Comments on: WHAT DO DICK CHENEY, BILL CLINTON & DANNY WILLIAMS HAVE IN COMMON?

By: Marc Brown

Marc Brown — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:20:19 +0000

Well, at least you have conceded that places like the Mayo are better than elsewhere in America. Catron would never concede that, as he believes American hospitals are universally better than anywhere else because any American can go anywhere and get the same standard of treatment – regardless of income – as Ted Kennedy, or in this case Danny Williams.

By: ECM

ECM — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:42:37 +0000

lol, so now we’re down to comparing apples to oranges?? You’re comparing a top-shelf hospitals in Munich to second-rate ones in NYC?! I hope, for Germany’s sake, that that would be the case! (That’s like saying: “I bet Catron would rather be treated at the Mayo Clinic rather than the local, well-regarded, hospital in my neck of the woods”, i.e., duh…x2.)

By: Marc Brown

Marc Brown — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:11:31 +0000

As as far as I know Williams is a conservative who is no great fan of national healthcare. But that Canada is a leader in these heart procedures is not in doubt.

Yes, people do go to the US for treatment, but as we know many thousands of Americans are forced to go abroad because they can’t afford treatment at home. Also, many wealthy Americans go to countries such as Switzerland for treatments, and there are several leading procedures that are only done at present in Europe.

I’ll bet you and Catron given the choice would opt for a top Munich teaching hospital over a second rate American hospital any day, and especially those with high medical error rates such as the recent scandals about radiation overdoses in New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/us/27radiation.html?scp=9&sq=radiation%20therapy&st=cse

By: ECM

ECM — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:05:39 +0000

Do you really think, Marc, that a Canadian Premier, who has made a lot of noise in the past about how awesome healthcare up there is and how it’s a ‘right’, etc., would incur the PR nightmare of going back on all of that simply because he has a condo in Florida?! Really??

Actually, he probably realized that the best potential for care and survival was in the USA and *not* in the socialist paradise that is Canada as I’m sure you’ve trumpeted a billion times in the past–after all, dreams do die hard, don’t they? (And nice strawmen about Munich et al when that isn’t remotely the point: the point is, he fled Canada at the first chance to get better quality care in the USA like any sane–if, in his case, totally hypocritcial–person would.)

By: Catron

Catron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:53:20 +0000

If you don’t think that many people go to Paris, London, Munich and so on for world class procedures you’re living in a fantasy world.

I’d be delighted to see some actual evidence of that, Marc. My bet is that, for every patient who goes to Munich, there are 1,000 who come to the U.S.

By: Marc Brown

Marc Brown — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:44:28 +0000

What you don’t know is that the procedure that Williams had was first done in…. Canada, at the London (Ontario) Health Sciences Centre in 1999. Canadian surgeons wrote the key ‘how to’ paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, Canada has several centres that do these minimal invasive heart operations although they are not necessarily better than other approaches. Williams went to Miami just because he has the money and no doubt also because he has a condo in Sarasota. And if you don’t think that many people go to Paris, London, Munich and so on for world class procedures you’re living in a fantasy world. London is full of private patients from Arab states, for example.