Starlifter
Serious Thumper
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It only snows seven months of the year here.
Posts: 3746
Eastern Michigan
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The article is ironic, considering that our system is rife with examples of delayed/denied care. And stories of NO care - never forget the many millions with no medical insurance in this country who, if they get seriously ill, simply resign themselves to die.
When you have middle class Americans fighting for the right of insurance companies to screw them, we are seriously in trouble as a nation..
An American Disgrace
Source: "Indianapolis Ledger"
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A vascular surgeon in Indianapolis told me about a man in his fifties who'd had a large abdominal aortic aneurysm. Doctors knew for months that it was in danger of rupturing, but since he wasn't insured, his local private hospital wouldn't fix it. Finally, it indeed began to rupture. Rupture is an often fatal development, but the man -- in pain, with the blood flow to his legs gone -- made it to an emergency room. Then the hospital put him in an ambulance to Indiana University, arguing that the patient's condition was "too complex." My friend got him through, but he's very lucky to be alive.
Another friend, an oncologist in Marietta, Ohio, told me about three women in their forties and fifties whom he was treating for advanced cervical cancer. A Pap smear would have caught their cancers far sooner. But since they didn't have insurance, their cancers were recognized only when they caused profuse bleeding..
In Praise of the Canadian Health Care System
Source: "Toronto Star"
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People hear one anecdote about delayed or denied care and they use that to tar the entire system. I have heard the same anecdotal garbage about the British health system and the Veterans Administration. Yet most of the people who are in those systems would not give them up for a fistful of vouchers.
It's like people who refuse to wear seatbelts because they "heard of a guy who died because he wore his/lived because he didn't.
Quebec Quality Health Care
I had been experiencing a pain in the left side of my chest, not near the surface, but deep under the surface for at least a week. I was growing increasingly nervous about it, scrutinizing my breathing, doing repeated breast self-examinations for a lump, and so on. Today the pain seemed to have spread across my chest so I walked the four miles to the hospital.
Many Americans have heard that our health care system is a shambles, that wait-times are outrageous, that very sick people have to wait months for important tests, that the care we receive is substandard, and so on.
Canadians know this is rubbish, and that our health care system (whose existence is threatened by the right wing-conservative gov't that just got re-elected) is one of the greatest achievements of the country.
To demonstrate this, I want to tell you about my visit to the hospital today. I signed in to the Emergency Triage area at 1:20. Within 10 minutes, I was given a preliminary diagnostic briefing by two triage nurses who took my history, my blood pressure, gave me 3 Advil and checked my heartrate.
I was then taken immediately into an examination room in the "Minor Treatment" area, and given a gown by a nurse who explained that she was going to return in a few moments to perform an EKG on me. She did the procedure and gave me a copy of the print-out (I asked for it), telling me that everything seemed fine with my heart.
Within 15 minutes, another nurse came in and took several tubes of blood from me and chatted with me about eyebrow waxing.
Not longer after, the doctor came in and she and I chatted about was going on with me. She did a breast exam on me and told me that she was ruling out heart problems and that my left breast seemed fine. I asked her what her view is on mammograms and the controversy surrounding them. We chatted about this for several minutes. She told me to put my bra and shirt on, go sit on the chairs in the waiting area, and wait for the results of the bloodwork. About 10 minutes later, she came to tell me that she had changed her mind: she had decided to do a chest x-ray to rule out anything going on underneath.
I went for the chest x-ray about 30 minutes later, then I returned to the waiting area.
After about 20 minutes, the doctor called my name and motioned for me to come behind the desk area where she was seated. She pulled out a seat and proceeded to show me the computer charts she had on-screen which itemized my hemoglobin count, my BP, and so on, as well as the chest x-rays themselves. She confirmed that nothing like pneumonia was showing up on my lungs, and pointed to the area where cartlidge which she believed tobe inflamed is located. She then confirmed that, yes, those were my boobs on-screen and, extolled the virtues of a good bra.
After this, I went into the nearby washroom, got myself dressed, and walked out the automatic doors, feeling so fortunate to live in a country where there is a safety net, where citizens value the well-being of their neighbours, and the dogma of "self-sufficiency" and "personal responsibility" do not drive the distribution of social goods. The clock just inside the doors told me that it was 5:10. I had been there for less than four hours.
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