From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: Canada (was: Re: Freedom of Religion as well as everything else)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 4 Sep 92 22:45:48 GMT

In article <1992Sep4.132757.20451@bcrka451.bnr.ca> bbooth@x400gate.bnr.ca (Brad Booth) writes:
>
>Al Billings writes:
>>  But you can die waiting for medical care due to the Socialized nature of
>> it. There was an article in the Seattle Times about it this week. A
>> patient that NEEDED to have heart surgery immediatly was seeing a doctor
>> through a friend here in the States. The doctor called the patient's
>> doctor in Canada and was informed that they might be able to get to him in
>> a few weeks (or it might have been months, I can't remember). The American
>> doctor askes the Canadian doctor if people ever died because of the waits,
>> and the Canadian doctor told him "All the time."
>
>At least he's honest. ;)  But seriously, people die in both Canada and the US
>waiting for medical care.  It's not that uncommon.  The other thing I think
>that you should try to take into context is the fact that Vancouver is Canada's
>fastest growing city, and most of that growth is in retired people.  This
>large influx of people has put a load on the medical system.  Socialized
>medicare is not perfect, the medical professions, governments and people
>recognize that and are making moves to improve the service.  But, the key to
>*me* is that everyone in Canada has access to affordable medical care.  It
>costs, but IMHO I think most Canadians will tell you that it's worth it.

It also seems (to an outsider from the US), that the triage that's
performed in Canda is at least equalized.  Here, you have people
dropping dead like flies for want of medical care, to the point that a
person who is having a heart attack will be TURNED AWAY from an
emergency room if they have no insurance; they ask for your insurance
number before they ask for your name in US hospitals.  I agree that you
can have trouble in a socialized system, but at least everyone has the
same trouble.  Here, what determines whether you merit life or death is
just how much damned money you make.  Your entire life and whether or
not you deserve to live it depends on that one thing.  At least in
Canada (or it seems that way to a US citizen), everyone is put on an
equal footing.

Here in the US, you also have this incredible fear of death to the point
where even living at 80 years of age gasping under an oxygen tent is
preferable to a family than letting Granny go.  We waste resources, and
no, I don't like saying that any more than you like hearing it. You just
won't find a 90 year old man on life support because his family is
scared shitless to let him go in Canada.

A friend of mine's husband is an oncologist; no small coincidence that
she herself has leukemia.  Both of them have come to the same
realization -- and this is a woman who NEEDS this kind of medical care.
Her husband is going nuts trying to care for people who have AIDS and
have gotten cancer as a consequence, and he just can't turnthem away; he
is being drained financially and mentally as a result.  Is this good? 

She's been in and out of hospitals since she was in college, and
requires severe medical assistance.  She sees people clutching onto life
at any cost, people who have leukemia, and says bluntly that she never
wants to do that.  She works hard as hell in grad school to contribute
while she can, and use her mind and feed it as much as she can, so that
when her time comes, she won't be so scared about having lived a
meaningless life that she will hold onto it at any cost.

This, though, is more of an attitude thang than anything else, and
medical insuracne won't address it.

Lest you think otherwise, I myself, while outwardly appearing quite
healthy, have a damned good chance of being flattened out on an
operating table and having my back slit open like a chicken; I have
scoliosis and am awaiting a verdict as to whether or not my spine is
collapsing as I type.  If it is, I will require a spinal fusion.  Quite
simply, I can't afford it.  Because I was not fortunate enough to
exercise financial judgement in my choice of parents, I am at a major
disadvantage, despite the fact that my career points toward being a
college instructor -- something that Geordie Bush purports to respect,
and something that can contribute macroscopically to society at large.  

I'll stop babbling.  Basically, it's not the scarcity of care that
annoys me about the US; it's the fact that, even if I am a worthy
contributor to society, my contributions mean nothing -- my paycheck is
the ultimate arbiter as to whether or not I merit medical care.  It's
not the scarcity that bothers me; it's the unfairness.  If, in Canada, I
have to wait a year for care, at least I know that I'm on an equal
footing with everyone else.  I can live with that.  
 
>Follow-ups to soc.culture.canada.

If you insist.

Blessings,
Janis 


Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada