Posted on 07/26/2003 12:08:34 PM PDT by ConservativeStLouisGuy
Health care in Ontario is free, but so is eating lunch from a trashcan. So last week I flew to Baltimore to see an eye specialist. I did this to avoid a two-month wait in Toronto, the indignity of being treated like a head of cattle at Toronto Western, and health-care workers that are Canada's best answer to an authoritarian regime.
My U.S. medical bill was $1,000 U.S., a price I'm happy to pay just to avoid being sworn at by Toronto nurses.
Whether the care I received in the United States was medically better, I cannot judge. But I did buy something you can't buy here: Civility.
In Wednesday's Star, Joe Fiorito recounted his experience renewing his Ontario health card: a senseless bureaucracy making him shuffle about the city; rude bureaucrats; stupid rules.
His story rings uncomfortably true. Health-care workers I've met in Toronto don't care.
Three months ago, while I lay in bed reading Kenneth Pollack's The Threatening Storm, I noticed a blind spot in my left eye, a little down and right from the centre of my vision. The letters on the page weren't there. Just white space.
For most people, this would be concerning; I was terrified. An accident had severely impaired the vision in my other eye when I was 6.
Although my problem wasn't an emergency, I needed to see a retinal specialist.
This is a doctor who specializes in the photo-receptor-packed "screen" at the back of your eye that images are projected onto.
Part of my retina was apparently not working.
The wait in Toronto was two weeks for me — so short because I went to the hospital, bypassed security and begged for an appointment.
On appointment day, I waited two hours in a room crowded with dozens of patients. My stomach churned.
I overheard an agitated nurse trying to convince someone that I shouldn't be seen. She remembered I hadn't gone through proper channels when I made my appointment the week before.
Then they called my name.
I moved to a jam-packed room where I sat shoulder to shoulder with three other patients. The on-deck circle. I started to sweat. Nurses snapped at patients at a reception desk three feet away. A man with a health card was ordered to the other side of the hospital because he didn't also have a "hospital card."
Then, I was in.
"Ignore it," the doctor said. "Easy case." He saw me for five minutes, looked in my eye with a light and couldn't see a problem.
In the weeks after, the blind spot seemed to get worse.
Every doorframe, computer cord, chart, had a blank spot. I couldn't concentrate at work.
"We're going on vacation, you'll have to call back in August," I was told when I tried to get a second opinion. "There's nothing I can do, there's a lot of other people waiting," another receptionist told me.
It takes one day to get an appointment at the best eye hospital in the United States. I went.
My first indication that Johns Hopkins was different came on the phone. Receptionists were friendly, cheerful and helpful. The answering system has an option where you can speak to an ophthalmologist by phone. In Toronto this would be like phoning a major bank and discovering that by pressing 1 you could chat with the bank president about your service charges. I laughed out loud.
When I arrived at the hospital — and, as Dave Barry would say, I am not making this up — they offered me a cup of tea. My "co-ordinator" escorted me through quiet atriums that could pass for a Howard Johnson lobby. People smiled and said "thank you." The waiting room was so empty (five people in a room that could seat 50) I wondered if my plane had crashed and this was health-care heaven. Where were the huddled masses? In the four hours I was there, three doctors saw me for more than an hour-and-a-half, all told.
The specialist thought about my problem, suggested causes and in the end guessed it wasn't serious and that it would heal itself. As to the cause, he could find no answer. But he had thought about it. He had cared.
In Toronto, hospitals don't need us. They're too busy already. Canadian laws make it illegal to buy our way out of an overburdened public system. We can't buy friendly service in Canada.
Our laws will change, someday. For now, the lesson is this: U.S. medical care isn't just for rich people. Who knew you could get such exceptional medical attention for the price of a new suit?
(Jason Brooks is articling at a law firm in Toronto.)
I can understand how one's personal affairs might give rise to living in a different country.
But I'd think long and hard before renouncing my American citizenship and swearing allegience to a foreign nation. Citizenship is not a trivial right or commitment.
The first diagnosis was the same as the second. Should he have searched for a third? Certainly he has a right to be concerned about his eyesight , and he's entitled to do as he pleases.
As for life expectancy, my point was in reference to the quality of the medical system in place in Canada , not the racial composition of the people who use it. It's no better, or worse, than the US system. Both have problems.
I referenced the CIA World Fact book. It's on line.
Canada , Infant mortality rate: 4.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.) Life expectancy at birth: total population: 79.69 years , male: 76.3 years , female: 83.25 years (2002 est.)
USA .Infant mortality rate: 6.69 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est) , Life expectancy at birth: total population: 77.4 years , male: 74.5 years , female: 80.2 years (2002 est.)
Imagine what you would think about a Canadian who came down here and said: "Since I was born in good ole' CANADA I consider myself a CANADIAN first, American second.
You'd want to flip him the bird and send him packing - so, how are you different?
Do they? The CIA didn't think it important, neither do I , although they do list race %'s in their Factbook . Perhaps you could explain it , the apples to apples thing.
Neither was I. I said Canadian health care was no better or worse. Both have problems . Life expectancy and birth mortality in Canada are better than in the US . And health care plays a major role in that . It's not the only reason, but it's a major one. Like it or not , that's the way it is
Canadian diets can be just as destructive as American . And population demographics of the US and Canada are not identical but they are similar. Canada has a black population . And a American Indian one . Apples equal apples.
Canadian blacks: 2% American blacks: 13%
I'll tell you, if a Canadian came down here with your attitude up there, I'd personally kick their rear all the way back to Moosejaw.
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