[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Having married and recently moved to Toronto, Ontario, I read this opinion pieces in the local newspaper and was SO GLAD that I found someone else in this Socialized Liberal Country that agreed with me! Needless to say, Mr. Brooks' piece nailed it!!! -- ConservativeStLouisGuy (I started posting on Free Republic when I lived in St. Louis -- am now in the process of applying for Canadian citizenship [eh!])

[Humidston]

Why why why in the world would you be applying for Canadian citizenship if you're a proud American??? Say it isn't so!

[BenR2]

am now in the process of applying for Canadian citizenship [eh!])

////
Let me guess: You married into MAJOR bucks?

[Rose in RoseBear]

Pingpingping!

[Satadru]

Don't worry, President Bush will change all of this. He has taken a major step towards socialized medicine.

[RippleFire]

bump

[condolinda]

This sure has been my personal experience. The things that most struck me when I moved to the U.S. from Canada were the friendliness of the medical practitioners, and the speed with which one could get an appointment. I lived many years in Ontario, and rudeness, contempt and long (long!) waits for appointments and surgery were by FAR the rule.

[~Peter]

One can't do better than Johns Hopkins in the US health care system ... it's simply the best there is ... bar none.

[stayout]

Check out this incredible story about healthcare in Canada: Source

Stories abound of Canadians going to extreme measures in order to gain access to medical technology. For example, several years ago an enterprising hospital in Guelph, Ontario, decided to allow animals needing CT scans to enter the hospital in the middle of the night - charging pet owners C$300 apiece. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that except that thousands of people in Ontario were waiting up to three months for an appointment on the same machine.

"I'd go any time," said Greg Moulton, who was in the middle of a two-month wait to learn why he was having "excruciating" headaches. Because people are not allowed to pay out of pocket for medical procedures covered under the government-run plan, they have to wait. If you are a dog, you can get medical technology immediately.

When dogs get better treatment than people, then people will become dogs. In December 1999, The Washington Post reported that waiting lines for MRIs in Ontario had grown so long that one Ontario resident "booked himself into a private veterinary clinic that happened to have one of the machines, listing himself as 'Fido.'"

God help us all if the socialists finally succeed in their attempt to excise the free enterprise element within our medical industry.

[buccaneer81]

Ping!!

[I_dmc]

Question: Is this the norm in all provinces? Are Manitoba and Alberta any different?

[Polybius]

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.

I am the radiologist at a Washington State small county hospital. Last Sunday, the E.R. called to ask me to do an examination on a Canadian tourist they had admitted the night before with abdominal pain.

Arriving in my jeans and my scruffy weekend look, the Canadian lady was surprised that a specialist would drive in from home on a Sunday just to see her. We chatted about the long waits in major Canadian cities for CT scans when our smaller hospital does CT scans 24/7 for emergencies and within 24 hours for non-emergencies.

After my exam was completed, my weekend staff was busy with an E.R. patient so I wheelchaired the Canadian back to her hospital room before I went home.

She was quite impressed that, in Canada, you wait weeks for a specialist to see you for 5 minutes but that, in the U.S., a specialist would wheel her back to her bed on a Sunday morning. :-)

[VOA]

...am now in the process of applying for Canadian citizenship...

Think again before you do it.
An aunt moved to Canada with her Candian-citizen husband decades ago.
She worked as a school-teacher until retirement...and was badgered for quite a bit
to dump her US citizenship and to become a Canadian citizen.

So, now that even the uncle is retired from the civil service of Canada what's the situation?

Two of their three kids live in Dallas, TX, making good bucks. My aunt and uncle
spend about multiple months a year in Dallas.

My aunt? Says she is happy she never folded to the pressure to become a Canadian citizen.

I'm not knocking Canada (but I will their politicians, especially in Quebec), but
becoming a citizen of Canada, espeically if you're not in Alberta...
heck, in another decade or so, you'll be effectively a citizen of France.
Without the chance for day trips to London.

There is a reason that about 30,000 people a year leave Canada for the USA (many are
well-educated professionals) and only about 6,000 people a year head from the USA to Canada.
(demographic stat cited on occassion on The Michael Medved Show)
I'm in Los Angeles, and I can't tell you how many doctors, lawyers, etc.
I've met who left Canada behind in order to live here in this "sin city" by Canadian standards.

Oh, and another issue...in case you have kids, especially a son.
My uncle really encouraged his one son to move to the USA...and to register with
U.S. Selective Service immediately. My uncle said that if there ever was a military
crisis he'd rather my cousin be serving with a competent military force than a
creaky, really under-funded group like the Canadian military...and I think there was
some residual family feelings that Commonwealth forces would always end up being
cannon-fodder to be used poorly, like some events in WWI or WWII.

(and I say that still having respect for some Canadian units like the PPCLI that
served in Afghanistan)

[Old Professer]

If I ever start articling, I hope someone shoots me.

[Tribune7]

ping

[USMMA_83]

But, he got the same opinion from the Canadian doctor without having to pay anything....eh?

[Former Proud Canadian]

I have no doubt that the story related about health care in Canada is true. However, there are some "tricks" you can use to recieve better care within this system. Send me freeper mail and I will let you in on the secrets.

[Stu Cohen]

So, the Canadian health system is awful. Maybe.

The fact remains that the life expectancy of Canadians is 82 years, which ranks them among the top five countries of the world.

The life expectancy in the US is 76.9

The article was entertaining, but much more needs to be taken into account when comparing the two systems. Who's living longer? What are the infant mortality rates? Canadians are actually well cared for when compared to the health system of the world as a whole.

I have been to many inner-city US hospotal and Doctor's offices that would make the author's Toronto experiences look like crumpets with the queen. Rudeness and inefficiency is by not means a stranger to the health industry here. Not to mention malpractice and outright fraud that is quite rampant througout the entire fee-for-service system.

Actually, the poor experience he relayes with the nurses at Toronto Western are almost a mirror-image of the the experiences I have when trying to deal with Blue Cross.

Anybody ever dealt with an for-profit HMO? Thank goodness I have never had that pleasure, but I hear it can be downright dangerous.

He went to a Johns Hopkin's specialist on a cash-patient basis. If you've got a thousand bucks for an office visit at a prestigous hospital, then of course treatment will be better. Of course, many people are paying so much in taxes and insurance premiums (taxes in themselves) that they don't have $1000 left over for such specialized and personal care. What do they do? Unless you are indigent and try to climb onto the dole, chance are you are going to a doctor approved by your insurance carrier. You *will not* get this kind of polite treatment. Trust me on this one.

And last but not least, despite all that money and courtesy - they still were unable to resolve or even diagnose his problem. So John's Hopkins was courteous, but no more able to treat his condition than the Canadians.

In the end, what have we learned?

If you give people money, they'll be nice to you. Real newsflash. Diagnosis success rates may not go up, your problem may still not be solved, but at least they'll give you tea. He got a $1000 pampered visit that was no more medically effective than the free rude visit.

I was hoping for something more insightful.