Once again I apologize for not writing about our RIGHT versus LEFT feud with the neighbors as I had said I would, but I just can’t listen, watch and read the insanity coming from the LEFT about Obamacare without offering some comment.
WE KNOW NOTHING . . . OTHER THAN WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU:
We don’t know about illegal voting, fast and furious, FBI/Justice department spying on Americans, IRS targeting Conservatives, NSA spying on America and Allied leaders, what happened at Benghazi and how many people signed onto Obamacare . . . to mention just a few: BUT WHAT WE DO KNOW IS WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU.
For an administration from Obama on down, no one seems to know anything about anything. BUT, when it comes to knowing how all the people who pay their government salaries, perks and pensions should choose or not to choose to be covered with health insurance; they seem to know EVERYTHING.
I’m not an American, but if I were, I would be over-the-top pissed-off at being called STUPID by every LEFTIST from the Pundits to the LEFTIST voters, all the way up to Obama and all the sycophants who surround him.
IF YOU WONDER HOW THESE JERKS ARE CALLING EVERYONE STUPID . . .
When every LEFTIST says that the PRIVATE Insurance Policies, which MANY Americans are now being KICKED-OFF from by their Insurers, or find that virtually EVERY private Policy where the person is not being kicked-off, is having their premiums raised from a few points, to as much as 100 percentage points PLUS, should be THRILLED, because Obamacare guarantees MUCH MORE COVERAGE, whether the Insurers wanted that coverage or not . . . is at the height of INSULT and CONDESCENSION to the MAX.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS IN CANADA:
Every Canadian who pays taxes, including companies operating in Canada . . . pay into Canada’s MANDATORY public Healthcare system whether we/they want to or not. And how the system operates throughout the country depends upon the needs and designs of each province, which mostly follow a basic national formula.
Until about two decades ago, depending upon each province, it was mostly ILLEGAL for healthcare providers to charge virtually anything for just about any healthcare service one can think of. IT WAS A SINGLE GOVERNMENT PAY SYSTEM.
For example . . . if I wanted or needed to have an X-Ray, there were no private X-Ray clinics I could turn to. It was in fact against the law for people to operate such clinics.
About twenty years ago (1994), I was diagnosed with a tumor in my neck, for which I needed a CAT scan. So, the Montreal Jewish General Hospital, which was then, and is still today considered to be one of the top hospitals in the world, where I was being treated, ordered a CAT scan for me.
Actor Michael Douglas . . . had his cancer operated on by the same surgeon (Chief of Surgery and my personal friend) at the Jewish General who treated me.
HERE WAS THE PROBLEM . . . The CAT scan through public healthcare was FREE, but, if I was lucky, I could have the scan done between six to eight weeks.
So – here I was, knowing that I had a tumor in my neck, but not knowing if it was benign or malignant, being told that I will have to wait TWO MONTHS or more to know how bad it might or might not be.
But, what I was told by the diagnosing surgeon, was that whether it was cancer or not, I needed to have the tumor surgically removed.
Anne (my wife) was not about to wait 8 days let alone eight weeks to see if I was in real trouble or not, so, we declined the hospital CAT scan, and told the hospital CAT scan booking attendant that we will go to the USA to have the procedure done ASAP.
But . . . to our surprise, and almost as if we were doing something ILLICIT, she spoke in a low voice to Anne, while slipping her a phone number, which contained the contact information to a newly created private Radiological Clinic where we could go for a private CAT scan.
Anne called the private clinic from a payphone located in the hall just outside the door of the booking desk, and here’s what happened: The clinic receptionist said that if we could be there within 20 minutes, they would squeeze-me-in as long as we were prepared to pay cash (check or credit card).
And that’s what happened.
IT COST LESS THAN $300:
We left the hospital at NOON, showed up at the private clinic on time (12:20), where they took me in immediately. The CAT scan took twenty minutes. And while I was getting dressed, one of their radiologists reviewed the films. And within a few minutes of Anne and myself being ready to leave, they presented me with the CAT scan films to present to the surgeon, and informed me that their assessment would be faxed to the hospital before the end of the day.
We returned to the hospital at 1:00 o’clock with the films in hand, where the surgeon was surprised that we were still there. So, imagine his real surprise when we told him that we were gone and back again within one hour, and presented him with the CAT scan films.
Then imagine my unpleasant surprise when he told me that the tumor was far more substantial than he had imagined, and set me up for almost immediate surgery. That would not have happened if I didn’t go private.
The tumor was a very aggressive cancer (Parotid Gland) buried just micrometers into a benign tumor that just barely shielded me from a death sentence.
I was more than two months past surgery, and well into radiation therapy, when I got a call from the hospital radiological department, even though we cancelled the hospital CAT scan, to tell me that they had an opening for my CAT scan.
Had Anne not insisted that we find a private clinic, it is very likely that I would have died. FREE MEANS SQUAT . . . IF THE CARE ISN’T AVAILABLE.
QUEBEC SENT THEIR CANCER PATIENTS TO PLATTSBURGH NY:
The horror stories about delayed public healthcare in the province of Quebec, where private healthcare was against the law, became so toxic, that the Quebec government paid to have cancer patients from Montreal who needed radiation therapy, sent to facilities in Plattsburg NY, which by all measure is an EXTREMELY tiny city in comparison to Montreal.
