Re: Just a couple of observations

"oasysco" <wilderkommen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1138726564.274882.64350@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> I heard last night two things about Canadian medicine I found
> disturbing:
>
> 1. it is illegal to charge for medical treatment in Canada

Sort of, if a provincial health plan allows "extra billing" like a co-pay
fee by doctors then the federal govt. cuts off funding to that province.
And private insurance is de facto illegal unless it only covers services the
public system doesn't provide, but you can't have outside insurance to jump
the line in the increasingly long waits for surgery for example. Although a
recent decision by their supreme court calls all that into question, the
court said forcing people to wait extraordinary lengths of time for surgery
just to force everyone to participate in govt. health insurance was not
cool.

Here's a link --

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/09/newscoc-health050609.html

It's worth noting that under the constitution in Canada, the govt. (federal
or provincial) can over-rule their supreme court if they really want to,
something Americans probably find a little stunning.

> 2. certain procedures such as knee replacements can not be done under
> law until the recipient is at least 65 years old due to the lack of
> resources and the fact that artificial joints only last 10-25 years

I don't know if they apply a specific age, but the guy who sued and took the
case all the way to the Canadian supreme court was looking for hip or knee
replacement if memory serves, and was prepared to pay outside the govt.
insurance plan to get it, he wasn't allowed to do so and the court said that
was bogus since the govt. plan couldn't help him in a reasonable amount of
time.

> Can anybody factually dispel or verify the comments I heard? I just
> can't imagine being 45 years old with degenerative arthritis and having
> to wait 20 more years for relief whether I had the money or not to pay
> for it.
>
> Greg

The Canadian health care system has been breaking down for over a decade,
there are shortages of doctors and nurses and high-tech equipment like MRI
machines, the govt. recently had to commit umpteen billion tax dollars to
pump up the system for awhile, if they don't move to a mixed system like
much of Europe they'll continue to have trouble. On the other hand,
forty-five million Americans with no insurance at all would probably love to
be able to see a doctor just by paying forty bucks a month to a govt. health
plan, pick your poison.


.

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