Canada's medical gulag

Townhall.com ^ | 6/19/05 | Paul Jacob

[Polybius]

"Is this "THE" measuring stick used for who gets care?

No. Canadians get bypass surgery everyday. In Canada .

Actually, except for the politicians who get immediate medical care at Canadian military hospitals (See Post 4), nobody else in Canada actually gets what would be considered modern medical care by U.S. standards.

Any Third World cesspool can ensure that its elite political ruling class has access to timely, modern medical care. However, modern medical care is not defined only by the availability of technology somewhere in the country. It is also defined by the TIMELINESS in which such technology is available to the average citizen.

Per capita, the United States has about three times as many open-heart surgery units and eleven times as many cardiac catheterization units (for the treatment of heart disease) All over Canada, patients wait for coronary bypass surgery, while the Canadian press tells of heart patients dying on the waiting list.

Yes, if you are an average Canadian citizen and not a politician, you will eventually a get cardiac cath in Canada, once they call out your waiting list number, to determine if you need bypass surgery. Yes, if you are an average Canadian citizen and not a politician, you will eventually get cardiac bypass surgery in Canada, once they call out your waiting list number, to fix your occluded coronary artery......If you manage to live long enough to hear your waiting list number called.

In the meantime, while you are on the waiting list...........If you die, you die.

In general, Canadians have little trouble seeing a general practice or family practice physician. But specialist services and sophisticated equipment are increasingly rationed. Canada attempts to control health care spending by limiting expensive medical technology.

Canadians do not pay for the high cost of modern medical care because they don't get modern medical care.

[Kozak]

True now but NOT at that time, the mid 1980's. Later study data did indeed confirm that CABG prolonged a patients life. But even today in Canada the patients may face a considerable delay in getting their bypass and risk a higher morbidity and mortality.

[Kozak]

It was in this case. Canada wanted proof that doing the procedure would provide the benefit of longer life. The board or whatever did not think something as 'nebulous" as improved quality of life, ( in my uncles case his angina was so bad he chest pain if he tried any kind of exertion at all).

Now Medicare and insurers in the US do similar analysis, but if you don't like the decision you CAN pay for it yourself.