I just rented SICKO

I refuse to believe that an American citizen had to chose which finger to save (rather than both) after an accident. Must be a fluke. Exaggerated.

As a Canadian I feel very grateful and have no complaints at all about my health care. I don't have any Canadian friends who are unhappy. I know there are issues as I read about them in our newspapers. The major worry here is that right-wing governments will succeed in privatizing our care. Of course right-wing corporate media will try to persuade Americans that things are better in your country and scare you with the words (shudder-shudder) "SOCIALIZED (shudder-shudder) MEDICINE". Eeeek!

Note that Canada is NOT a socialist country. We have that goddawful Stephen Harper, a NeoCon Bush fan, as our leader. Fortunately it's a minority government.

This summer I went to a seamstress to have some work done and she had driven to Toronto because her grandson 3 had had an accident. He put his arm through a window almost severing it. An ambulance rushed him 15 minutes to the nearest hospital in a community of 3000 people. They stopped the bleeding but quickly arranged for a helicopter to fly him to one of the finest hospitals in the world, Toronto Sick Children's Hospital. He was there within an hour and was given the best possible care. Three days later he was home. His arm had been saved.

His parents are fairly poor and live in a trailer park.

Is it true, as I have been told by an American, and GWB has indicated, that any poor child in your country would also be well taken care of?

So what's the truth? Would a kid from a trailer-park be flown several hundred miles to a teaching hospital for great care or would he be patched up and sent home from the small town hospital and never get back use of his arm? Just wunnerin' in Canada.

P.S. About the dumping of patients in hospital gowns into back alleys of the U.S. If we want to go home here when we are not fully recovered and there is no one at home to take care of us WE ARE HELD PRISONER and have to lie to escape! ("Sure there's someone there and here's my friend to prove it." And we will have nurses dropping by to change our dressings and free physiotherapy too once we get home. Yup, even laundry.)

Otherwise the hospital might be sued for negligence. So why don't any of those poor skid-row victims who have been dumped in alleyways in your country sue the balls off the hospital that was so callous? It boggles my mind.

If the parents called an ambulance, the child would be flown to a hospital, and recieve treatment. If they were lucky, the hopsital has a charity wing and would waive the costs, but otherwise they'd be indebted to the hospital and have to set up some sort of long term payment plan.

Best case scenario charity would bail them out, worst case scenario the child would have the arm amputated and the family would be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

It could go either way. It really depends on where the family is, what hospital they go to, what doctors they get, and what charity options are available.

So yes....every child would recieve medical care, but that has nothing to do what what level of care, and what it would cost the family in the long run.

Emergency rooms have become the medical care of last resort for people who cannot afford health care.

It is a huge, inhumane and costly problem. Thousands die and suffer horrible pain needlessly from medical conditions that could have been treated effectively and at far less cost if they could afford routine medical care.

Aside from the massive direct health consequences of our idiotic system, there are other consequences:

- I don't think there is much question that the quality of care in the United States is deteriorating every year. Most people actually have very little choice in doctors or treatment. Insurance industry bean-counters, "In-network" restrictions, and short-term profit are a bigger factor than medical need.

- The cost of medical care is the largest cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. And we've "reformed" our bankruptcy laws to make it even more punitive.

- Many people are stuck in dead-end jobs with abusive management, but stay because it is the only way to have health insurance. Many small businesses and the self-employed cannot afford to provide health insurance because the rate are even more obscene for small groups.

- Private (non-group) insurance is a joke, because it can exclude for pre-existing conditions. What is a pre-existing condition? Anything they can think of to weasel out of paying an expensive claim.

I think you would be amazed by the claims made by the U.S. healthcare lobby and their allies about Canadian healthcare and similar systems. You would think that your average Canadian has to wait a year for to see Dr. Mengele.

Canadians watch Fox and CNN and BBS, NBC, ABC and so on. We are well aware of the claims that our health care stinks and we laugh our heads off. Well --- that is if we can surmount our disgust.

I guess it's true that Americans are afraid of their government. Otherwise you would be marching in the streets. Not that I would not be afraid of your (shudder, shudder) government.

Buy the book "fast food nation", then read the chapter entitled, "Kenny". It will give you nightmares. It's about a guy who worked at at meat processing plant. the management didn't like him, so they made him do the worst possible jobs at the plant. but the problem was, Kenny wasn't that bright. And he thought that they kept on changing his job because they liked him.

each job they gave him was more hazardous than the last.

Finally, Kenny, who sill in his thirties, was so screwed up from breathing in all sorts of chems, injuring himself, cutting off various body parts, finally had to quit, but then came the law suits. And If I remember correctly, he got like $15,000 for his lost arm. And a small lump sum for all his troubles. Which amount to 10's of thousands of dollars in medical bills per year.

It is a horror story.

:shrug:

I don't.

http://www.democracynow.org/2007/6/18/an_hour_with_michael_moore_on

"I refuse to believe that an American citizen had to chose which finger to save (rather than both) after an accident. Must be a fluke. Exaggerated."

He could choose both if he had the money. The amount that his insurance company was willing to cover was limited. It's called "co-insurance".

Yes, attorneys do take those types of lawsuits on a contingency basis, but since these are people who have no address and thus, no means in which to contact them, a suit is nearly impossible, unless the attorney or his assistant wants to have a GPS chip implanted on the person bringing the suit. It is hard to depose a client when the client has no means to get to the law office, and no source for contact.

I still have the urge to go over to the Blue Cross office and start kicking people in the balls. :mad: