"Attempted" Copyright Infringement may be illegal soon.

[Leo Mauler]

--- Jon Pruente <jdpruente at gmail.com> wrote:

> THe Canadians have no idea why Americans are 
> so enamoured of their health care system.  If 
> a Canadian needs anything more than basic care 
> or some sort of specialty care, and they have 
> the money, they travel across the border to 
> the U.S. and pay an American doctor to fix 
> them.  

And if an uninsured American needs basic care, they
don't go *anywhere*, or they go help shut down their
local hospital by getting extremely expensive E.R.
care for which they can't afford to pay.  The millions
of uninsured people think that the Canadian system of
health care is at least better than the U.S. system,
since in Canada you might have to wait for a
specialist (but not for basic care).  Here in the U.S.
you might never get basic care no matter how long you
wait.

The rich in the U.S. are already discovering that a
$132,000 heart bypass operation in the U.S. (thats the
operation only, not including tests, hospital stay,
X-Rays, etc.), only costs $10,000 in India, and that
includes roundtrip plane tickets to India, tests,
hospital stay, X-rays, pretty much anything else the
primary doctor thinks is necessary, and a side trip to
the Taj Mahal.  And your Indian doctor either received
his medical degree in the U.S. or trained from someone
who received his medical degree in the U.S.  People
with money will always be able to find a system of
health care which is better (for them) than the one
they are in themselves.

> And, because the Canadian pay system, the better 
> doctors tend to move to the US to work...

There's a reason for the Canadian doctor "exodus"
which has nothing to do with the "Canadian pay
system": Canada requires a two-year residency in order
to get a license to practice medicine, and those are
in short supply in Canada.  Canada does recognize
residencies performed in American hospitals, so nearly
a thousand new doctors a year tromp over the border to
get their residency requirement.  This gets picked up
by anyone opposed to single-payer health care as
"they're leaving to come here because we're better." 
Meanwhile our U.S. doctors leave medical school in one
state and search for residencies in another state, and
that isn't counted as "the Massachusetts health care
system must be worse than the one in Illinois!"

Quite a few doctors come back to Canada because they
are appalled at a health care system which refuses
care to people if they cannot pay, and won't even let
people, who cannot pay, wait for a specialist.

The "well Canadians have to wait a long time for a
specialist so they hate their system" argument rankles
with me because I need a specialist and I am
uninsured.  In Canada I might have to wait six months.
 Here I will die before I get the specialist, because
I will never be able to save up the money for the
office visit with the specialist, let alone the tests.
 
> But this is getting even further off topic.

I agree, I just couldn't let these two stereotypes of
Canadian and U.S. health care stand without pointing
out why they aren't completely true.


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