Bus brings Canadians to Maine for treatment

Central Maine News ^ | 6-25-02 | AP

[paul in cape]

BANGOR

[paul in cape]

Durhane Wong-Rieger, director of the Consumer Advocare Network, said private donations covered the $3,000 cost of the trip, which included bus transportation and patient visits.

Wong-Rieger said that while the trip apparently was the first organized effort of its kind, the driving force was the hundreds of patients who routinely cross the border each day to obtain timely medical care.

"In many cases, these people wouldn't know where to go or couldn't afford the treatment," she said. "If nothing else, we've given 12 people access to some good advice and some good treatment."

Some of the people went to see specialists unavailable to them in New Brunswick, which has had difficulty recruiting and keeping physicians.

Eastern Maine Medical Center helped arrange appointments for the patients, who included:

l A 56-year-old woman suffering severe back pain from a disc pushing on her spinal cord who would have to wait up to two years for surgery;

l A 6-year-old boy with epileptic seizures that seem to be affected by diet and does not have access to a gastroenterology-nutritionist in his home province;

l A 43-year-old woman battling persistent depression who is seeking a drug unavailable in Canada that may help manage her illness without unwanted side effects;

l A 66-year-old woman being treated for breast cancer, who also has complications of cardiac arrhythmia and pneumonia. Her family physician has left practice and she has been forced to use emergency room visits for ongoing care.

On the day of the bus trip, New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord announced a three-year agreement with the province's medical society on an incentive-filled wage package that includes bonus money for doctors for accepting new patients and caring for the elderly.

Lord and Dr. Ann Collins, president-elect of the New Brunswick Medical Society, said they hope the new deal with physicians will make it unnecessary for people to leave in the future.

"Specialty services may have something to do with those people going south of the border," said Collins.

"That's a very positive point about this contract. It will help us recruit and retain specialists."

In an effort to make the province more attractive to doctors, the Lord government will pump almost $76 million into fees and incentives over the next three years.

[paul in cape]

How much you wanna bet we don't see this on Dan Rather's report tonight?

[Fiona PBMRx]

Yes, I doubt if it will be on the news. I feel for the people who can't afford prescription drugs in the U.S. but there are alternatives to bus trips.

I hope this doesn't sound like an ad, and if it does I apologize, but I really want to help people who cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs in the U.S.

The company I work for, www.pbmrx.com, is an American/Canadian on-line (or by fax/phone) mail-order service that uses a network of Canadian pharmacies to fill prescription drug orders for U.S. residents. The plan requires a medical history to be filled out by the U.S. doctor, and our Canadian doctors oversee the prescriptions, so it is a very safe plan.

If we could just get the word out that this is available, it would save Americans a lot of money, especially the low income groups. I feel fortunate that in Canada our prescription costs are affordable.

Again, I hope this doesn't sound like an ad. I just want to help. The cost of Rx drugs in the US is so high!

Fiona
www.pbmrx.com

[Fiona PBMRx]

Boy am I a dummy!

I was reading this article and another one on another site regarding busloads of US residents coming to Canada for prescription drugs.

As you can see, I replied to the wrong message.

Sorry about that!!!

Fiona

[Jason Kauppinen]

The waiting lists are real FReepers. I'm in Kingston Ontario, and my mom had to wait six months just to get a date for gall bladder surgery.

[goldstategop]

I take it the government does not consider your mom's condition a life threatening condition to prompt immediate surgery. Single Payer health care should really mean "First In Line, First Served." Assembly line medicine is the only way to handle so many people; the alternative is to give every one the same access but charge them for it. So look at what you really get for "free medical care." That's what we would have gotten down here in the states if Hillary had it her way back in 1993.

[alisasny]

Send this to that idiot Keith Waters who a few weeks ago on Hannity radio said (paraphrased) that "Canada is a better place to live due to such reasons as healthcare"..he also said Swedan and a few other countries that take better care of their people...

HUMMMM.....

[paul in cape]

I'm on my way to work (my last few days before retirement!) Can someone forward this to Brit Hume and John Stossel?

Thanks

[general_re]

I take it the government does not consider your mom's condition a life threatening condition to prompt immediate surgery.

I don't think it would matter if they did. I'll vouch for Jason here, as someone just on the other side of the border from him - for some time now, the province of Ontario has been sending Canadian cancer patients to the Roswell Park center here in Buffalo. They just don't have the facilities, equipment, staffing, or funding to handle it themselves and to provide everyone with the level of health care they think they deserve.

