Mark Steyn: Talk About "Sicko"

National Review Online ^ | July 4, 2005 issue | Mark Steyn

[fanfan]

It sounded to me like Canadians who get sick near the end of the year are in deep trouble.

May I rephrase?

It sounded to me like Canadians who get sick near the end of the year are in deep trouble.

[proud American in Canada]

It sounded to me like Canadians who get sick near the end of the year are in deep trouble.

Well, what you wrote doesn't surprise me. I know when I had recurrent sinus infections last November, I was referred to an ENT for a "fast track" appointment ... six weeks later, LOL!

It's sad, really, because people have just grown to accept it.

The talk show host up here has pointed out that the only other country in the world besides Canada that doesn't allow some sort of private system along with its public system is Cuba.

[proud American in Canada]

Canadians who get sick ... are in deep trouble.

Something's gotta give, and soon.

Quebec does do a few things right--outlawing Sharia law, and now this Supreme Court decision.

The trouble is, the politicians have been trying to convince people that any form of private health care is anti-Canadian. The public system is part of the national identity.

But when I first met my husband, sixteen years ago, he had eye surgery at the time and there weren't anywhere near the waiting lines like there are today.

I think it's kind of like the frog in the pot of hot water. People are finally realizing the water is beginning to boil.

[fanfan]

The talk show host up here has pointed out that the only other country in the world besides Canada that doesn't allow some sort of private system along with its public system is Cuba.

Add North Korea. We're in great company.

[speekinout]

when I had recurrent sinus infections last November, I was referred to an ENT for a "fast track" appointment ... six weeks later, LOL!

That sort of confirms what the cruise ship doctor told me, doesn't it?
I gathered that the habit of taking off a month or two at the end of the year is a common practice that isn't made clear to Canadian citizens. It might make them unhappy.

[irv]

The very same people who promote buying our medications from Canada, do not share this little secret with Americans.

Very perceptive of you. One of our local congress creatures is a huge lefty who has actively taken people to Canada to buy prescription drugs. I had a hard time explaining to my Democrat father that it was a complete scam. They pay heavily in other ways.

[maica]

In so many ways the news that is NOT reported is the most important information that Americans should be hearing and seeing.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Canadian health care does have a private sector. It’s called America.

LOL!

[leilani]

This is not at all new. About ten (twenty? can't remember how many) years ago I was in Montreal with my mother, and I had a discussion with a local who was trying to proselytize me about the joys of the Canadian Health Care system.(Not "barbaric" like the states.) Later, the subject of Quebec's premier (Was it Bourrassa?)came up. He had just been diagnosed with skin cancer and was in the US getting treatment. The proud Canadian couldn't see an ounce of irony in the fact that his maximum leader had to hightail it across the border to get adequate care for himself, leaving rank & file Canadians to fend for themselves in a system which (even then) had patients languishing in the halls waiting days for emergency bypasses. Amazing. The dirty little secret is that in the "barbaric" US, even those folks who always seem to have plenty of money to buy the latest model cars yet recklessly choose not to buy health insurance for themselves and their families can walk in off the street into a hospital or clinic and get temporary stopgap treatment (for which the clinics & hospitals will never be compensated) which often exceeds the quality & efficacy of the "full benefits" rank & file Canadians are currently receiving via their "universal" coverage. Gradually, all the procedures are being "delisted" as elective, etc. It's a joke. Ask any of the Canadian expats working as medical professionals in my local medical center - there must be hundreds just in my off-the-beaten track town. Don't hold your breath waiting to hear their stories told on CNN or CBS or any of the other MSM outlets which have never accepted that Hilary Care was DOA in the 1990's.