Comments on: CANADIANS RUNNING TO U.S. FOR HEALTH CARE

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Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:30:27 +0000

[…] each other. IMHO. Canada’s Medical Nightmare - by Robert J. Cihak, M.D. - Health Care News Health Care BS - CANADIANS RUNNING TO U.S. FOR HEALTH CARE 10 Surprising Facts about American Health Care | Publications | National Center for Policy […]

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 23:32:56 +0000

With the exception of Gerard Freisinger and a few others, I am amazed at the amount of willful ignorance and unmittigated stupidity expressed in this blog.
I was born in Canada, but I moved to America for the love of an American girl. Believe me, I did NOT come to America for the healthcare. As a mater of fact, I have NEVER known a single Canadian who would come to America for healthcare. But I DO know many Americans who have come to Vancouver for Lasik (where the process was invented, thank you very much). I also know many Americans who come to Canada to buy prescription drugs. Also, my home province of British Columbia is having a severe problem with uninsured Americans coming to our cities to try and receive free healthcare because they can’t get treatment in America. Uninsured Americans are starting to become as much a problem for us Canadians as illegal immigrants from Mexico are for you Americans! My wife is an American and she is a Nurse Practitioner/Midwife. I am a sonographer. We both see first-hand the problems with the American healthcare system. An American hospital will charge $11.00 for ONE Advil. ONE ADVIL!!! That pill cost 0.0003 cents to produce. When you and I buy in bulk at Costo, our toilet paper and aspirin are CHEAPER. Well, nobody buys Advil in greater bulk than a hospital. So, why are they charging $11.00 for one pill? I’ll tell you why…greed. And this one example is applicable across the board for all pharmaceuticals and medical procedures. The American-Medical-Industrial-Complex has the citizens of America by the shorthairs and they have managed to convince poor, conservative Americans that they like it. I may live in this country, but if I ever fall seriously ill, I’m going back home where I won’t be financially raped and left to the wolves. America is a great country and it DOES have a lot going for it. But your leaders are liars, your system is failing, and your people are to prideful to take a good long look at your own messy messy house. And that is too bad for you, frankly. As much as I admire Americans, I also feel sorry for them. You are all getting f*&@ed in the backside but you’ve been convinced that you like it. I’ll never understand it.

By: Marc Brown

Marc Brown — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 21:14:50 +0000

‘I think many European countries would be ideal to look at where one can use their government offered health care service but also has an option to go to see a Dr. in private and pay the high price for that. This way everyone has an option to fit their circumstances.’

That’s exactly how the United Kingdom works, although if you pay to see a physician privately the chances are that you could also see the exact same doctor for free under the state system. What you or your insurer pays for is the plush private clinic outside of a teaching hospital, so none of those awful med students around either.

By: Se

Se — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 05:45:32 +0000

I would like to say both systems are wrong. One for making people to die at no cost and the other that is making people die because of extremely high unaffordable service prices. I think many European countries would be ideal to look at where one can use their government offered health care service but also has an option to go to see a Dr. in private and pay the high price for that. This way everyone has an option to fit their circumstances.

By: Wodahs

Wodahs — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 04:15:06 +0000

It is not BS to state that US doctors turn away Medicare and Medicaid patients. I have experienced this with both my elderly mother and my disabled brother. The classic statement is “We aren’t taking any more Medicare patients”. They can’t afford to. I did find a doctor for my brother by offering cash. For the last four years that’s the only way my brother can see his specialist. Without the treatment provided by this doctor, my brother would most likely be dead by now.

By: Frank Halstead

Frank Halstead — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:08:45 +0000

What’s BS is having a debate based upon anecdotal stories. For example the womam going to Montana to have a baby likely happened because that was where the closest emergency facility was located. Having grown up in Montana things like this are not even unusual. But what is more ridiculous is this oft repeated made up argument of how Canadians are flooding the US because their system is so horrible. This can all be traced back in fact to an ‘editorial’ comment made on the Fair and Balanced Network years back without any substantiation just ’stories’ and even those were stories without circumstances or facts. Ironically the situation has been studied empiraclly but ‘data’ isn’t as sexy as, “Oh, did you hear about the one that …” If there is any genuine objectivity about this discussion on the part of the originator (which I doubt since it’s a statement disquised as a debate) then take the 10 or 15 minutes to read an actual study of the problem or rather perceived problem

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/long/21/3/19

Oh and at present an estimated 1.5 million Americans leave this country each year to seek care abroad and in some cases their insurance providers are paying for trips to Malaysia and India get surgeries performed ‘cheaper’ than here so in a manner of speaking US Healthcare is already being rationed to a lower quality standard and paying to have it done. BTW people coming here posting as ‘doctors’ should know better, unless all they are is what they likely are, internet posers. Finally, the number of respondent doctors turning away Medicare patients is 13% NOT 40% more apocryphal BS.

By: Gerard

Gerard — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 13:19:37 +0000

Trevor Howard,
Your point being, I think, is that the “Market” will sort it all out. What makes the market are firms that build factories and hire workers in other countries. Thus leaving the US empty in all but consumerism. Eventually, there will be noone employed to consume anything.
A start would be to have firm overhead cut by not requiring an employment based health benefit model but to have salaried providers funded by an income and sales tax with elimination of all private and government third parties.
The sales tax would pay for the free health care for the unemployed, retired and illegals.
All of them buy stuff.

By: Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:18:00 +0000

Gerard Freisinger,

It was not the CEO’s that gave permission to receive federal bailouts for themselves. (Though, who knows, the line between capitalism and politics is ever increasingly blurred due to special interests.)

Government stepped in under the name of ’social responsibility’ to keep inefficient and irresponsible businesses afloat.

This is not how capitalism is supposed to work.

Point being, be careful requesting for social responsibility. Just look at what the government throws money at in futility under the very same premise.

Nothing changes when crying loud enough brings the milk every time. At least someone else will pay for it, right?

By: Carole Eberhardt

Carole Eberhardt — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:56:31 +0000

The Canadian single payer systems does pay for Canadians to receive medical services in the USA.Also many seeking care live closer to a hospital in the US than one in Canada. Many border cities are that way. A great many Canadians live in the US part of the year and thus receive medical where they are living.
Yes you can get privat health care in Canada if what you want is private nursing, rooms and gormet food service.

By: Kate

Kate — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:54:30 +0000

Um, Jeff Gannon is incorrect to have said that private health care is illegal in Canada. Canada has at least Blue Cross health care that you can pay for in addition to the provincial. Blue Cross would cover things like ambulance rides, dental care, physio-therapy and seeing a chiropractor (last two disciplines have the first 15 visits covered by provincial plan, then after that you’re on your own—pay yourself or get extra coverage). The provincial health care plans cover medical doctor’s visits, optician and ophthalmologist visits and hospital visits. It does not completely cover physiotherapy. It does not cover the filling of any prescriptions. It does not cover dental work. It does not cover counselling. If you want any subsidising of these things, you must pay for extra health insurance outside of the provincial coverage.

I’d like to see the US develop a health care system that looks at what’s around the world and try to adopt the best of everything—including what might already work in their own country (a country to which I have emmigrated as a Permanent Resident and the lack of BASIC national coverage is terrifying to me). Yes, it’s probably pie-in-the-sky dreaming, but they could at least try . . . you guys could at least let them try.