Recently I read a US article talking about how some politicians in Washington DC met with Canadian reps and asked supposedly 'tough questions' about our healthcare system up here. Apparently they were intrigued with how it works, seeing as a similar system may be forced into place there in the near future. One of the 'tough questions' I read was "Is it true that no one in Canada can get a family doctor?". The answer was "No, that is not true".
What the hell kind of question was that?? Of course it's not true that NO ONE can get a family doc! But the followup question should have been "How many Canadians do not have a family doctor?" and an analysis of how many of those WANT one, but cannot FIND one. But of course, those questions were not asked - at least not according to the articles I read.
So here I am reading Friday's local paper when I come across something in the Letters to the Editor section... an elderly resident who's family doc retired is asking for help. He cannot find a replacement doc and needs to have a regular health professional to ensure his ongoing health. So he is advertising in the paper . This is what we deal with here on a regular basis. No in-town regular docs have been listed as taking new patients for at least 4 years. I have spoken about this regularly on my blog. I know what doc is retiring and have known for over 3 months that he was leaving, even though he is at least 20 years before retirement age and has thousands of patients. I really feel for him - making this decision must not have been easy after how many years he put into his education and his patients. He was my family doc from 1998-2001 when I moved out of province and I grew up with his siblings. His father was a doctor as well, until his death a few years ago. So this must not have been an easy decision... and now his patients are in limbo unless they luck out by writing to the Medicine Hat News and advertise for a doc. I hope someone has contacted that man by now, but I can guarantee you that there are still hundreds if not thousands of other residents who have been without family docs for years now. My mom is one of them.
This is, again, what I have been trying to portray to my neighbours south of the border - things are NOT perfect up here. I have friends in Ontario who have had problems for years, including having to wait 12 months to see an allergy specialist in Toronto for an INFANT. A little boy who needed to be tested for asthma when he was less than a year old, but he did not get his test for a YEAR. He could have died in that time if he had an attack. That is what also goes on up here, behind the rosey exterior of 'free' care. Everything 'free' comes at a price in one way or another and people need to realize that.
Here is the text from the article in case the link gets archived:
Doc's retirement shocks patients
I am 76 years old and in reasonably good health. I stay away from doctors as much as possible. Over my many years, the odd broken bone drove me to see a doctor. Otherwise, I leave them alone to tend to folks who need it. I make one appointment every October to get my prescription renewed for blood pressure pills. That's it.
Recently I had a problem that needed medical advice. I called my doctor's office for an appointment and much to my amazement, the receptionist told me my skilled, personable, young doctor for the past 10 years had retired as of July 1. Wow, you could have knocked me over with a feather! There was, to my knowledge, no notice given to the hundreds of patients I'm sure he treated. My first thought was for him. Did he suffer from some serious illness? I hope not; folks like him are hard to find.
I asked the receptionist if my file was referred to another doctor. "No," was the cold, professional answer. She said, "You are on your own. Try phoning." I guess she meant start with the A's and end with the Z's. I did say, tongue in cheek, I feel like a sack of garbage dropped by the side of the road. She did not reply.
I was told by someone who should know (a pharmacist) that no Medicine Hat doctors are accepting new patients. I am well aware that many folks use the walk-in clinics or the hospital emergency facility. However, having had a family doctor all my life, I would prefer, if possible, to have a doctor you can get to know and rely on.
I am writing this letter for two reasons: First, I feel that Medicine Hat residents should be aware that we have lost a valued doctor. You should not find out when you try to make an appointment. Second, I appeal to any physician that could squeeze in another patient to have his or her receptionist please contact me.
Gordon DePottie
Medicine Hat
__________________________
It's difficult to find good info on how many Canadians are without a family doc, and how many of those are trying (as opposed to those who don't have one by choice), but there are some articles around.
