Our elected public officials once again succeeding only in making themselves look stupid...

 

She gave him a nice verbal pummeling, didn't she? Sounded like the most professional smack down so far this year.

 

Obamacare was written by Big Pharma and insurance companies. Corporatocracy at its finest.

 

Ok, gotta get a Cdn in here...and worse, a doctor!! The American health care system is great for those who can pay-access to any doctor or hospital, any diagnostic procedure, cutting edge treatments. No one will argue with that. However, there is a huge number of people who can't access that level of health care, and effectively have no health care-worse than many third world countries! This becomes a problem for the people who measure the state of the country's health and compare it to others around the world. Child death rates, maternal death rates, ave life spans, and many other comparators are all worse in the US versus many European and Asian countries. I will not deny that Canadians wait longer for accessing certain procedures and diagnostic imaging, but the outcomes are rarely affected by this wait. Canadians live longer than Americans, and not just by a few months, but more than 3 years; and that is all comers-so a little waiting doesn't appear to have caused problems. Some years ago, US and Canada were equal....
I agree with many of you that the insurance companies, and the drug companies are running the system, not the consumers. Here the governments and bureaucrats run the systems, but at least I can still chose what treatments to give and what drugs to write. I don't have quotas to meet or insurance companies to answer to. I have done some work in the US (did some time training at the Mayo), so I understand the system, and I am continually impressed by the advances that come out of some of the Universities and academic centers. It is very sad that those advances are not accessible to all.
I see that politician stupidity exists on both sides of the border...Oy Vey!
Whew, I am stepping off my soap box...

 

Burr seems like a decent fella. He sits on the board of a children's hospital. I think he has some depth of knowledge regarding healthcare. It seemed to me that he was genuinely curious in his questioning.

Anecdotes are meaningful if they're common experience and not unique . I guess it's a little touchy when Canadian politicians go to another country for medical care? Maybe he just likes the weather in Florida! When did Canadians get so prideful?? Canada rocks! Americans go to Costa Rica for cosmetic surgery because it's cheap. I don't think many Americans are resentful of Costa Rica over this. hehehe


My son is one of the top high school wrestlers in the country. That's a pretty big deal. Before this season, he suffered a partial MCL tear and we had to make a medical decision which would impact the rest of his athletic and academic career.

Anyway, long story, boring: From the day of his injury to his surgery was 8 days. This included (2) MRI's and a scope. By any definition, the surgery was medically elective. But, he was able to wrestle a full season because of quick treatment which for our family was a happy ending.

Perhaps things would have been different if we lived someplace other than NYC or some other big metro center? Dunno.

 

While I'm in a rant mood..........................

I'm in Oz, land of Medicare and Private Health cover.

I have top private medical/extras/hospital cover.

I've had to have some slicin'n'dicin' done recently, and after adding up the bills, I'm $10K out of pocket

If I was an average person with no private cover, it wouldn't have cost me a cent, but the wait would have killed me eventually.

I 'spose I can look at the $10K as a tip to the doorman to get me into the "theatre" at the head of the queue, at least I starred in two performances

 

Glad you're OK!

I like you lol

btw - never got the Rotary (seller was a total d bag) but...I finally, after so many tries, picked off a watch from our friend Alex in Mexico City. Nuthin' special but i love compressor cases and this one looks pretty solid!
Tell me what you think - be frank...

 

hopefully I killed off a potential political thread with some watch photos but I fear the watch may not be strong enough.

 

I think your Kung-fu is strong enough.

 

Unfortunately not.
Your 8 day turn around is an example of what is wrong with US healthcare. Purely elective stuff gets priority because you can pay. While those with a greater need wait because they cant pay.

 

Jim, if you are interested ive got details of average wait times for all categorirs of surgery in Victoria at work. But basically around 75% of elective surgery is conducted within "clinically recommended times". Now for what is classed as low priority, clinically recommended is "within 1 year"...