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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Canadian health care: a matter of life or debt?
Often in Canada, we hear fear mongering about an "American-style" health care system: "We don't want an American system. Health care should be free! You shouldn't have to make the decision to mortgage your house or die!" they'll say.
But the decision to choose between coming up with a total of $60,000 in up-front payments or dying of ovarian cancer was one that Sylvia de Vries, a Canadian woman from Windsor, Ontario had to make.
After she gained 40 pounds it was obvious that she was suffering from something more serious than irritable bowel syndrome, with which she'd been diagnosed. When four doctors in Ontario were unable to find a problem with her, Mrs. de Vries visited an American doctor who diagnosed her with ovarian cancer. She came back to Canada to have the diagnosis confirmed (as you have to to be covered by OHIP) and was shuffled back and forth between doctors and waiting lists before being told by a gynecologist that there was nothing wrong with her.
Luckily, she had the money to pay for surgery in America - four days after making an appointment, a doctor removed a 13 liters of fluid, an 18kg tumor that included her entire reproductive system and appendix, and found cancer on the outside of her stomach. The doctor has informed her lawyer that in two weeks she would likely have been experiencing multiple system failure and would have been too unstable for surgery.
Upon returning to Canada for chemotherapy, she was told there was a 6-week wait to see a doctor to get started, so she went back to America and paid up-front again for chemotherapy treatments. She is now $60,000 in debt, and in spite of the fact that Canadian law bars us from buying health insurance to cover such costs, the public system is refusing to pay for her costs because her case doesn't satisfy system's requirements for coverage.
George Smitherman's office, via his press secretary Laurel Ostfield, issued a response the day after the story was reported on in Windsor:
"The minister cannot intervene," Ostfield said. "These laws are in place in order to protect Ontario's health care system. If payment was issued for every single circumstance, we wouldn't be able to sustain the health care system for future generations. So we do have these laws in place for a reason. There are safety nets to make sure that people don't fall through the cracks and that they do receive compensation if it was necessary or deserved."
There are some very significant elements of this quote - note that the laws are in place in order to protect Ontario's health care system. No mention is made of Ontarians who might die if they refuse to circumvent the system as Mrs. de Vries did. Further, a system that has failed so utterly is apparently a system that needs to be sustained for future generations!
The sacred cow of public health care has quashed any debate over its effectiveness or its effects. Canadians are so afraid to have a price put on a human life that they can't see that all that's happened is that this price is now set by a detached government bureaucrat rather than by the people whose lives would otherwise be saved if they were allowed to buy more comprehensive insurance policies.
Finally, for all those who are worried about the poor dying as the rich benefit from any system other than a Canadian health care system, all I have to say is that I'm very, very glad that OHIP-covered Sylvia de Vries was fortunate enough to be in a financial position able to come up with $60,000 of her own money. If she had been a poorer, OHIP-covered, taxpaying citizen of Ontario, she might not be around to tell her story today.
Posted by Janet Neilson on March 18, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Completely abolish the health care system. People can pay private insurance premiums and obtain better results. Charity can help the ones who do not pay the premiums. Doctors can be independent businesses. Set up private hospitals. All this will make for competition in health insurance, doctor competence and hospital services. Nowadays we have a communist system where the workers don't give a damn.
Posted by: dewp | 2008-03-18 9:12:12 PM
dewp.
You must be young and in excellent health.
While I support the idea of private health insurance and private facilities, abolishing the universal health care system altogether would leave a lot of older Canadians in a position where they couldn't get private health insurance.
It wasn't the Boomer generation, of which I am a part, that created the current system.
It was brought in by our parents.
Posted by: Speller | 2008-03-19 11:25:32 AM
I was born before my province had universal health care. We had hospital coverage, but doctor's fees were not covered. If you'd ever experienced that, dewp, you might not be so quick to hand everything over to the private sector.
Ever had someone cross the yellow line and sideswipe your car? What did your insurance company do? Did they investigate, establish who was at fault, assess liability? Ha! I bet they shrugged, called it 50-50, and raised your rates.
If insurance companies were to have total control of the health care system, it wouldn't take very long to have every citizen of this country at their mercy. Keep your eyes on the American experience. If their "new" system is based on mandatory private insurance, wait for the bodies to pile up.
Posted by: dp | 2008-03-19 11:37:43 AM
Heck! I was alive during the great depression. One should consider the health system that served Canadians until Trudeau. Also the system in the US of A has very good things going for it. Canada should NOT be known for its health system. Canada should be known for the work ethic and love of freedom of its citizens. The debate goes on.
Posted by: dewp | 2008-03-19 9:49:42 PM
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