Best Possible Health Care Is In The US
by Big Dog on Feb 24, 2010 at 05:16 Political
Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams left Canada and came to the US for heart surgery after he was told by his Canadian doctors that the heart procedure he needed would require them to break some of the bones in his chest. He consulted with a doctor in the US and decided to have the surgery in Miami where the doctors cut through the side of his chest and did not have to break any of his bones.
Williams has had to answer questions as to why he came to the US when his country offers universal health care. Williams responded that it was his heart and his choice and lamented that if he had the surgery in Canada he would have to handle claims that he got bumped to the head of the line. He put it simply when he said:
I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.
I think this statement says it all. Despite the universal health care in Canada which has been touted as an example for America to follow, this politician decided that the US system, even with its flaws, provided the best health care possible.
We need reform but not the kind Washington DC and Obama are pushing. We need to keep this country the place where people want to come for the best care possible and not some second rate place where the elderly die because they are not deemed worthy of treatment and government employees make decisions that should be between patients and their doctors.
[tip]If you enjoy what you read consider signing up to receive email notification of new posts. There are several options in the sidebar and I am sure you can find one that suits you. If you prefer, consider adding this site to your favorite feed reader. If you receive emails and wish to stop them follow the instructions included in the email.[/tip]
Tags: best possible, danny williams, DC, health care, Obama, reform
Sure, we can all get the best health care in the world from the US…if we’re millionaires like Danny Williams.
I have yet to see anyone who needed care be denied it- if you go to any emergency room, they WILL admit you.
Guy across the street from me had blockages in 98% of his incoming aorta and other major vessels, and was admitted, and operated on THE SAME DAY, all without insurance.
The progressive lie would claim that this same man would have necessarily had to lie in the ER for DAYS without OWEBAMACARE- all lies, as we can see easily.
Sure Canada is used as a model for Health coverage because they used our model of Medicare and expanded it to everyone.
And I am sure my Kaiser plan would cover me if I decided to go to Florida for some great groundbreaking procedure too, BTW. (Sarcasim font needed)
Hmmm, I have seen a lot of people get health care procedures the same day or the next when it was important regardless of their insurance status.
He could have afforded the health care procedure anywhere but came here for a reason.
Again, our quality of health care is spectacular…if you can afford to pay.
I guess all the people I have seen who get quality health care and don’t have money do not count.
Lucky them. Too bad for the other folks, right?
Not everybody owns a Mercedes. Health Care is a good, a service, not a right. If someone else has to provide it then it is not a right.
What happens when we can’t afford it? What happens when we are a horrible mess like England or in financial difficulties like Canada and have to ration? Then people will not all get the same treatment.
Look at what members of Congress get (a special ward at Walter Reed that costs a million a year to keep open) and they are exempt from the bill, lucky them.
Not everyone has a big flat screen TV. Not everyone is as gifted as Peyton Manning, should we say the NFL has to let everyone play? Should we say that everyone deserves a big flat screen TV?
And if we have to pay for it can we set the conditions, like get a job and be drug tested?
Bigd: “financial difficulties like Canada”
DAR
Canada has financial difficulties? Upon what do you base that claim?
They did in the eighties. Then they introduced a GST tax and paid their bills. Last I checked they were the most fiscally sound country in the G8.
We’ll probably need a GST here soon. Gotta pay for those wars. Canada uses their’s to take care of their citizens (all of them).
D.
Maybe they fixed it all up since November of 2009.
Excerpt:
As health care costs continue to reach amazing new heights, Canadian politicians are trying hard to look the other way.
Debate during Parliament’s fall session has focused on the roll out of stimulus spending, H1N1, crime, the long gun registry; all manner of things — except health costs. This, despite the fact:
– Governments spent $172 billion in 2008 on health care, nearly 60 per cent more than a decade ago.
Only half that increase is attributable to combined affects of population growth, inflation and aging.
– Drug spending increased by 136 per cent during the decade.
– In B.C. this year, health care will account for 47.5 per cent of government expenditures; and 43 per cent in Ontario.
You said Canada has financial difficulties but your response doesn’t address your claim.
Bigd: “Excerpt:
As health care costs continue to reach amazing new heights,”>>
DAR
This is true in nearly all countries (but especially the US). Canada spends far less and gets far more for what it spends, than the US.
D.
Newfie Premier [quote]: “I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics.”>>
Bigd: “Despite the universal health care in Canada which has been touted as an example for America to follow,…”
DAR
Better results/outcomes, far less cost and everyone is covered. Yes, there might be something to learn from that.
