Posted on 11/10/2004 4:47:33 PM PST by Conservative Coulter Fan
Ping
do you mind if I ask what the 4 grand was for?
Excellent post!
Hospital stay. Long story.
The frogs. Look at post 16.
I lived in Bellingham for awhile and there were a lot more docs per capita than I would have expected. It was due to the Canadians crossing over to pay for them.
"I can add a bit, since I have had some intimate contact with the Canadian Health Care system:
1. Hospitals are very dirty.
2. Doctors will try to kill their patients if they are old and considered more trouble than they are worth...saw this first hand. They need the beds.
3. Difficult to get care for difficult situations such as asthma if it is not a routine case.
I do not wish this system on us at any price. It is a disaster."
I can speak a lot of #1. I had two major operations last year in a Cdn hospital. I also had a caesarian in another Cdn hospital 15 years ago. Both public hospitals were extremely clean, modern, and fitted with the best equipment. The staff was excellent, totally professional & friendly, and I had no major issues during my stays in hospitals. A major issue I did have was when I was told to go to ER to see the surgeon and they made me wait 8 hours due to understaffing. The ER understaffing, and the wait time for specialists are the major problems with Cdn healthcare. Other than that, it is incredible to have a major operation in a hospital and not have any bill to pay! Zilch. Zippo.
About #2. My grandmother had a stroke and was comatose in a Cdn hospital. The doctors recommended that her mineral intake be reduced until she passed away, and that's what happened. One elderly relative of mine lived in Ohio and was admitted to hospital. He suffered a stroke when the (weekend) nurse was putting the tube down his throat and he went comatose. They recommended pulling life support and that's what happened. Were both killed to free up beds? I don't agree with that cynical way of looking at this.
In emergency situations, scarce facilities are often rationed by triage--dividing patients into three groups: those who will get better without treatment, those who won't get better even with treatment, and those who will get better only with treatment; priority is then given to the third group.
The only way a constant level of queueing can reduce the load on a system is by performing 'triage by attrition' as people in the queue are removed either because they get better on their own, or because they die off or give up. If a patient is removed from the queue because a problem healed itself, that may be a good thing; if the patient is removed from the queue because what would have been a curable condition became fatal when untreated, that should probably be considered a bad thing. Both outcomes are 'desirable', though, if one's goal is to minimize queue backlog.
yeah, but 4 grand gets you about thirty minutes in the ER and one minor scan.
And that's for a nation of only 20 million people; imagine what it would cost here, where we have nearly 300 million people!
Another problem is that if a doctor screws up, tough -- a doctor misdiagnosed a cousin's child and now she will suffer health problems for the rest of her life. There is no suing for malpractice.
I also recall reading an article about 10 years ago in the Wall St. Journal that anyone who is over 80 and seriously ill is out of luck -- they won't bother treating the person. When my uncle (in his 80s) was in a nursing home and refused to eat, the home did nothing and let him die.
The WHO says France is #1, Italy #2, Marino, Andorra, Malta, Singapore, Spain, Oman, Austria and Japan round out the top 10.
"The WHO says France is #1"
Well, they didn't do Yasser much good did they?
Only kidding, I think they may have kept him alive past death!
I really did like that French doctor who was very pro-life. I should know his name, but I don't.
Thanks very much for the info.
That's the case for the affluent. Consider that on average Canadian salaries are 30% lower (i.e. $50K US salary is CAN$50000) and Canadians taxes way higher.
Canadian health system is good as long as you don't need it. Classic Ponzi scheme, relies on good faith of investors.
Once you get sick, you figure it out. Government has taken the money away from you through the exorbitant taxes and gives little in return (e.g. wait for cardiologist 3-6 months, unless you die earlier). And you have neither private funds nor private health plan in place.
Splurging of funds is rampant. For example, the biggest cost for running the hospital in Canada is NON-DOCTOR salaries. Cleaners are paid like rocket scientists and unions are preventing outsourcing.
At the same time, one can see medical staff dressed in operation room uniforms taking the subway to work. Unheard of even in Third World countries.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.