- one stating that over 3 million Canadians in 2004 did not have a doc, 1 million of those had searched (pdf) - 2004
- another article from 2004 that says 5 million Canadians do not have a family doc
- 2008 article stating over 4 million without care
- 2009 article stating 5 million
So as you can see, it's quite difficult and then you have to sort through who is actually trying to find a doc, and who isn't (keeping in mind that one day those people WILL need a doc and probably won't be able to find one). Canada's population is a lot smaller than the US so anyone reading this who is unaware, these numbers are around 10% of Canadians without a fam doc. Maybe it's 5% who are looking, but the other 5% still won't be able to get one if they try eventually so it's all the same to me!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Pelosi on Health Care
I just watched some clips of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking with CNN's John King about the health care bill. Among saying that this WILL pass, Nancy had some rather interesting moments. John King asked Pelosi what will happen with Illegal Immigrants. He sited that currently, hospitals take in thousands of illegal immigrants every year (that's thousands PER hospital, not overall) and he asked what will happen once the bill is passed when these people show up at US hospitals. Pelosi said 'illegal immigrants will not be covered by the public option' (that's as close to verbatim as I can recall). King wanted more explanation, explaining that one hospital he spoke to does 6000 births a year and 70% of them are 'undocumented' people. Once Nancy beat around the bush muttering nonsense for a minute, she said that the health care reform bill will give people access to 'affordable insurance options' and that this would diminish the number of people showing up at hospitals 'like that' (illegals, uninsured). I think she was saying that's how the illegal immigrants will have to go - paying for it, not getting it free.
Okay so while I don't necessarily disagree with that, because I know that illegal immigrants have been a drain on many systems including health care, financial support, food banks, etc - I had a big problem with how Pelosi was speaking about the issue. She didn't really go into any detail at all, just stumbled over her words and half the time didn't even make sense. My wondering is - how are illegal immigrants supposed to get private care if they don't have documentation? They can't use the public option she is pushing for, and they probably won't be able to get private insurance if they can't provide proper documents to the insurer - so where does that leave the possible 10 million + illegals in the US? Where does that leave the hospitals and clinics? If they are bound by law to treat anyone who walks through those doors, how will this factor in once the new health care bill gets passed? The hospital is not supposed to turn them away, but the govt (taxpayers) are not going to cover them in the public option, and they won't have private insurance.
Now what? Isn't that a rather huge hole in the plan or am I missing something here? What are hospitals supposed to do when illegals show up needing medical attention? Where is that money going to come from now to cover their care and how is that going to affect LEGAL citizens who need care? It's already a huge drain on the system and I do think something needs to be done, but it's very confusing to hear Pelosi's 'answer'. King had a very valid question, but did not receive much in return from the person who is pushing this bill HARD in the House and says IT WILL PASS.
**I was trying to find a good copy of the vid but came across someone else wondering about this same interview, with a diff spin on it, and has the segment written verbatim in the TEXT**
Okay so while I don't necessarily disagree with that, because I know that illegal immigrants have been a drain on many systems including health care, financial support, food banks, etc - I had a big problem with how Pelosi was speaking about the issue. She didn't really go into any detail at all, just stumbled over her words and half the time didn't even make sense. My wondering is - how are illegal immigrants supposed to get private care if they don't have documentation? They can't use the public option she is pushing for, and they probably won't be able to get private insurance if they can't provide proper documents to the insurer - so where does that leave the possible 10 million + illegals in the US? Where does that leave the hospitals and clinics? If they are bound by law to treat anyone who walks through those doors, how will this factor in once the new health care bill gets passed? The hospital is not supposed to turn them away, but the govt (taxpayers) are not going to cover them in the public option, and they won't have private insurance.
Now what? Isn't that a rather huge hole in the plan or am I missing something here? What are hospitals supposed to do when illegals show up needing medical attention? Where is that money going to come from now to cover their care and how is that going to affect LEGAL citizens who need care? It's already a huge drain on the system and I do think something needs to be done, but it's very confusing to hear Pelosi's 'answer'. King had a very valid question, but did not receive much in return from the person who is pushing this bill HARD in the House and says IT WILL PASS.
