Canadian free healthcare, is not free, and is barely healthcare...a story...

2aguy

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2014
111,968
52,237
2,290
This is an account of someone suffering from severe back pain in Canada...how that "Free" system works. Keep in mind, the government of Canada has extracted money from this woman her entire working life to pay for "free" healthcare. So, when she needs it.....she is told she has to wait....and wait....and wait....and then, wait even more....extreme pain aside.....


https://www.americanthinker.com/art..._care_system_thats_the_envy_of_the_world.html



Recently, I took a ride through one amazingly affordable health care system — the one Obama and other notable Democrats paint as the "envy of the world." See how quickly you can figure out where this envy of the world dwells.

Got your seat belt on? This liberal utopia is a bit bumpy.

You enter a hospital emergency room. For two months prior, you suffered abysmal pain, unable to shower, straighten out, or sit. You're the Hunchback of Notre Dame, debilitated with no reprieve. When one of your legs isn't numb from hip to toe, you experience sharp stabbing sensations that make you want to slit your wrists.

Yet you do exactly what your nation's one-tier medical system instructs you to do: you visit a family doctor who routinely suggests an MRI. And since you live in the proud lap of liberalism, which ensures the all-inclusive equity of suffering, you are told that your MRI is a mere twelve months away. A referral to a spine clinic was offered at a six months' wait. Lucky for you, a generous dose of an opioid was prescribed in the interim. The 60 Oxycontin pills (the most addictive opioid on the market, with a street value of $60/pill) were augmented by 270 pills of Gabapentin, a drug designed to deceive your brain into thinking you are not in pain. You walk away a guaranteed addict with a pocket full of mind-altering chemicals.

By now you should be entirely consoled by the idea that many are in the same boat of egalitarianism for suffering and queues. The thought of equitable misery is expected to work as an instant pain-reliever. This barbaric philosophy is at the crux of government policies that outlaw private health care in this country.

This is how my friend's journey through the cartel of socialist policies began.

As Amy tried to figure out how to take her next breath without screaming, she decided that a 12-month wait is simply inhumane. She did what most people of means do: she arranged a private MRI. A diagnosis of bulging spinal discs pressing on nerves in the lower spine resulted. Amy, now $692 poorer, was always guaranteed health care when she needed it — that is, if she didn't mind croaking from pain first.

In Amy's country, an average annual income of $60,900 pays a health care tax bill of $5,516 for the privilege of the "free" health care perk. In 2016, an average family sent 42.5% of their income straight into government coffers, out of which health care funding is allocated. Top earners pay up to $37,361 annually for their shot at the "free" emergency room queues, MRI waits, and specialist appointments.

More is spent on taxes by households than on anything else in Amy's country. This exuberant taxpayer funding of the public health care utopia known as the "envy of the world" is today Bernie Sanders's and Kamala Harris's main advocacy platform all the way to 2020.

Amy's journey continues…

Addictive and mind-altering pharmaceutical chemicals are all Amy has at her disposal. No back specialist or treatments are on the horizon.

After a several days of continued suffering, with no relief from prescribed opioids, Amy, now in a wheelchair, heads to the nearest emergency room. Official wait time is recorded as two hours. In reality, the two-hour wait was simply the time needed to get through the three separate points of admission. Bureaucracy requires it.

Amy enters a second waiting room, where she waits three more hours. Ten hours later, loaded with more addicting opioids (Hydromorphine and ********l), Amy is sent home. She is told that average wait time to see a back surgeon is between 18 and 24 months.

Next come two more visits to emergency rooms out of sheer desperation and helplessness. Amy knows that these emergency rooms rarely do more than prescribe drugs and lend a sympathetic ear. But when you have no other choices, you seek relief even where you know there isn't any.

After each visit to an emergency facility, Amy is prescribed more addictive medications and told she needs to learn to manage her pain. Amy understands that "managing pain" is code for "living with pain." Continuing this regime of ineffective addictive pill therapy is, likewise, synonymous with "there are no resources, no treatments, but you're welcome to become a drug addict and not waste our time ever again." None of the drugs prescribed works. Amy is told average time for surgery she needs is up to three years.

Amy finally realizes that private care surgery is the only option. It's the end of the line; she has to take control of her health, regardless of the public system's incompetence and lack of resources.

A few days later — another trip to an emergency room by way of ambulance service that refused to drive her to a hospital with a spinal unit. Amy waits four hours. In the meantime, she's generously offered more opioids for her pain.

After six agonizing hours, Amy is admitted. Once again, the wait begins. At 3:00 A.M., a doctor on duty shows up, exactly eight hours since Amy was wheeled in.