Bigd: “…this politician decided that the US system, even with its flaws, provided the best health care possible.”>>
DAR
Wrong with two non sequiters on top. You can’t go from him thinking a particular surgeon performing a particular procedure in this particular situation to… “the US system” has “the best health care possible.” That doesn’t follow and he didn’t even say that anyway. And even if he did it wouldn’t follow that his claim is true.
That’s like saying Canada has a better space program because the US looked to a Canadian company to build the robotic arm for the space shuttle. Absurd yes, but the same argument.
If the Newfie premier had gone to Alberta or Panama or Israel for a specific procedure, would it mean that that province or country “has the best health care possible” and the Newfie one sucks? No, of course not.
Knowledge is extremely specialized, especially in medicine. You should know this. If someone in New York, or Toronto, has a special injury and there is someone in California who specializes in that particular procedure, does it mean that the home city/state has a crappy system and California does not? Again, no, of course not.
People often go across state lines and sometimes country lines to see someone who specializes in specific procedures. Knowledge is specialized. That’s all you get out of this.
If you want to know which countries have the best health care you don’t look to a single cherry picked anecdote of a person reaching out for a special procedure. No, you look at studies that consider this in a comprehensive objective manner. As has been shown, the US does not do well in such comparisons. And this is a profound failing and lost opportunity considering the US’s wealth and potential. It’s the system. It’s busted and it’s not serving it’s citizens.
D.
Canada spends far less and gets far more for what it spends, than the US.
Not according to this
Yes, I read all of that before. I wasted that time but nonetheless, I read it and researched it’s claims. No one takes the Frazier Institute seriously and I am not about to start. Their numbers and claims are ludicrous.
But here is the response I put together in August, the last time Victoria tried floating that link from those fellows:
***
VIC: “Try this one and deny it.”>>
DAR
You’re funny. The Fraser Institute is a far right Libertarian Think Tank. (Global warming deniers of course). If you think libertarians aren’t taken seriously in this country (and they are not, they could hold their conventions in a phone booth) they are laughed at in Canada. Positively, laughed at.
Better than read your article, I went and read the study it was based upon. Same author. That’s what he’s referring to anyway.
It’s a nice PDF. Looks shiny on fancy paper I bet. Trouble is, did you notice, almost no footnotes? I noticed that after the first two pages (of 22). Just in the first two pages, lot’s and lot’s of claims, lots of howlers, but not even an attempt to back any of it up. They tell you to read a report (page one), and then nothing until page 13, (and that’s just their own junk!) They have a reference list at the back but who knows where they got what? This wouldn’t pass a high school class assignment!
For the love of Peter Murphy. This is poop on a stick dressed up to look like a proper paper. It’s not remotely a serious paper. Don’t be fooled. It’s crap, top to bottom, crap. Laughable.
If you want to defend any of it, do so. I’ll roast you to a crisp.
Let me give you a sample:
This Fraser document claims (wiki summary): “treatment time from initial referral by a GP through consultation with a specialist to final treatment, across all specialties and all procedures (emergency, non-urgent, and elective), averaged 17.7 weeks in 2005.”
Where did they get this? Who knows. It has almost NO FOOTNOTES. It’s a hackwork piece of junk made so rightwing nutbars who don’t know the difference between sh-t and shinola will pass it around and think they have verified something.
What does the Canadian Institute for Health Information say about the above? Or rather, I should say, what do they SHOW? Well, you can read it all here:
LINK PDF.
See, they actually went through and measured all of these stats, in great detail, in every province, for many categories. Each page is filled with footnotes backing up their claims, and showing the Fraser think tank numbers on wait times are complete garbage.
You want to defend your article? Pick your best cherries, and bring it on.
How about this one. Skinner claims the “…percentage of the population that was “effectively” uninsured for non-emergency, necessary medical services in 2007 was not that different in the United States and Canada: 7.9 percent in the United States compared to at least 6 percent in Canada.”
Do you believe that? Do you know how insane you have to be to believe that?
Libertarian insane.
D.
Of course, how could I be so foolish. It does not agree with you so no one takes it seriously. I forgot that when you link to something that supports you it is gospel and when you read something that does not agree with you it is something done by hacks that no one takes seriously.
I am glad you are able to sit back and do all your own research and cobble together reports refuting everyone’s claims.
I wonder though, how many people take you seriously…
very good, thank youu