I Am Canadian and I am Alive Thanks to Public Healthcare!

Hello ATS

*This is my first thread, hopefully I am doing this correctly*

Background about myself:

I am currently completing my last term in university. I am 22, earn 12-15k a year at a sales job AND pay my taxes in full. My family is classified as lower-middle class (maye 10% away from the poverty line).

I only started drinking socially when I was 20 (beer a month), do not do drugs and am vegetarian (most of the time). I have been fairly healthy my entire life.

Except when I turned 16, I contracted Viral Meningitis (my Dr. said it was probably from blowing my nose too hard from the cold I had, prior to being hospitalized). IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE FREE AMBULANCE TO THE HOSPITAL THEN A FREE DOCTOR TREATING ME WITH LIFE SAVING ANTI-VIRALS I WOULD BE DEADRIGHT NOW!!!

My family does not have a house that it could get a second mortgage on, nor any existing credit lines. Whatever they had saved for my education would have been spent on saving my life had it not been for Public Health.

Did I mention that my mother need to have an emergency C-Section when I was born?

Americans are being duped by right-wing think tanks and CNN who have connections to private health insurance providers who have the most to lose from Public Healthcare.

NO! The Govt does not decide whether old people die! My 89 year old grandma had to go to the hospital twice this year for major surgery, and no one pulled the plug.

NO! You do not have to wait 2-3 weeks to see a doctor if you have had a heart attack. Usually its immediate, like less than 1 minute. If you go to a family doctor (open mon-fri sometimes Sat) with a broken arm for example, you will be casted up within 1-12 hours (12 because she may send you to a hospital for additional tests))

NO! You do NOT have to re-mortgage your house just because you got sick by a force of nature! That is cruel and incomprehensible in the richest nation in the world. (My friend from California had to pay $15000 for care because he got Pnuemonia. He had to be off the job for 2 weeks and get another credit card. This was a year ago and he is still paying it off. God forbid he gets sick again.)

It is true that sometimes people make the choice to take drugs or be unhealthy and use the healthcare system. Does this mean that they are not privy to the same basic human right as the rest of us? I am a Business Management major, I would rather have a healthy workforce than one that is sick and unproductive.

Yes the homeless and illegal immigrants get care too. Understandably I pay for this through my taxes. But these people represent a very tiny percent of the population as to not have a dent.

Public healthcare makes us live longer, takes care of the old, young and fragile. It leads to a better economy and healthier people.

Finally we are all human beings. The system lets us excercise human compassion that is non-existant (almost) in the world today. Please let the US, in my opinion one of the best nations in the world, become even better.

Cheers

Yep, I have a Canadian Health Card, I'm a born canadian, and blood line tends to stay in Canada.

When I was up their, I suffered a Migraine, shortly after acquiring the health card, and need extreme whatever they gave me, including IV's, in fear of knowing i'll sound like a (snip)sy. I was literally crying over the pain, and couldn't think, talk open my eyes, and moving was a task, heck doing nothing was extreme. Being alive was the worst part.

Never had one so intense to date as that one, from a little over a year ago.

I'm glad, but I think I would've lived, although youth in asia, was probably the only thing at the time I found it acceptable. (note the joke)

Although, this is a touchy subject, and I probably could've worked to pay it off, although I have lived in Texas most of my life .

I really don't know much about healthcare, shamefully enough, heck I told you I cried, can't get much worse then that I suppose. But I thought i'd post my story using the canadian health care system.

Although in that same hospital I heard quite a few horror stories of doctors treating and doing things to patience for whatever reason I heard only snippets and it was a while ago, and it was a first hand account, nothing on tv. But I'll stop here, it was hearsay really.

I have honestly been talking to my husband about moving to Canada mainly for the great health care!! I plan to try in move there within the next two to four years...hopefully

reply to post by Wherestheproof


Free ambulance ride and free doctor????

Surely you cannot be that ignorant.

Simply because someone else is stuck with the bill does not make it free.

Think the doctors work for free? how about the ambulance driver and paramedics? Think they work for free too?

this is the forth thread i have seen today that said "i am alive thanks to *insert country name here* public/government health care"

is this just a coincidence? or propaganda at work?



[edit on 8/16/2009 by Alaskan Man]

I almost died because of Canadian health care.

The ambulance told my wife it would be 1-2 hours to drive the 20 minutes to our house. Why? The people below a certain income get free ambulance, those with an income above 40k per year pay a fee for an ambulance. I live 20 minutes to the rural hospital and 1 hour to the big city hospital. It is a common problem with low income people calling an ambulance and saying they broke an ankle. They demand to be taken to the city hospital (they can do it but I can't because I make too much). Then when they get to the city they go into the emergency room and are seen by a doctor and get an x-ray and are OK so they say "maybe it's a sprain". They get a pain killer and walk out of emergency and go shopping in the city. I know two of the local ambulance drivers and they tell me they do 6+ "taxi" runs a day!! On welfare cheque day they have to bring on a third ambulance because they know it will be as many as 20-30 people calling with "sprained ankles". How much do you think everyone pays for that? Just so they can go to the city to spend there welfare money in the city stores? Others want to goto the the rural hospital because there is a couple of bars down the street from it.

