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I am in total support for a government run health care system. BUT... I have some major beefs. First off, if I were in charge of Canada, I’d bomb the ad agencies for bad mouthing their health care system. (hmmm, that is JOKING of course, so touchy these days saying things like that). I have a INTERNET friend who lives in Canada. Just last week I asked her what her feelings were about the 'bad mouthing' her country's health care system was getting on our TV commercials. I also asked her what it was really like.
Talk about your perfect timing, on a Friday night she had to go to a local hospital's emergency room. She had quiet sever stomach pains, she thought maybe her appendix had burst. She went into a waiting room that she said had only 4 people sitting in it, none appeared to be patients, more than likely someone waiting on a person. She gave them her health card, NO PAPERWORK (other than the nurse asking about her complaint)/NO INSURANCE PAPERWORK, just her health care card which contained all her necessary data entered in the their government’s database.
Gwen then said she did not even get a chance to sit down before she was taken back. The doctors, unsure of the cause of her pain, ordered a complete x-ray set, which came back as inclusive. She was then given a CT scan within an hour of her walking in the door. Meanwhile, she was given Demerol as a pain relief. It was found she had a duodenum ulcer that was making itself known. She was whisked into a room and scheduled for surgery the next day. Arthroscopic surgery was done and the ulcer fixed, she was released last Tuesday. Her charge for this WONDERFUL medical care from what OUR government pundits describes as a socialist type of medical practice? ZERO! NADA! ZIP!
Oh I am sure, some pundit will claim she just happened to live in a rural area and it was an off-night for them. Eeeehh! WRONG, she lives in downtown Calgary. I can only guess the emergency room was not PACKED to capacity, because people have a place to go for MINOR medical concerns sponsored by the Wonderful Health Care system offered to the citizens of Canada by the Canadian Government. Also, it might be because THEIR emergency rooms are not also packed by illegal immigrants because when they find illegal aliens, they DEPORT them back to their country of origin.
But what about us ‘Good Ole Americans’? OK, pick me. I had 6 back surgeries, then was struck by a car on my way to work, which broke my back again in two places. Disabled, and in pain. Ehhh me and pain became good friends. But the pain kept growing. Countless doctors, x-rays,(couldn’t do an MRI and even CT scans were ify because of the metal implanted). Hmmm. let’s just dope him out of his mind instead of REALLY looking, has to be because of the old back injury. 12 years of being doped out of my mind. How doped? Well not MJ level, but 30mg of oxicodone 5 times a day, and 20 mg of morphine 3 times per day, and about half a gallon of 80 proof Captain Morgan’s rum every two or three days and I felt almost human. OH, in case you are NOT up on your drug dosages, that would kill three normal people.
One day I either went totally nuts or gave up totally. I decided I was no longer living, I only existed till my next dose. I went cold turkey and started harassing my doctor to the point I was suggesting he just cut my leg nerves and let me render them useless, but painless. He sent me to a different specialist. The doctor ordered an x-ray set. He then came in and asked me how it was that I was even able to walk at all. Seems that I didn’t really have hips anymore, just the massive calcium growths in the hip area kept me from pushing my leg bones through my skin when I stood upright. This was not a condition that occurs suddenly, it takes decades to get to this stage. All the other specialist ASSUMED it was my back, NEVER looking for ANYTHING else. One hip was reconstructed, then the other. Hey I am not running 8 miles a day anymore, have put on some weight, but I am 52 what do ya expect. OH, by the way, I don’t even do an aspirin anymore except the recommended 83mg daily dose. DRUG FREE for two years and counting.
My costs, damn that is a tough question, do I have to figure in the 385 dollars of monthly EXTRA healthcare insurance? Thousands in pain relief medication. Well, my wife and child are also covered, so say a third huh? And the 90 dollars a month for Medicare, which I can’t use because I have another medical insurance company. BUT I can’t drop Medicare, because they will then start charging me 10%, per year, premium increase, till my wife retires and we have to just take Medicare. By then it would end up being my whole social security check.
But I did get speedy medical coverage even when I paid for it right? Eeeeeeeh WRONG again. From the time my primary referred me to a specialist that saw something SOOOOOOO obvious I could see it also, took OVER 6 months. Did I mention that I had also decided to quit pain killers during this time, it was NOT pleasent. Two years from primary to last surgery, Damn should have gone to Canada, give me socialized medicine, PLEASE!