Once at Amy's bedside, the good doctor utters, "There's nothing we can do for you here. You should've gone to the other hospital with a spinal unit. But don't tell anyone I told you."

Amy's visit ends with a fresh prescription of meds and a refill for more opioids. Not even a hint of the word "surgery."

The next morning, Amy's pain gets worse. She's in the hospital again. This time, a twelve-hour wait before she is seen. When the neurosurgeon arrives he offers, "We don't do surgery for your condition. I'm happy to put you on a waiting list to see a back specialist. If you're lucky, the average twelve-month wait might expedite to a three-month wait." Amy's visit ends with more helplessness, more crying and desperation.

As Amy became completely bedridden, I made the case for private surgery south of the border, in Florida. It was her only option for survival. A ten-hour flight to Florida wasn't feasible in Amy's condition. But an underground private clinic in a close-by city one hour's flight time away was perfect. The cost of surgery? Twenty thousand dollars.

Three days after the original idea for private care, I picked up Amy from the long awaited surgery, able to walk and talk without groaning and crying. Only hours after surgery, she was cracking her usual jokes.

Amy's story doesn't quite end here. For lack of any good alternatives, this very Canadian (there you have it!) public health care mess more than charitably fed Amy all sorts of opioids. Today, my friend is courageously fighting an opioid addiction — an addiction not one medical professional warned her about.

Unless you live in Canada and have the dubious pleasure of experiencing the one-tier system of finding a family doctor, wait times in hospitals, wait times for imagery exams, wait times to see specialists and wait times for treatment or surgery, you can't really appreciate the true meaning of the word "affordable" in Canada's very affordable public health care. Canada's single-payer public health care system, heavily funded by taxpayers, forced over one million patients to wait for necessary medical treatments last year. An all-time record in a country of only 36 million. The only thing Canadians are guaranteed is a spot on a waitlist.

Trouble with "affordable" and "free": both are very expensive.
 
These hit pieces are dishonest and misleading garbage. Every healthcare system has horror stories and people that slip through cracks. It's really not hard to use that to build these narratives and convince people that are already convinced. By and large universal healthcare works better for the population at large. That's why countries that have it have massively higher approval rates when it comes to healthcare. That's why countries that have it will never transition into whatever the fuck it is we are doing here.

Healthcare in the states is only the best in the world if you have a lot of money, and in Canada with enough money I guarantee this person could have found the healthcare they needed in a speedy fashion. Rich people have what they need when they need it everywhere in the world. What kinds of horror stories could be found when looking for health crises poor people here have faced? How many people have lost everything and then died due to treatable ailments?
 
These hit pieces are dishonest and misleading garbage. Every healthcare system has horror stories and people that slip through cracks. It's really not hard to use that to build these narratives and convince people that are already convinced. By and large universal healthcare works better for the population at large. That's why countries that have it have massively higher approval rates when it comes to healthcare. That's why countries that have it will never transition into whatever the fuck it is we are doing here.

Healthcare in the states is only the best in the world if you have a lot of money, and in Canada with enough money I guarantee this person could have found the healthcare they needed in a speedy fashion. Rich people have what they need when they need it everywhere in the world. What kinds of horror stories could be found when looking for health crises poor people here have faced? How many people have lost everything and then died due to treatable ailments?

Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

And while you claim that this is misleading, there are dozens on dozens of stories just like it, from not just private citizens but from doctors themselves, and people in the health care field. Many private clinics and hospitals only exist because doctors in that system got tired of seeing hundreds on hundreds of patients wallowing in pain and suffering, while the doctors could do nothing about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Dog-Be...criptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=ff0d01-20

Good book, by a vet that had to treat herself, because the system sucked so bad. She ended up doing an ultra sound on herself using an ultrasound designed for a horse, and found she had cancer. If she had waited for the Canadian health care system, she in her own words, would have likely died.

What do you think happens to all the people who are not vets, and don't have access to a horse ultrasound? They die. Just like all those people on the VA waiting lists died.
 
Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

Canada and other countries are not going to stop offering publicly funded healthcare to people that need it regardless of what happens in the private sector. People seem to forget that if we implemented a public option here there would still be private doctors for people of more means. Private clinics wouldn't be banned. :auiqs.jpg: You wouldn't have to wait in line with welfare recipients that don't have a better option. What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.
 
That really sucks. Doesn’t sound to me as if this patient fell through the cracks. That’s a bullshit democrat talking point.
 
Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

Canada and other countries are not going to stop offering publicly funded healthcare to people that need it regardless of what happens in the private sector. People seem to forget that if we implemented a public option here there would still be private doctors for people of more means. You wouldn't have to wait in line with welfare recipients that don't have a better option. What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.


