Suing the government for the right to see and live

National Post ^ | 2007-09-07 | John Carpay

[Clive]

Suing the government for the right to see and live

Jcarpay@CanadianConstitutionFoundation.Ca

John Carpay

National Post

Friday, September 07, 2007

Get immediate surgery to treat a brain tumour -- or risk permanent blindness and possibly death. That was the choice presented to 43-year-old Shona Holmes of Waterdown, Ont. But Ontario's government-run health care system offered her only a waiting list.

Ms. Holmes, a self-employed family mediator and the mother of two children, began losing her vision in March, 2005. She also experienced severe headaches, anxiety attacks, high blood pressure, extreme fatigue and weight gain. In spite of these symptoms -- and an MRI scan revealing the tumour causing them -- Ontario's health system told Shona that she would have to wait four months to see a neurologist and six months to see an endocrinologist.

With her vision deteriorating rapidly, Shona went to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona that June. After extensive testing, several specialists (including one who is a licensed Ontario physician) told Shona that if she did not receive surgery to remove the tumour immediately, she risked going blind or even death.

With the Mayo test results and diagnosis in hand, Shona returned to Ontario, only to be told to wait for more appointments and tests. Having lost half of her vision in her right eye and one-quarter in her left, and unable to expedite appointments with specialists, Shona returned to the Mayo Clinic, where surgeons operated to remove the tumour.

Within 10 days, Shona's vision was completely restored. Visual field testing and a post-operative MRI confirmed that the tumour had caused the vision loss. Nevertheless, the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) refuses to reimburse Shona for any of the expenses she was forced to incur in seeking necessary medical care abroad. Shona is back at work, and her husband now works two full-time jobs to pay off the debts they incurred to save her vision.

Shona's ordeal is similar to that which Lindsay McCreith endured in 2006. A retired body shop owner from Newmarket, Ont., Lindsay also had a brain tumour. Ontario's health care system told him he would have to wait more than four months for an MRI. Not willing to risk the growth and spread of what might be cancer, and with private MRIs being illegal in Ontario, Lindsay paid for an MRI scan in Buffalo, N.Y. He also paid for brain surgery in Buffalo to remove the malignant tumour, after having been told he would need to wait for three months to see a specialist in Ontario.

These experiences are not unique. Ontario's health care system routinely offers two waiting lists: one for diagnosis, then another for treatment. This is the result of Ontario's laws, which make it illegal for people of ordinary means to access health care outside the government-run system.

Waiting lists are at the heart of the Supreme Court of Canada's 2005 decision in Chaoulli vs. Quebec. The majority of justices in Chaoulli ruled that the government's ban on private health insurance creates a "virtual monopoly" over health care by government. The court ruled that this monopoly, through the waiting lists it causes, inflicts physical and psychological suffering on patients, and the risk of irreparable harm (loss of vision or death, for example).

While differing on some details, the justices agreed that a total ban on private health insurance is not necessary to preserve a public health system. Indeed, the presence of a private system can help take pressure off the public system. With parallel private and public systems operating side by side, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan, Luxembourg and Switzerland all have no waiting lists in their public health care systems.

Chaoulli stands for the principle that governments cannot force people to suffer on waiting lists by denying them the opportunity to obtain essential health care services outside of the government-run system. Governments must eliminate waiting lists in the public system, or allow patients to seek care outside of it. Governments cannot prevent citizens from taking charge of their own medical needs.

Unwilling to see their fellow citizens suffer at the hands of a callous and unaccountable government-run monopoly, Lindsay and Shona are taking the Supreme Court of Canada at its word, and are now suing the Ontario government over timely access to health care. Ontario allows people to buy comprehensive health insurance for their dogs and cats. Isn't it about time that Canadians were free to buy comprehensive health insurance for themselves and for their loved ones?

- John Carpay is executive director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, a not-for-profit charitable foundation dedicated to defending constitutional freedoms through education and public interest litigation. www.CanadianConstitutionFoundation.ca.

[fanfan]

Don’t look for me to defend Canada’s system.

LOL

I pinged it so some of us Canadians could be available to answer questions about our joke of a "health care" system.

None of them are perfect, but the HC system in the US is the closest to perfect we've all got.

Castro used Spanish doctors because he couldn't have American ones. ;-)

[TheSarce]

Healthcare rationing ping...

[8mmMauser]

Pinged from Terri Dailies

8mm

[coydog]

I bet the Caribbean clinics will get a big boost.