What HAPPENS when you're diagnosed with COLON CANCER in Canada?

It would be fair to mention that health care services vary from province to province in Canada but over all, they still provide an acceptable level of health care services for all.


"Alex Arnet, a reader of ours in Salt Spring Island, Canada, wrote me yesterday about his recent diagnosis of stage 4 colon cancer. He wanted Americans to know first-hand how the Canadian health care system actually works (and it does work). This is Alex's story. (Particularly interesting is his observation that the only time he's seen rationing in Canada is when conservative politicians cut the health care budget.) "


" I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer less than two weeks ago. I had been suffering some strange symptoms for over half a year, mostly constipation, cramps, and weight loss. It ended up with a day of such extreme abdominal pain that I got my partner to drive me into emerg at the local Hospital. This was late at night and the MD on call said it was likely serious and I needed to be sent to the Hospital in the nearest large city, Victoria, BC. Both helicopters were in use so, since I live on an Island, I was sent over by water taxi, accompanied by two paramedics and my GF.

When I arrived in Victoria, I was given a cat-scan within hours and in surgery immediately after the surgeon had examined the scans. The surgeon cleaned me out of tumours and I was on the mend, or so we thought. Since I had lost about 2/3 of my blood before surgery through slow leaks in my stool, I developed blood clots in my left leg and developed a pulmonary embolism. This required a further week stay in the Hospital. The Doctors and Nurses involved were all incredibly caring, personable and so professional.
I had further setbacks that were drug-related, but finally my last day came. One of my Doctors asked me if I would be willing to inject myself with blood thinner for the next 4-5 days. If so I could go home. He then asked me if I could afford it. I was using a single-use needle-induced blood thinner that my Hospital used as a matter of a budgetary choice (they choose to use a more expensive option than the regular needle or pill). When I asked him what the price of my freedom would be, he said "$15-$25 day." In the meantime I am switching to pill form.

So, after 11 days I am home, and I will be receiving two visits a week from Home Care, in addition to any further treatment needed, such as chemo and radiation. And all of this cost me nothing, beyond the meds that I am now buying. There was no waiting and no "lottery." Don't believe the lies being spewed by the lobbyists.

The basic system here is Canada is that the Federal government collects our taxes and returns a certain amount back to the Provinces to be used for Health Care. The amount is not mandated on the Federal level, but decide on the Provincial level. This is where the potential exists for problems. In my province, for example, the current governing party is the BC Liberal Party who are liberal in name only. They are really conservatives, and in their obsession with not running deficits, they have just made massive cuts to Health Care budgets throughout the Province. The various Health Authorities have had to cut some elective surgeries, such as hip, shoulder and cataract operations until next year.

So you can see from my example that the problem is not with the system, but rests with it's implementation. I am eternally grateful that I live under the umbrella of my health care system. I am alive, healthy again, and I don't have to worry about paying a big bill. Isn't this the way it should be? Isn't this what everyone deserves?

Sincerely,

Alex Arnet
Salt Spring Island, Canada "


<http://www.americablog.com/2009/08/what-happens-when-youre-diagnosed-with.html>

They descend on their targets with such stealth, speed and subtlety that, when their work is done, their victims continue to go through life as usual for years or even decades afterwards, not even knowing that they've been slain!

excellent care and NO bill upon leaving the hospital or waiting in the mailbox.

with their meat hooks stretched out itching to begin collecting on your care. Hand over your first born and call it a day.

that this could have been detected ahead of time. The colonoscopy wouldn't have cost him anything as compared to the $1,500 recently quoted to my step daughter. Although her insurance will pick up $1,200, she can't afford the $300 co-pay so has decided not to get it. If she gets cancer and needs the same treatment, she and her husband will probably enter the ranks of the bankrupt to pay for it.

I wonder if he had any check-ups for the half a year he was having symptoms? Again, shows how important preventative care is.

recommended age group to begin colonscopies. If he didn't have a parent who had been diagnosed with colon cancer, he might not have been considered "high risk".