You do realize that every single democrat running for President wants to end all private healthcare.....you get that...right? Except, of course, for congress...they will still get their private healthcare....
 
You do realize that every single democrat running for President wants to end all private healthcare.....you get that...right? Except, of course, for congress...they will still get their private healthcare....

That's not going to happen. If a public option was created it would exist alongside private options. That's exactly how it is in Canada and Europe. People of means will continue to have access to better treatment. If that woman could have afforded better treatment she would have gotten it.

Where would she be without even the public option that you're saying didn't do a good enough job?

It's not uncommon for people in the states to lose everything and die to treatable ailments.
 
Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

Canada and other countries are not going to stop offering publicly funded healthcare to people that need it regardless of what happens in the private sector. People seem to forget that if we implemented a public option here there would still be private doctors for people of more means. You wouldn't have to wait in line with welfare recipients that don't have a better option. What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.


You do realize that every single democrat running for President wants to end all private healthcare.....you get that...right? Except, of course, for congress...they will still get their private healthcare....

That is a lie, not all of them want to do away with private health insurance.
 
That is a lie, not all of them want to do away with private health insurance.

It's irrelevant because that will not happen. Anybody claiming to support that is either pandering while secretly knowing it won't happen or they're wildly ignorant. Either way we should still have a public option.
 
That really sucks. Doesn’t sound to me as if this patient fell through the cracks. That’s a bullshit democrat talking point.

Why does public healthcare have a massively high approval rate in the countries that have implemented it? You'd be laughed out of the conversation if you started talking with the people of those nations about taking away public healthcare.
 
That really sucks. Doesn’t sound to me as if this patient fell through the cracks. That’s a bullshit democrat talking point.

Why does public healthcare have a massively high approval rate in the countries that have implemented it? You'd be laughed out of the conversation if you started talking with the people of those nations about taking away public healthcare.
You think waiting in line is a high privilege?
 
Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

Canada and other countries are not going to stop offering publicly funded healthcare to people that need it regardless of what happens in the private sector. People seem to forget that if we implemented a public option here there would still be private doctors for people of more means. Private clinics wouldn't be banned. :auiqs.jpg: You wouldn't have to wait in line with welfare recipients that don't have a better option. What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.

So what you want is the Nixon/Kennedy plan and yet the left when Obama was in office gave us Romneycare instead...
 
Speaking from someone who arrived home this morning after his THIRD hip replacement on the same hip.
American medicine is far from perfect. That being said I never had to wait for treatment.
I had my first replacement just shy of four years ago and the surgeon left it an inch longer than the other.I questioned him as to whether that wasnt going to cause problems with my back later down the line,he of course assured me it would be fine.
Two years later I had to get a spinal fusion....things were fine for around a year and I begin getting severe pain in my left hip that felt just like the back pain before the fusion.
Went to two back specialist and they could find nothing wrong with my back. Turns out the original hip replacement was the cause of my pain.
So around two weeks ago I had a specialist rework my hip and the length difference was brought to two mm. All was good....for about two weeks. The original hip replacement had stretched the muscles and tendons to the point my hip wouldnt stay in place. Had one dislocation a week ago and they popped it back in place.
Last Wednesday it dislocated again.
Today they think they have it whipped,I guess only time will tell.

But after three replacements and two dislocations I have my doubts.

On the plus side I never had to wait more than a couple weeks for a procedure.
 
Speaking from someone who arrived home this morning after his THIRD hip replacement on the same hip.
American medicine is far from perfect. That being said I never had to wait for treatment.
I had my first replacement just shy of four years ago and the surgeon left it an inch longer than the other.I questioned him as to whether that wasnt going to cause problems with my back later down the line,he of course assured me it would be fine.
Two years later I had to get a spinal fusion....things were fine for around a year and I begin getting severe pain in my left hip that felt just like the back pain before the fusion.
Went to two back specialist and they could find nothing wrong with my back. Turns out the original hip replacement was the cause of my pain.
So around two weeks ago I had a specialist rework my hip and the length difference was brought to two mm. All was good....for about two weeks. The original hip replacement had stretched the muscles and tendons to the point my hip wouldnt stay in place. Had one dislocation a week ago and they popped it back in place.
Last Wednesday it dislocated again.
Today they think they have it whipped,I guess only time will tell.

But after three replacements and two dislocations I have my doubts.

On the plus side I never had to wait more than a couple weeks for a procedure.
You would still be waiting in Canada. Sorry you have gone through so much.
 