Yet, as tiny as Plattsburgh is in comparison to Canada’s second largest city, because of private healthcare, Plattsburgh could do what Montreal couldn’t.
THIS IS A FACT FROM MY OWN VERY UNCOMFORTABLE EXPERIENCE:
Radiation therapy is generally a six-week daily process, Monday through Friday; that at best is fatiguing, and at worst nauseating and painful. So, you can’t just ship people off to the USA on a daily commute for six very uncomfortable and STRESSFUL weeks, even though Plattsburgh is only about an hour South of Montreal, without taking into account time for traffic, clogged bridges, border security, and bad weather.
So, what Quebec had to do to keep these cancer victims from dying, was to send them to Plattsburgh for six weeks or longer, where Quebec’s taxpayers paid for hotel accommodations, meals, and the therapies.
THE COST OF FREE:
Because the system is supposedly FREE to everyone in Canada, including . . . and perhaps especially for people who pay nothing into it, it takes me for example, up to, and very often more than two weeks to make an appointment with our GP, not that I make many appointments to see a doctor, other than to have my blood sugar tested (I’m a Type II Diabetic) a couple of times a year.
If you need to have a hip replaced and can’t afford to do it privately, the average waiting period to do it through government healthcare can be, and usually is a year and LONGER.
About a year ago, I had a small growth on the side of my nose that simply would not go away, and didn’t look like anything I should be comfortable with. So, I tried to get an appointment with a dermatologist, to no avail, unless I wanted to wait three months.
So . . . instead of waiting and worrying, I made a phone call to a private Plastic Surgeon who saw me within a few days – he lasered the blemish off, analyzed it, charged me $300 for the 15 minute procedure, and told me not to worry.
IF THAT WASN’T $300 VERY WELL SPENT . . . WHAT IS?
Because Canada’s healthcare system is beginning to crumble under its own weight, more and more private clinics and services are popping up everywhere with the blessings of the government, and the gratitude of people like Anne and myself.
CANADA’S HEALTHCARE SYSTEM IS NOTHING LIKE OBAMACARE:
Our public healthcare system is meat and potatoes. We are NOT covered for dental, glasses, many physical therapies like massages, anti-reproductive drugs, non-proven health remedies, all ELECTIVE treatments, ELECTIVE surgeries, and anything else that is ELECTIVE.
Our Canadian system is like the American system used to be before Obamacare, when people in the USA could purchase catastrophic insurance without the other bells and whistles. The difference being, that in Canada, no one is penalized for pre-existing conditions, and all non-elective MAJOR treatments are “FREE”.
Visits to the physicians of our choice are FREE too. The problem with that . . . is that it is becoming impossible for many people to find a physician willing to take on new patients, while appointments with existing physicians are backed-up for weeks.
And as a result of this, our hospital emergency rooms are backed up for hours and sometimes more than a day by people needing help, who have nowhere else to turn.
That’s the result of “FREE” when you give something-for-nothing to everyone paid for by only a few.
HOW IS OBAMACARE AFFECTING ME?
I see a GREAT American doctor who has just informed me that he is retiring, who I visit from time to time, who lives and practices in Potsdam NY. I suspect that he is packing it in because he just can’t cope with Obamacare, as he and I had discussed over the past year.
This creates a problem for me, because the good doctor is an ENT specialist who once every four to six months for just $100 does minor surgery on my left ear, to clear dead skin cells that attach to my eardrum as a result of the radiation therapy I had almost twenty years ago.
In Canada, I needed to wait for as long as three months to get an appointment to have this three-minute procedure performed. In this doctor’s case, I usually had an appointment in three days without any hassles on the phone just trying to book an appointment.
And when I went to any Montreal hospital to have the procedure done, it meant that I had to wait in line with dozens of others for what was most often an hour of more. Very often several hours, and that was with an appointment.
In Potsdam, it took one polite and friendly phone call to make the appointment, and a waiting time of zero once I arrived at his clinic. And now, because of Obamacare, I’ve got to find a new American doctor and begin a new relationship if a doctor is even available to treat me, even for cash.
Those LEFTISTS who know far better about what’s good for everyone else, better than each person knows what’s good for himself or herself, is moving in a direction opposed to where Canada has been, and wants to leave.
But it’s the arrogance and lies of the LEFT that gets me the most. It’s the I KNOW BETTER THAN YOU attitude that is most galling, as Health and Human Resources Secretary said during her questioning on Capitol Hill (October 30, 2013) . . . “WHATEVER”.
Best Regards . . . Howard Galganov
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One Comment
63 and Been There-Done That.
Ex Quebecer because of the Intolerant Language Laws as well as attitudes to “Les Autres” that drove me out 30 + years ago and it hits right to the Bone. Today’s Generation is self absorbed , hooked into their Smart Phones , oblivious to their surrounds all while crying “I Want – Me First”. Our Materialistic Society has lost the understanding of what is important…. and it is not the acquisition of all you can get your hands on.
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