Why Canada Sucks, Part III - Health Care

I realized recently that my "Why Canada Sucks" series could be broken down by components; things about Canada that suck, and reasons why Canada sucks. Correlations, vs. causes. F'rinstance, our disgusting, fundamental, bred in the bone anti-Americanism is something about Canada that sucks. Multiculturalism is a reason why Canada sucks.

I could, I suppose, separate the two, but I'm not going to, as there's too much crpsspver. Take health care as an example. Socialized medicine is something about Canada that sucks. However, being the only "free" nation in the world that refuses to allow a private medical system has become so much a part of our national identity that it affects our politics. In so doing it moves out of "something about Canada that sucks" and into the realm of "a reason why Canada sucks."

So without further ado, Why Canada Sucks, Part III - Health Care

I've been meaning to have a go at our national disgrace for some time now. Having just brushed the edges of the only other totalitarian health care system in the western hemisphere was enough, on its own, to push me to get at this. However, via Darleen Click over at Protein Wisdom, we have one Michael Stickings squatting over the inter tubes and grunting out a particularly stinky one, and that kinda put me right over the top.

Short version, severe premies need critical neo-natal care. No beds in Canada (what a fucking surprise), so they get shipped off to Buffalo. Problem; the parents don't have passports, and the family's separation is the fault of, wait for it, the USA. Yes, the failure of the Canadian medical system to provide care is no party to this tragic separation, it was goddamn George W fucking Bush.

If that soulless chimp bastard, who stole the election by the way (in spite of winning how many Florida recounts? oh, yeah, all of them), hadn't changed the entry rules, with only 2 years notice, then this would never have happened. Oh, sure the parents could have gotten passports at any time in the last 2 years, but if we mention that, we take responsibility away from where it rightly rests, on George Bush. But I digress.

First off, from Stickings:

I won’t get into the relative merits of the American and Canadian health-care systems here. Suffice it to say that there obviously need to be more neo-natal intensive care unit beds up here. Thankfully — and this doesn’t mean that the American system is better (after all, at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect) — there was an opening south of the border.

Fuck, where to begin?

Sure, let's don't get into the relative merits of the systems. After all, that would mean examining the piece of shit system we have up here, as compared to the problematic, yet infinitely better, American system.

Suffice it to say that there obviously need to be more neo-natal intensive care unit beds up here.

Yeah, shithead, but there aren't. Why not, do you suppose? Could it be that with 46% of (Ontario) provincial program spending going to health care, there are no more govt dollars? And could it be that, since private care is illegal, there is no more money, at all? Where, then, are these beds going to come from?

at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect

Did you type that particular nugget with a straight face? Guaranteed care up here? Guaranteed care up here? If they were fucking "guaranteed care up here" they'd be fucking getting care up here, numbnuts. Jeebus, does the word "guarantee" mean something different in your universe?

Folks, you read that number up there correctly. The 2008 Ontario budget calls for 96.2 billion in spending. Pull out the 8.9 B for interest, leaving 87.3 for programs, and 40.4 of that is for health care. Now, what does that 46% get you?

Guaranteed care? Yeah, sure, if you have connections, or money, or can get to an American hospital. If not care then, how about waiting lists? In 2008:

Want an appointment with a specialist? 7 - 13 weeks. Need treatment? After getting to see the specialist, add another 6 - 16 weeks. Do the math, 3 to 7 months from your GP to specialist treatment. Geez I hope you don't have anything serious, like pancreatic cancer (median survival 3 - 6 months). Do the math, folks, socialized medicine will kill you.

Access to a GP? That's a waiting list. Need emergency care? That's a waiting list. Need an MRI, you betcha that's a waiting list.

But the quality of care is so much better, right?

Can anyone out there tell me the name of the only industrialized country in the world to have a SARS outbreak? Anyone? Yes, Canada, stands proudly alone in that distinction. We might not have, if patient 1 had a doctor who had paid attention to WHO bulletins, and if patient 2, her son, hadn't been left, undiagnosed and untreated, on a gurney, in the Emergency at Scarborough Grace for 12 hours. How many sick people, you know, the kinds who go to the emerge, do you suppose were exposed in those 12 hours?