Anyways my wife tells the ambulance to forget it she would drive me to the rural hospital herself. Once there (I was in screaming pain and puking everywhere) I sit in the waiting room for 20 minutes while three different people where checked out for ankle issues. The city has 1million people and the rural hospital services an area with 60-70k.

The doctor decides I have a kidney stone, but she tells me that they are out of the drug that helps break up kidney stones, so I'll have to pass it on my own. Seems it's not covered my Alberta health unless it takes 2 or more days to pass, so I can get a prescription and get it filled the next day or I can pass it myself. They then give me morphine and tuck me in a room for the night. I kept waking up every couple of hours in pain and they would just give me a dose of morphine to get me back to sleep. The next morning they did an x-ray and realize there is no stone but I'm still not peeing and I'm in screaming pain. She told me that normally they would do an x-ray on a kidney right away but that they where trying to save $$ by ordering less x-rays.

So they decide to transfer me to a city hospital. Problem is in Alberta the transferring hospital pays for the transfer ambulance. So since it's 15 minutes closer to the general hospital vs. the Hospital with the special Urology wing, they send me to the general hospital.

When I get to the hospital the emergency room (about 9am) is full and the hospital won't except me. So the ambulance crew had to wait with me in a hallway (with 20 other people on ambulance gurneys). Every hour a doctor comes by and gives everyone a dose of morphine to keep us quite and still. About 8pm (remember I haven't eaten, pee'ed or drank anything since 8pm the night before) they finally admit me. Only because I stopped breathing, seems they were not keeping track on any charts of how much morphine they were giving us to keep us quite and I had been given too much.
A quick check with a CT machine (while on a breathing machine) and it turns out a have a collapsed tube between my left kidney and bladder. So this hospital bitches about why the rural didn't send me directly to the Urology hospital and again I'm being transfered.

At the Urology hospital I'm taken for tests and then they decide to do an emergency shunt (a tube to hold open my tube). So at 1am I wake up and am given something to drink. The shunt is supposed to be a temporary think left in for a max of 6 weeks (I looked it up on the internet). The doctor tells me that it will be 9+ months before they can do the permanent surgery to fix the tube because of the waiting lists. I am also told to not work, walk or lift anything as that will cause the tube to shift and rub. I had to work so... Each time I pee'ed it was pink from the blood leaking into my tube since it was rubbing raw.

3 months later I'm just about at my wits end from the pain and so I start doing more research on the internet and I find out I can have the surgery done in the US for $3k. I call around to a few hospitals and find out that I can get it done in 2-3 weeks. I then discussed it with the family and ordered a new passport. A week later I get a call from the Canadian hospital, it seems some guy died and they now have a slot 1 week from then that they are trying to fill, but most people couldn't arrange time off that quickly. I took it.

So besides being miss-diagnosed, they skipped tests and moved me to the wrong hospital all to save a few $$$$. To end it all off, I recieved a bill for each day I was in a hospital (2 at the Urology hospital), plus a letter asking me to donate to the Rural hospital.

I will agree that stupid human decisions have lessened the effectiveness of our health system here in Canada -- mostly in an attempt to blindly emulate the American system. I wouldn't doubt that Alberta is more guilty of that than other provinces.

Our system is not so free as it used to be with extra fees attached for more and more things all the time.

Nevertheless, it typically remains a far less catastrophic thing when health care is needed here in Canada than for those who get sick south of our border.

I wouldn't trade for anything.

Op, I am really glad for you up in Canada.
You can have what you have up there. But threads like this from countries other than US to try and push a propaganda agenda on America is complete BS.

Most of us in the USA don't really care what you think. Get it!

reply to post by j2000


In fairness, I don't think it's propaganda. People like the OP - and myself - and a lot of other people on a lot of other boards in a lot of other countries - feel the need to stand up for their own system, because it's being maligned in the US press.

That's one part of it. The other... well, it's like this: I have clean drinking water. I've always had it. It's "free" for a given definition of "free". It's clean, and it's good. You've probably got the same.

Imagine turning on the news and watching a nation spin completely out of control, with all the indications of a burgeoning civil war over a government plan to provide clean drinking water to everyone, because it's communism and hitler did the same thing.

That feeling of utter bafflement is what the rest of the world is feeling right now. And threads like this one, scattered around the internet, are people's way of (a) trying to understand what the sam hill is going through your heads, and (b) an attempt to correct a bit of the misinformation streaming out of the US MSM.

Originally posted by j2000
Op, I am really glad for you up in Canada.
You can have what you have up there. But threads like this from countries other than US to try and push a propaganda agenda on America is complete BS.