[PLK]

Canada is a better place to live due to such reasons as healthcare"..he also said Swedan and a few other countries that take better care of their people...

I think the reason this myth is repeated ad nauseum is because of the international measures (such as WHO) used to determine health care quality. One big one is infant mortality. Countries with a socialized system of health care place great emphasis on primary prevention. Therefore, a large chunk of resources goes to prenatal care. Immunizations are another common measure. So is access to care, particularly by minorities and those who fall within official poverty definitions (and of course, in socialized medicine, everyone has equal access - equally bad that is!). Therefore, take the liberal assertions about how bad our health care system is with a grain of salt & remember the plight of the Canadians (it is the same in the UK). I prefer to know that someday, if I ever need it, I can have my cancer operated on without waiting until it has metastized to every part of my body, thank you very much!

[altayann]

I think we'd all be better off admitting, honestly and openly, that both medical systems in Canada and the US are currently experiencing difficultes.

I grew up in Ontario, and am currently living in upper New York state. And from what I've seen in New York State, there are a lot of problems here too.

The city I live recently had to close one of its hospitals due to a lack of funding. One of my cube mates recently spent the better part of a week fighting with his HMO over a bill they said they'd cover, but later reneged on. The local paper recently ran a story about how medical costs are starting to rise again, despite the best efforts of HMO's to contain costs.

And we've all heard the horror stories associated with the HMO's.

Canada's system is also experiencing problems. There are few MRI machines. And as part of a decision to help bring down the deficit, healthcare spending was slashed in Canada during the 1990's.

However, both the US and Canada's problems stem from exactly the same source: an aging population. It is this single factor, more than any other, that is driving up health care costs in Canada and the US. And until both countries come to understand this basic fact, the problems are going to continue.

[Faeroe]

There was an article in the paper here today about seniors boarding buses to Canada for cheap medications. The Red StarTribune is never worried about inconvenient facts like these folks, the opening of a third major hospital in Duluth (which is experiencing a health-care boomlet because of Canadians arriving for treatment that they cannot get or cannot get in a timely fashion in Canada) and the fact that drug research is an expensive, time-consuming endeavor. No, the paper will continue to feature poor aunt Sadie who, while living in her paid-off home and driving a new car, cannot afford her geritol and so, must ride the bus to Canada (bus paid for by the Committee to Re-elect Wellstone). And bugger those who refuse to see the enlightened economic wisdom of socializing 17% (really 100%) of the ecopnomy.

[Vineyard]

The problem isn't an aging problem ... it is socialism. It is worse in Canada, but creeping socialism has hurt the U.S. medical system.

Drugs - note in the article that Canadians might come to the U.S. to get drugs that are not available in Canada. That is because Canada tells drug companies HOW MUCH THEY CAN CHARGE when the drugs are sold. Canada computes the cost to manufacture the drugs, but doesn't include the development costs. The high cost of NEW drugs is primarily in order to re-coup development costs. After about 17 years after the patent is filed (perhaps as little as 10 - 12 years after the drug has completed testing and has been approved by the FDA), the patent expires and generic (lower cost) drugs will compete, and the price drops significantly.

Drugs are still developed in the U.S. because the development costs are allowed. Why should drug companies be forced to sell drugs below recovery costs? (Remember that only about 10% to 20% of drugs are safe/effective and get approved, so the costs must be higher to recover all the development costs of drugs that don't "pan out".

But what is needed most is "USER PAYS" ... not third party pays. If Medical Savings Accounts were used to cover all but high cost procedures (i.e. - the first $3,000 of medical costs are out of pocket ....), then users become more careful of what procedures they request. They are less likely to go to the emergency room for flu symptoms.

And of course, let us not forget the U.S. government's attempts to bankrupt the medical systems by forcing hospitals to provide free treatment to indigent people, illegal aliens, etc. Those costs aren't reimbursed by the U.S. government (and the taxpayers), but are "shared" by raising the price of medical services to the insured people.

A little free-market policies are required to put a bit of sanity in the health care industry ... or the U.S. will end up with a system little better than Canada or Great Britian.

Mike

[freeforall]

You are both correct.Socialized medicine is the problem in Canada.I live in London,Ontario and have seen the waiting lists get bigger and the hospitals cut back.But you know what,the government of Ontario is spending more than ever!

The total budget is about $65 Billion with most spent on Education and Health care (40 to 50 %)We have about 9 million people you do the math.