On edit: Cleita, I want to thank you for your tireless work on the health care issue. :hug:

It get's kind of lonely some times. :-)

I have colon cancer in my family and have already had 2 colonoscopies- before age 50. I'm a little obsessed about this.

but was in denial. You can have a pond, but you can't lead a horse to water...er, or something like that . :silly:

Their whole life is based on "belief," not actual facts. I don't "believe" in facts- I simply accept them. That is the difference between the townhall-birther-types and the rest of humanity.

into Canada to attend planned, organized town hall meetings for the purpose of explaining the Canadian health care system without the added obstructing hate/birthers mobs and return back to report THEIR findings to their state's local papers. It would be much cheaper than the ad dollars (print+radio+TV) currently being spent by pro public option groups and a MUCH more creative & effective approach at dispelling some of these Canadian health scare urban myths.

fact-finding motives, in fact, they would warmly welcome our interest with THEIR health care system with open arms. If the republicans want to call out ordinary americans as propaganda puppets or tools, well then lets have that discussion as well on all the morning talk shows and parade these regular folks out and have THEM tell us what their findings were.

There'd be some pretty heavy interference with something like that, especially in the provinces where the government wants to dismantle the health system because the Americans don't have one.

a perfect system but its a system miles ahead of our own system that takes care of its citizens health issues. Most Canadians I know are proud to show their american friends their Health Card. I think such a media move would move mountains and PUSH this discussion in the direction it needs to go. Obama & company have done a poor job dispelling these Canadian health care urban myths. Time to pushback with facts & truth and be creative about our approach. They won't see us coming!

I'm a little aware of my health care system and my peers' views of it. ;)

Most of us do love it, but the Conservative Party in every other province loathes it specifically because the Republicans do. If the GOP down south is doing something, Harper and half the provincial conservative leaders will immediately become advocates for it. They've devolved to the point of simple extensions of the Republican Party as often as not.

I do think Americans need to educate themselves a little more about how health care works in Canada and other countries - and by "a little" I mean "a shitload" - but one of the problems with the health care debate in the US is that it's only minimally been about facts for awhile. We know them, to be sure, but nearly all opponents of health care reform, and half the moderate advocates of it, are operating on beliefs and what-ifs rather than what's actually going on.

I've never seen an American opponent of what they call "socialized medicine" change their mind on the issue, even when deluged in information about the Canadian or British or Australian experiences, even if they had to make use of it while up here. Learning that it's good, or even decent, conflicts with their ideology - and this debate is about ideology as much as health care - and that obliges them to discard the facts. If people came up here, had a great time learning about the system - or, say, got hit by a bus and had a less great time learning about it - a lot of them would just be ignored or villified as Obama's spies or whatever when they got back south. If they weren't, they'd focus on the top-percentile Canadian conservatives who hop the border to jump the lines and claim that we all do that.

I dunno. I'm all too aware of how Republicans and libertarians view Canada in general, and I don't think mere exposure to actual reality would sway them much, if at all. I'm normally a fan of debate and exchange of information and all that good stuff, but both sides have to be willing to engage in it. One is not right now.

a few years ago. We need to find those people and ask them why Canada is good enough to buy medication from, but not good enough to listen to on the rest of their health care system.

(i'm paraphrasing) " Yes, the medicine you're purchasing in Canada are manufactured by our company BUT we DON'T KNOW what happens to these drugs once we ship it to their country ". LOL. This was the response given by a pharma spoke person when citizens & politicians angrily inquired into the reason why can border state americans purchase cheaper drugs in Canada that were manufactured in the U.S.?

Most of the time they do whatever Rush and Beck tell them. That's where they get their "facts".

I do like your idea though. What a great way for people to see what is actually going on.

they would be much better served with pictograms. :-)

That's the way it should be - go tell that to the greedy who choose profits over life.

:shrug:

Now, there's a concept!

grand picture.

Your skanky right-wing neighbors would be calling you a leech on their pockets.

republikkklans can still make america go into tizzies by saying socialism. the USSR was COMMUNISM.

If you have the money you have the best care in the world. It is that problem about money that gets in the way of that care. Early care is the best like colonoscopies so it can be caught at the easiest and smallest stages and it costs less.

Libertarians and their Republican butt boys like the way things are. Maybe a tweak here or there but the system is just fine for them. Most of whom can afford it and get all the coverage. But even so a few slip through those cracks. I never earned enough to go in early. It took near death and an emergency room visit to bring me back. However the Christus St. Katherine don't do charity cases and once I was stablized then tossed me out and demanded payment which I didn't have.

Texas does have a Gold Card system with minimum payments that keep me alive. They just have a problem of getting doctors to work for the poor and near poor. Too many doctors still expect god level payments for their expertise. That needs to change.

I don't see it happening in this expansion of the external global empire till we shut that leech down. And fast!