Most of us in the USA don't really care what you think. Get it!

But its actually the right wing US media who are bashing the British NHS. This is the propaganda.

It amazes me how so many Americans think they are so different from everyone else in the world that nothing outside their borders is relevant to them -- oh unless it supports their agenda of course.

I sure hope they make it over this bout of craziness. It looks like they are about to do themselves in out of sheer bullheadedness and ignorance.

Originally posted by wayno
It amazes me how so many Americans think they are so different from everyone else in the world that nothing outside their borders is relevant to them -- oh unless it supports their agenda of course.

And it amazes me that people continue to lump all Americans together after only one or two posts are made that disagree with non-American opinion.

reply to post by eNumbra

I didn't say all. I said "so many". It really, really does look like a lot of you have the perception that what the rest of the world thinks is completely irrelevant. What the rest of the world knows from experience is irrelevant.

Its the phenomenon that most of us have come to term "American arrogance".

Not everyone, just a lot of you -- or at least a lot of the louder ones.
Perhaps the more reasoned Americans are just a little quieter.

Originally posted by TheAftermath
reply to post by Wherestheproof

 

Free ambulance ride and free doctor????

Surely you cannot be that ignorant.

Simply because someone else is stuck with the bill does not make it free.

Think the doctors work for free? how about the ambulance driver and paramedics? Think they work for free too?

This doesn't make any sense at all. Are the roads free? Are the schools free?

The fact of the matter is, we don't have to take out a mortgage to drive down the road.

It doesn't matter whether you are wealthy or a bum on the street, you get the same excellent health care regardless. End of story.

Think about that before you go off calling people ignorant next time.

reply to post by wayno

Ah, true enough, I read that wrong.

Honestly I think a more Canadian system of healthcare could work for America, but our budget needs some serious reworking first. All the other things we waste money on need to be dropped, I'm all for seeing every American getting superb health care at minimal cost to everyone; but there's no such thing as minimal cost to everyone where the American government is concerned.

Originally posted by j2000
Op, I am really glad for you up in Canada.
You can have what you have up there. But threads like this from countries other than US to try and push a propaganda agenda on America is complete BS.

Most of us in the USA don't really care what you think. Get it!

Propaganda agenda? That's laughable.

This is an alternative media site and yet it amazes me that people are still too blind to see the obvious propaganda.

What is known about the Canadian healthcare system is completely bogus and you would do well to want it for your own nation.

However, one word of advice. I believe Obama had said that the US system would be different than Canada. THAT I would be very worried about. Ironic isn't it.

Tommy Douglas, who pioneered the Canadian system, started it by focussing on ONE province and making it work on the relatively underpopulated prairies.

What would be wrong with giving each state the ability to opt in or out instead of cramming it down the collective nation-wide.

When the 'rest of Canada' saw that the system worked in Saskatchewan, it wasn't long before the other provinces followed suit, making it a national system.

reply to post by eNumbra


On another thread that includes some videos they are talking about America being a republic vs a democracy. The idea being that a republic is about laws whereas simple democracy is a mob rule kind of thing.

The American government (and increasingly the rest of the world's too) is sort of becoming a democracy not of/for the people but of/for the money lobbyists and corporations.

This corruption of your republic ensures that all of those special interests get their $$ no matter what. Everything ends up costing way more than it should.

Believe me, no matter what the theories, every government in the world suffers that dilemna right now.

Wow interesting replies.

To Exile1981, I am very sorry to hear about your experiences. Canada or any system is not 100% perfect but is close to it. Doctor errors happen all the time, but it is not a general description of the health system. Of course you could have paid $3k for better treatment but the probability of the US doctor of making the same misyake would be the same. This means that you would have forked more money over to fix the Dr's mistake.

I can understand why people would be there for sprained ankles as well, because the pain feels like you broke something. Blaming people on welfare is not going to get this debate anywhere. Of course there are people who feed off the system and they should be kicked off welfare, but you cannot lump them with people who have lost jobs and livelihoods who need medical assistance no matter what it is.

For those who believe this is propaganda, us Canadiansare sick and tired of the US propagandists of attacking our system and saying it is a death sentence. Who are you going to believe the US lobby group with connections to US private health insurance concerns who only are about money and not you, or citizens of countries who have benefitted from healthcare?

The bottom line is that the average working American will no longer have to mortgage thier house away or drain thier life savings to treat themselves when they get sick. This leaves a lot of money to put back into the economy or save for a house or education.

I did not mean FREE as in no one paid for it. I apologize for the misunderstanding. What I meant was that through the sales and income taxes paid for, and integrating economies of scale the care is paid for. I could get my cure, and go to university now too.

I hope those fighting against this bill get severely sick and see what happens to your life compared to here in Canada.

To those coming up here, you are welcome to do so, bring a warm winter jacket and a smile; work hard and be happy!