Downgrade

Sara Robinson, who posts over at David Neiwert’s left-wing hate-site, Orcinus, is an ex-pat American who ran off to Canada and currently resides in British Columbia, Canada. She got the chance to write at Campaign for America’s Future on her experience with the Canadian healthcare system.

Surprise, surprise! She likes it.

In her Part I post at CAF, she attempts to “Debunk the Free Marketeers” and fails miserably.

3. Wait times in Canada are horrendous:

True and False again — it depends on which province you live in, and what’s wrong with you. Canada’s health care system runs on federal guidelines that ensure uniform standards of care, but each territory and province administers its own program. Some provinces don’t plan their facilities well enough; in those, you can have waits. Some do better. As a general rule, the farther north you live, the harder it is to get to care, simply because the doctors and hospitals are concentrated in the south. But that’s just as true in any rural county in the U.S.

4. You have to wait forever to get a family doctor:

False for the vast majority of Canadians, but True for a few. Again, it all depends on where you live. I live in suburban Vancouver, and there are any number of first-rate GPs in my neighborhood who are taking new patients. If you don’t have a working relationship with one, but need to see a doctor now, there are 24-hour urgent care clinics in most neighborhoods that will usually get you in and out on the minor stuff in under an hour.

It is, absolutely, harder to get to a doctor if you live out in a small town, or up in the territories. But that’s just as true in the U.S. — and in America, the government won’t cover the airfare for rural folk to come down to the city for needed treatment, which all the provincial plans do.

6. Canada’s care plan only covers the basics. You’re still on your own for any extras, including prescription drugs. And you still have to pay for it:

True — but not as big an issue as you might think. The province does charge a small monthly premium (ours is $108/month for a family of four) for the basic coverage. However, most people never even have to write that check: almost all employers pick up the tab for their employees’ premiums as part of the standard benefits package; and the province covers it for people on public assistance or disability.

“The basics” covered by this plan include 100% of all doctor’s fees, ambulance fares, tests, and everything that happens in a hospital — in other words, the really big-ticket items that routinely drive American families into bankruptcy. In BC, it doesn’t include “extras” like medical equipment, prescriptions, physical therapy or chiropractic care, dental, vision, and so on; and if you want a private or semi-private room with TV and phone, that costs extra (about what you’d pay for a room in a middling hotel). That other stuff does add up; but it’s far easier to afford if you’re not having to cover the big expenses, too. Furthermore: you can deduct any out-of-pocket health expenses you do have to pay off your income taxes. And, as every American knows by now, drugs aren’t nearly as expensive here, either.

10. This all sounds great — but the taxes to cover it are just unaffordable. And besides, isn’t the system in bad financial shape?:

False. On one hand, our annual Canadian tax bite runs about 10% higher than our U.S. taxes did. On the other, we’re not paying out the equivalent of two new car payments every month to keep the family insured here. When you balance out the difference, we’re actually money ahead. When you factor in the greatly increased social stability that follows when everybody’s getting their necessary health care, the impact on our quality of life becomes even more signficant.

And True — but only because this is a universal truth that we need to make our peace with. Yes, the provincial plans are always struggling. So is every single publicly-funded health care system in the world, including the VA and Medicare. There’s always tension between what the users of the system want, and what the taxpayers are willing to pay. The balance of power ebbs and flows between them; but no matter where it lies at any given moment, at least one of the pair is always going to be at least somewhat unhappy.

You can see where this is going.

By tearing each complaint down to a single issue, making Canada’s health care system sound not all that bad is easy. But combine any of the two isses, like average Canadians do every single day, and the idea falls apart like a house infested with termites.

Take this poor family for example.

The man would probably be dead if he relied on his state-run health insurance.

In her Part II piece at CAF, she actually says that American “system” rations care by eliminating large numbers of people who cannot pay. This is absolute and utter bullshit. As an example, my brother, using whatever fouled logic he had at the time, declined to sign up for his employer provided health insurance.

He had no money to pay for health care beyond his wallet. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Long story short; He is drunk at a pool party and slips and falls into the shallow end and hits his head on the bottom of the pool. He is pulled out and cannot feel or move anything below his ears. 911 is called, the EMT’s show up and call for a helicopter, which lands a few blocks away in a church parking lot and off he goes to the King County Major Trauma Center at Harborview Hospital in Seattle.

A couple hours later in the ER and he can wiggle his toes. The prognosis was basically: One hell of a stinger. The next day he is sore but fine and is released.

No one asked if he had insurance until he was damn near ready to check out when the attendant came through with the usual paperwork. He was given service first. $24K in bills later, he signed up for heath insurance with his employer.

No one in America is denied health care by their insurance company or lack thereof. IF they are denied care they are denied by the hospitals and doctors. The young woman who died just before John Edwards dropped out of the Presidential race, whose death he used to bash American insurance companies, didn’t die because her insurance told the doctors not to treat her, she died because the doctors and the hospital decided not to treat her because the insurance company said they wouldn’t pay for it.

The doctors could have given her the treatment and then appealed the cost to the insurance company. They could have given her the treatment and the family could have paid for it. But the hospital and the doctors decided that since they weren’t going to get paid by the insurance company, that they weren’t going to give the treatment.

The family can, and probably will sue the insurance company. And yes, it was cold-blooded for the insurance to cut-off paying like that. But the family also needs to ask the doctors why they refused to give the treatment in the face of possibly having to wait for their money.

The UK has killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people with their system over the years, and are planning on killing more in the not too distant future by rationing their health care. That is expressly the government killing people through neglect. They have taken on the responsibility to care for those in the system (meaning everyone), and now they are “looking into” denying treatment expressly because someone is overweight, smokies, drinks, or engages in whatever activity is currently frowned upon.

Now let us see one of them try and sue the government for killing their parent/spouse/loved one. How fast do you think the government, with its state-run media outlets, can say “Piss off, yob”?

The government has no interest in keeping you alive. Oh sure, you pay your taxes now, btu they can’t guarantee how long you will be able to do so before you start needing to be using more than you pay. Cutting their losses early is good business for the government. So their “Why don’t you go die,” attitude is easily explained.

Sara Robinson’s “Bottom Line” is this

A large number of Americans have insurance and get A-Level care. Some who don’t have insurance get a lesser grade level of care. She calls it C and/or D Level. She declines to mention that those already getting care from the government (aka: Medicare/Medicaid) are already getting only the C-Level care.

But that is OK because she sees everyone in Canada as getting B-Level care and that is just fine. Those people who want A-Level care can just eat shit. She demands we get a downgrade so that others can have an upgrade.

Fuck Sara Robinson and all those who wish for me to die at the hands of government run health care. Fuck them all hard in the ass. I work for my A-Level. And while I pay for it too, it isn’t 10% of my income. Tell anyone who complains about their D-Level heath care to move to Canada. they’re accepting applications. Don’t ruin me and mine.