Organizing For Freedom

Why am I adamant that American Health Care should NOT be directed by the government? Our family was transferred from Ohio to Toronto, Ontario Canada in 1997 - where we became legal residents and were beneficiaries of the Canadian Health System. We lived there 5 years before returning to Ohio. Then, and now, health care is administered and regulated by each provincial government.

In 1999 I went for a routine eye check at a local optometrist's office. He noted something odd in my eye that he had not seen the previous year. A subsequent appointment with an Ophthalmologist there gave a preliminary diagnosis of malignant melanoma of the retina. Very rare. I needed to be seen by a retinal specialist, but with the wait list my first possible appointment was 9 weeks out. And, at best, he could confirm but then have to schedule surgery sometime down the road – and by this time I was all too familiar with waitlisting.

I got on the internet the next day and searched for retinal oncologists. I found 4 listed in the United States. On that Thursday I phoned one of these physicians who was located in Cincinnati. He was able to see me on the following Monday. That visit confirmed the diagnosis of melanoma, and 4 days later (8 days after my phone call) I had surgery to remove the tumor.

He saved my eye. I lost partial vision, but not the eye... or worse. Waiting for several months to have the procedure done in
Toronto would have undoubtedly have produced far worse outcomes.

Acquaintances in Canada were confounded by my rush to surgery. Their only question was "how much did THAT cost?" My answer was simply, "NOT MY LIFE." After 3 generations of 'free health care', Canadians only know to be patient, and all will be free.

Some facts: Doctors in Canada are NEVER on call. They are penalized for logging in more than their predetermined number of patient visits per year, or hours of billable work. So, after hours, one's only resource is the E.R. There is no answering service... there is no doctor to 'cover' when yours is on holiday.

There were, at that time, 2 MRI machines in Toronto for nearly 7 million people. MRI technicians only work 8-5, M-F. Because of that, there was at that time a 10 month wait for an MRI. My son had a good friend with recurring headaches, and she was only 16 – and had a 10 month wait for a scan. If that had been my daughter, I would have been worried sick, and planning a trip to Buffalo or Detroit, post-haste.

However, if you had a dog or cat needing an MRI, you could pay to have it done the next weekend. That is still the case as of 2010. FACT: Dogs and cats can get an MRI, a CT scan, or any number of tests on weekends for a fee at the regional (human) hospitals. People cannot pay to have it done any time for themselves; that's against the law. So dogs and cats have preferential treatment! This is actual fact and it's getting under the skin of Ontarians who have just about had enough.

Right now, I have a friend who lives IN Buffalo, who had some tests and outpatient surgery performed there earlier this year. Of his 4 visits within 10 days, he said 3 out of 5 cars in the parking lot each time had Ontario plates on them. Guess why?

FACT: Nurses and Doctors are Provincial employees and are unionized. The nurses went on strike during the time we lived there, which delayed many long-awaited procedures and examinations which further exacerbated the situation. Also during that five years, the province decided to abandon private ('for profit') ambulance services in favor of government-owned and staffed ambulances. Surprise, there just weren't enough and they argued over jurisdiction. The result? You guessed it. A bureaucratic nightmare. When the government takes over, the rest of us take a number.

FACT: When there was a flu epidemic, the Emergency rooms got full quickly, and they simply shut down, not allowing ANY additional patients. Period. An ambulance with a 17-year old boy, in full asthmatic shock, went from ER to ER to ER in northern Toronto suburbs without getting him admitted and he died, during one of these ER shutdowns. That was in either 1998 or 1999.

Also you may be surprised to know there were no life flight helicopters in all of the province of Ontario, with a population of nearly 11 million people. FACT: A couple of helicopters were not in the budget. Honestly. There was nice landscaping at the new library in town, however. Nobody is accountable, and there is nobody to complain to. Take a number. Please hold...

When the government 'owns' health care, and education, and transportation, and law enforcement, and recreation, and everything else, it's a huge flip of the coin when money is tight. If they want to keep universities open, then they have to close entire wings of hospitals, or eliminate busing for high school students province-wide.

OPINION: I don’t want government-run healthcare to put a bureaucrat between me and my doctor, or ration or delay treatment. I don't want some high-IQ administrator to tell me what is best for me, or an elderly parent, or a down-syndrome child. Let's talk about health care savings plans, let's talk about lawsuit reform, let's talk about insurance portability.

But, let's NOT talk about ObamaCare, unless you're talkin' trash... Because, that's what it is.