So, we have a lousy, overpriced system which delivers lousy care after long delays. That is the "what about it sucks." Now for the "why it makes Canada suck."

Canadians can be generally counted on for 3 things. Incredible, overwheening arrogance, disguised as modesty, rancid anti-americanism, and blind faith in our POS health care system. Michael Stickings' idiotic missive is a perfect example. He won't get into comparing the relative merits of the systems, he will just say that the one that guarantees care, and fails to provide it, is superior to the one that doesn't guarantee care, yet succeeds in providing it.

This, in a nutshell is Canada. We're better than Americans. Even when we are demonstrably inferior, we will simply assert our superiority, and move on. How, is the Canadian system superior? Everyone has equal access to a waiting list, unlike in the "Two tier, American style health care system." I swear, I will cock punch the next asshole to pull that line out of his ass. I said above that health care distorts our politics, and that is the money line for it.

When the Liberals need to bump their poll numbers during an election, you are 100% guaranteed to hear about the eeeeeevil conservatives and their hidden agenda to bring "two tier, American style health care" to Canada.

First, bullshit. Alberta has the most conservative govt in Canada, and they spend the most on their universal health care system, and don't have a parallel private system.

Second, bullshit. At the federal level, even though it's the right thing to do, even though our POS socialized medical system is quite literally killing us, the pussy "conservative" govt isn't going to touch the Canada Health Act with a ten foot pole. It's radioactive. If there was even a hint of a whiff of Harper doing the right thing on health care, the stupid fuckers who vote in this nation would hand him an electoral drubbing that would make Kim Campbell's comeuppance look mild.

Third, bullshit. We have multi-tier health care already anyway.

The bottom tier is for anyone outside a major health services providing centre. The north, the rural areas, and especially the reservations. Access to care truly sucks, and all the "guaranteed access" in the world ain't gonna change that.

The next tier up is for the ordinary riff raff who live in decent care areas, i.e. the cities. They might be lucky enough to have a GP, they can get to the emerge (where the wait could be 2 minutes, or 2 days), they can access the lovely 3 to 7 month waits for care.

The next tier up is for the connected. They might be professionals, they might be family of health care providers, they might be our ruling class in Ottawa or Queen's Park, but they're connected. If they need care, they get it, waiting lists be damned. Who out there is going to tell me that Premier McMoron, or Bobo the Clown Rae, or Jack O'lantern, champions all of our fascist health care system, would actually wait for care, if they or their families needed it?

The top tier is the wealthy. If they can't get care here, they go to the US and get it, and get reimbursed, or not, by their provincial providers.

Government health care is rationed health care. Follow. It is in the payers interest to slow down the provision of care. The patient might get better, or might die. In either case, no payment necessary. So, if govt is the payer, the govt rations care, to reduce the payout.

This is no different from private payers. It is also in their interest to slow down payment. Of course, if there is more than one payer, let a private insurer get a rep for refusing payment and it's out of business.

Who prescribes treatment? The doctor, AKA the payee. It is in the doctor's interest to get paid, so rapid treatment is in his interest. If he works in a system of multiple payers, competing for clients, rapid treatment ensues. So, in the USA, you go to your doctor, he sends you to a specialist and you get treated. Waiting times are measured in days, not months.

Don't believe that? Look at the health care options not covered under the Canada Health Act. Need acupuncture, massage therapy, physio therapy, dental work, chiropractic, etc.? There is a surplus of providers lining up to compete for your business. Only with the medical/hospital system is there a shortage. And only in the medical/hospital system is there a single payer.

Of course, this is reality. And we can't allow reality into the little fantasy world constructed by the soft fascists in charge of our health care.

at least the couple and their baby are guaranteed care up here, thanks to our public system, even if it’s not perfect

You simply cannot penetrate arrogant ignorance like that, and as long as a majority of Canadians believe this sort of tripe, Canadian health care is going to suck, and it's going to help Canada continue to suck.