[Split] Healthcare discussion

[bob@pogopal]

Kazandchip,

The healthcare system in Ontario Canada was totally screwed up by two laws. One law forbids doctors to bill anything in excess of what OHIP pays. The second law claws back doctors salaries if they make too much money. I believe similar laws apply in other provinces.

As a result, doctors leave Canada for the free world. This leaves much of Canada with a critical doctor shortage. While you do not have to go to a specific doctor, the problem is finding any doctor at all willing to take on new patients. Most general practitioners here are overworked and undercompensated--all in the name of some perverse and obscene sense of 'fairness'.

For years, I was in a situation where I was very affluent and could pay the entire cost of my medical care. However, the province of Ontario prohibits me from doing so.

Without a family doctor, one cannot get referrals to specialists. The only way to get any advanced medical treatment without a family doctor is to show up at emergency. If your condition is not serious enough for immediate admittance, you basically get sent home to come back when it is more serious.

I find that barbaric and obscene.

[Serendipity]

wow,temper temper
I am NOT whining..I'm so sick of people knocking out heath care and WHINING
I don't know what kind of mess you have had with our"System" but you are NOT among the majority.
I expect NO ONE to pay for my health care,either side of the border,and stuff your cranberry juice Doc, its not a cure,and does little to prevent an onslaught.You can READ all the articles you want,like pregnancy,you will never have it,nor,can you prescribe for it

I have multiple sclerosis and believe me...Canada does very well by me...".don't it always seem to go,you don't know what you got til its gone"

You can spout all the  figures and gobbldygook you want..We have free heath care...maybe you upper canadians are doing something wrong,for once!!!

Bet its you that started the"we live in Igloos,and Canada is owned by Greenland rumour"!!

[Snarechick]

Well said.

"Do NOT get sick here" can be said in some cases, but an informed and well researched patient can not only determine if their doctor is on top of their personal care, but can also realize that second and third opinions can be good ideas.  I've been a cancer patient here in the states for the past two and a half years, and have had excellent care.  My mother became paralyzed from the waist down (paraplygia), has just recently suffered renal failure and put on dialysis, and is currently getting ready to have new lens' put in to replace her natural lens' during a double eye surgery.  My point?  The freedom to choose allows for us to get the healthcare from phyicians and specialists that meets our demands.  Nothing can substitute for a well informed patient who does his or her research on their conditions and can therefore make informed decisions regarding their health.  If people have had bad experiences it's because they've stayed with a physician and remained unhappy, are one of the unlucky who actually HAD a bad experience, or are the type who don't realize that physicians are human and reasonable mistakes are made. 

Cranberry juice is not a cure, this is true...but it can help with Bladder/Urinary Tract infections.  My mother is extremely prone to getting UTI's as she has had a catheder since her accident in Jan. 02.  Full course anti-biotic treatment and the suggestion of cranberry juice are fairly common among Urology patients.  Not railing on you, just saying in general.

Being among the majority or not, regardless of what side of the border, is very unfortunate and very frustrating.  Just because it's not happened to you and you have not heard of many cases does it make it any less unjust.  For someone to be denied medical treatment, unless it's deemed serious enough to be admitted to a hospital, is unexceptable.  BHB has been denied far longer than my ordeal here in the states (was kicked off of Blue Cross for 2 years with no explanation as a minor (17 yrs of age) while suspected to already have cancer which would actually put me at 5 years worth of cancer...I was so ill at the time of reinstatement that I went straight to the ER and they did surgery and diagnosed me as Stage IV Thyroid cancer within a week), and luckily he hasn't had any serious illness in that time.  Health care systems the world over have holes and flaws in their programs, it's not until you get caught in one that you understand how obscene it is for those involved and the legal fights you have to get yourself involved in to get the treatment you want and need.

On a side note- don't get worked up over discussions on forums.  It's extremely hard to tell the initial tone and inflection of one's conversation when it's written rather than spoken, especially on the Internet.  Sometimes one can come across completely different than they intended (I'm sure we've all been there, haha!  ::) :P )

Back to my dark corner...

[bob@pogopal]

wow,temper temper

You take money from my pocket to pay for your healthcare while prohibiting me from using what's left to pay for mine, and you chastise me for anger? Only a complete idiot would face that obscenity without anger.

I am NOT whining..I'm so sick of people knocking out heath care and WHINING

I heard you whining. I distinctly heard you. By a show of hands, when you heard this person complaining about actually having to pay for a visit to the emergency room for something easily taken care of in a doctor's office, how many of you readers out there heard a whine?

I don't know what kind of mess you have had with our"System" but you are NOT among the majority.

I would find it obscene to take money from one sole individual for the healthcare of others while forcibly preventing that person from paying for his own healthcare. Whether it happens to a majority is irrelevant. Had you any education whatsoever on the once great culture that founded the society you live in and the enlightenment thinkers who laid the groundwork for a free and liberal society, you would have a clue that a tyranny of the majority is still a tyranny.

As it happens, for 11 years, I was a member of a 14% minority or about 3.6 million Canadians shut out of the Canadian healthcare system. And from the same article, for a mere 6 years, I was a member of the more select group of 1.2 million Canadians who are actually confronted by the reality of that situation.

Those numbers are "millions" not "tens".

I expect NO ONE to pay for my health care,either side of the border

Bull! My taxes pay for your healthcare, and you expect my taxes to pay for them. You made that amply clear when you whined about the $1500 hospital bill you actually had to pay for yourself instead of sloughing off on your neighbours. And you expect this while I am prevented from paying for my own healthcare. (Unless I first flee to the free world.)

You can READ all the articles you want,like pregnancy,you will never have it,nor,can you prescribe for it

Are you suggesting I have no bladder? Or are you suggesting I am completely immune to infection? It's true I will never be pregnant, but I don't see the relevance to your whining about having to pay for a needless emergency visit over a preventable condition that's easily treated in a doctor's office.

I have multiple sclerosis and believe me...Canada does very well by me...

Am I to understand your position is you do not care how many people get screwed or how obscenely they get screwed as long as you are well done by? There is only one thing wrong with Canada: It's full of Canadians.

".don't it always seem to go,you don't know what you got til its gone"

Quite frankly, you reveal your own ignorance. It is clear you absolutely refuse to even look at the situation until you lose your family doctor so your "don't know what you got til its gone" is a self-fulfilling prophesy. I sure hope your doctor doesn't decide to close up the family practice for an easier and more lucrative Bernstein Diet Clinic.

(If you've been thinking of moving to Geraldton any time in the near future, you might want to hold those plans off for a little while.)

You can spout all the  figures and gobbldygook you want..We have free heath care...

There you go showing your ignorance again. How do you figure taxing me to pay for your healthcare makes it 'free' ? Somebody still pays. Its clear you don't care who you steal it from or who you deprive as long as YOU get what YOU want.