Speaking from someone who arrived home this morning after his THIRD hip replacement on the same hip.
American medicine is far from perfect. That being said I never had to wait for treatment.
I had my first replacement just shy of four years ago and the surgeon left it an inch longer than the other.I questioned him as to whether that wasnt going to cause problems with my back later down the line,he of course assured me it would be fine.
Two years later I had to get a spinal fusion....things were fine for around a year and I begin getting severe pain in my left hip that felt just like the back pain before the fusion.
Went to two back specialist and they could find nothing wrong with my back. Turns out the original hip replacement was the cause of my pain.
So around two weeks ago I had a specialist rework my hip and the length difference was brought to two mm. All was good....for about two weeks. The original hip replacement had stretched the muscles and tendons to the point my hip wouldnt stay in place. Had one dislocation a week ago and they popped it back in place.
Last Wednesday it dislocated again.
Today they think they have it whipped,I guess only time will tell.

But after three replacements and two dislocations I have my doubts.

On the plus side I never had to wait more than a couple weeks for a procedure.
You would still be waiting in Canada. Sorry you have gone through so much.

Oh I know.
My Aunt and Cousin both worked in the Canadian healthcare system and will tell you it sucks.
Had a family friend stay at our house that are from Canada so he could get treatment at MD Anderson cancer facility here in Houston.
It saved his life.
 
Actually several systems are transitioning to a more private care system, including Canada itself. Canada's health care system is far more capitalist based than it was in the past. There are numerous private health care facilities across Canada, and it's growing fast.

Canada and other countries are not going to stop offering publicly funded healthcare to people that need it regardless of what happens in the private sector. People seem to forget that if we implemented a public option here there would still be private doctors for people of more means. Private clinics wouldn't be banned. :auiqs.jpg: You wouldn't have to wait in line with welfare recipients that don't have a better option. What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.

So your plan is, I'm going to have to pay 1/4 of my income in taxes to pay for public health care.... and then save up my own money anyway, to pay for private care, because public care sucks.

What is the up-side to this?

What would the woman from the story have done with no public option? She probably would have been fucked.

No, she would have simply paid to have the MRI, and had it done in a week. One of the things she pointed out in the book, was that the machines they used to do an MRI on a dog, and an MRI on a human, are identical. In fact some public hospitals were performing MRIs on dogs for a fee, using the exact same machine they were using on people.

Now think about the irony.... patients with lethal tumors were waiting 6 months to a year to get an MRI, while a dog owner could have one done on their pet on the same day?

Why is that?

Well it's simple. Technicians that run the MRI machine, shockingly don't work for free. For people in the public system, the amount of money available to pay a tech to run the machine is static. Once that money runs out, even if you have more patients to do, doesn't matter. That's how you end up with a year long waiting list.

On the other hand, after the public funded tech goes home, you can run as many dogs as you want. Because each dog is paying for the MRI, and thus more dogs, means more money, and more money means you can pay a tech to do more MRIs on the dogs.

So a dog had a 1 day waiting list, while a human in the "humane free gov-care" system, had a 1 year long wait while they suffered, and often died.

If that lady had not be a Vet, she would have died waiting to find out she was dying.

If there had been no public system, she would have had the same level of care as a Dog... getting in to have the MRI in a day or two at most.

And here's the kicker. She ended up paying for her care anyway. Without the public system, her taxes would have been much lower, and she would have been more more able to afford it.
 
No. You did not.

People can still get care privately in Canada. The only people waiting in pain like in the article are people that can't afford a private option, and cases like that where people have to wait in pain for public care are rare. You just hear about the bad stories whenever they happen because your propaganda peddlers need all of the ammunition they can get to keep you fooled. There are countless horror stories in U.S healthcare. Suggesting our healthcare system is superior is outrageous. If you actually went to Canada and talked to people, did some research online etc, you'd find that they and European countries are mostly happy with what they have and would never entertain the idea of doing it like we do.

There are millions of Americans with no health insurance, and more still that are under-insured. You don't think they'd benefit from a public option that might possibly have them waiting for care in certain situations? Isn't that better than not getting care at all and having to wait until it's a catastrophe so they can go to the E.R? Oh, and you would benefit too, because it wouldn't run as inefficiently as right wing propaganda suggests, so you'd be able to use it in place of private care in most, probably all instances.

You make it sound like people would regularly be waiting in anguish to get low quality care if we created a public option and that's simply not realistic. That's not how it is in Canada and Europe. If it was like that the people there wouldn't be supportive of their healthcare system.

You are being fed bullshit.

You believe it because you want to, because God forbid the lefties be right about healthcare. Whatever though. Public healthcare will happen sooner or later despite conservative opposition, and history will know that y'all were wrong about this one.
 
Last edited:

Forum List

Back
Top