention, the best health care system in the world cannot save you.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that just burns me up. It was a sad story, but it wasn't our fault. And the person who sent you that email is totally going to disregard your response, I'm sure. No time for the truth when you're busy with rhetoric and propaganda!

I saw a couple of comments in your LJ entry about people who have gotten pacemakers and had operations in the UK despite being really old. I'll just add Granny to that list, who had both hips and one knee replaced when she was 90, and a pacemaker put in at 97. Despite her age, she was allowed these things because at the time she still had very good quality of life, and that was recognized. There was no insurance company to stop her from getting what she needed simply because she was too old (and you have to admit, 97 is pretty damned old for that sort of thing!). She got to have a grand 100th birthday party and is still alive today at 107.

Yeah, so "death panels", my ass.

[chibiraven.livejournal.com]

I went to the doctor a few months back for a couple of routine checks. I was under the mistaken impression that I still had insurance. Two months later, I receive a bill for approximately $500, for the doctor's fees. One month later, I receive ANOTHER bill for $75 for the lab fees. Much frustrated talk back and forth with the insurance people, and then with my human resources department at work, I had to pay the bill myself. ... Two visits. For them to tell me I don't have cancer. Woop-de-freakin'-doo.

That being said, I will also sum up something one of my other friend's said: "Our government is in charge of education, and look at how badly they fucked that up. Do you really want them in charge of healthcare, too?" If you think about it, she's got a point...

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, see, what happened to you there is utterly ridiculous. Someone fearing that they may have cancer should not also have to fear being unable to pay their rent that month just to be able to find out what's wrong with them. This is what the American system does--it lets people slip through the cracks, again and again and again. One person here, another person there, until 50 million people find themselves having to live with that fear, punished because capitalism is the Best Thing Ever and god forbid that a person's life should come before the almighty dollar.

As for your second point, the other day I was thinking about how shitty our roads here are. They're also taken care of by the government. You really can't compare these things, and no system is ever going to be perfect. Not to mention that there is a very pervasive anti-education sentiment in the US that I'm sure doesn't help your education system at all.

Also, you can turn that idea of "if they can't do this right, what makes you think they can do anything else right" around: check out this post (http://unqualifiedevilgenius.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-if-health-insurers-ran-dmv.html).

In the end, what I really want is for you and NE and all my other American friends to be cared for if you need it without breaking your banks. I worry about that on your behalf, and it bugs the crap out of me that loudmouthed ignorant morons are trying to get in the way of you guys having the proper safety nets that you need.

[elaryn.livejournal.com]

You inspired me (even if I DID credit the wrong friend with the inspiration at first): http://elaryn.livejournal.com/616301.html

[ms-daisy-cutter.livejournal.com]

I'll be blunt. The Americans who protest "SOSHULIZM!!!" aren't confused at all. In fact, if it were just them and theirs getting government healthcare, they'd be fine with it. The problem, as they see is, is All Those Lazy Shiftless People Who Don't Work And Who Steal My Hard-Earned Money.

Any racial subtext you see in the above explanation is most definitely intended.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have no doubt of that. There is an obvious frightening amount of hatred towards those less fortunate even before racial tension is factored in. And these people will never change...even if they ever did find themselves in the exact same situation as the less fortunate, they would always consider themselves to be more deserving. Because Those People are not like them, of course. Those People never worked hard like they did.

I'm not so sure that that's the case for everyone who is so upset about it--some seem to truly believe that what they had before will be taken away from them, or that the overall level of care will go down, and they're scared to the point of hysteria. And since that word has been tossed around so much by people who they think know more about this whole thing than they do, they've latched onto it as a Bad Word that they can use in their fight to protect themselves from the big bad government. I wish I could believe that education could help those ignorant-but-not-really-evil people see the light, but sadly I think that they're too far gone.

[ms-daisy-cutter.livejournal.com]

those ignorant-but-not-really-evil people

The phrase "the banality of evil" applies to more than just the bureaucracy of genocide. These terminally dumb and willfully ignorant fuckers are committing evil. While they might not control public policy entirely in the U.S., they sure as hell influence it unduly. They get no sympathy from me.

They need to be mocked and otherwise marginalized, as happened after the Scopes trial in the '20s, so that they spend at least a few generations in the political wilderness. That's not cruel or unjust; that's better than they deserve, frankly.

[tripathy.livejournal.com]

Well, "evil" being my personal differentiation in this case between people who are purposefully telling the lies versus the people who believe the lies because they're total idiots. I never said I felt sympathy for them (I can't even pity them for their stupidity because they have crossed the line into causing harm), and I never will. They're part of a mob that is doing real damage, and that they may not have the cold-hearted agenda-pushing intent that the ringleaders do doesn't excuse any culpability on their part. In the end they're guilty of the same crimes. They need to be mocked, and worse. I'd mock them myself but I suck at it. :(

My utterly vain hope to have any of them see the light is not for their own sake, but to fulfill my happy fantasy of them having to eat their words, apologize publicly, and feel guilty for a long, long time over what they caused. Not so much freed by the truth as punished by it. Total fantasy, but I do like to daydream.