**I was trying to find a good copy of the vid but came across someone else wondering about this same interview, with a diff spin on it, and has the segment written verbatim in the TEXT**
Another Random Thought...
... last week I came across an article in a small Texas newspaper (sorry, I can't find the link), where the author was doing a mini-interview with relatives in Claresholm, Alberta to ask them about our health care plan. One thing really stood out to me - basically it was talking about how our 'Universal' system was doing just fine but now that they took away the premiums we had to pay, they are cutting programs left and right. There were references to wondering what the PC Alberta govt is up to, etc etc.
It bothered me because #1 - Albertans had to pay premiums for all these years, on top of any money collected via various taxes. So guess what? It was NOT technically a universal system. If you did NOT pay your premiums, you got a nice big fat bill in the mail for any basic medical services you required. Case point: my former coworker fainted on the hospital grounds after attening a prenatal class. She was taken via ambulance to the other side of the hospital, she had an xray done on her arm, and was treated and released. A couple of months later, she discovered the hard way that her ex husband was not paying her health care insurance premiums because she got a $250 bill in the mail for the xray. He also wasn't paying her EXTENDED health care premiums so she got a $300 ambulance bill, and other assorted charges from her emergency room visit. THAT is NOT 'universal health care'. Alberta did not have that - but people keep saying we did and it's really annoying.
But guess what? We DO have universal health care for basic health NOW - and it SUCKS, doesn't it? So all of these people who complain about what the govt is doing right now, but keep calling what we had before 'universal', need to think about what they are saying. NOW it is universal - before it was not. There have been people doing organized protests all around Alberta, one here in my city this past week. They do NOT like it - they don't like the cuts, the transfers of some things to 'extended' health, etc. But this is what universal is really like, so why are they whining?
For many many years I have heard various people in Alberta complain that because we are such a rich province, we should have free health care. Talking about using royalites from the oil companies to pay for it, etc etc. Well what good does that do when taking royalities scared away some companies, and now with uncertainty in the future do to 'other reasons', only 25% of Western Canada's rigs and wells have been up and running this year.
I think it was totally mental for the AB govt to cut the premiums and then turn around and say it doesn't have enough money to support certain things like glaucoma surgery --- but I am not the one crying out for free health care either. This is just for 'those people'. What's great about free? Haven't they heard the saying 'You Get What You Paid For'?? You pay taxes, sure, but how much of it actually goes to Health Care? Taxes are spread so thinly across a multitude of programs, and the red tape and bureacracy that goes with it, not enough gets to where it 'should' be going. We have a saying at work that goes 'Every dollar in funding we receive has been spent 40 times before it reaches us'.
Now health care is under the wire. May I also point out that Alberta definitely hasn't had a 'universal' system for eons because we have to pay extended health care if we want to be covered for Eye, Dental, Ambulance, etc... now Casts fall into that category, chiropractors, physio has been in that category for years, and so on. How is that universal? But people keep calling it that for some reason.
Anyway NOW we are getting a little taste of what a Universal System is REALLY like and it's crap. Can you imagine how awful it would be if eye and dental were on there too? At least when I call my dentist or eye doctor now, I can get an appt within a couple of days (or that afternoon!), but good luck getting in with a medical doc.
Can you believe my son is 16 months old and my family doctor has never laid eyes on him?? So many appts have been cancelled, rebooked for when I can't take time off work, or I found out a replacement was filling in, I have given up seeing him at all. He is a super nice doc and I really liked him, but I can't get in so what's the point? My MIL has him as well and she is very ill right now, but has to see him at walk-ins instead of making appts because he is booked over a month in advance all the time. How is that a good thing? And that has nothing to do with the cuts - it's been like this for many years. The premium cuts only just happened in January of this year.
So anyway I just wanted to ramble on about this. People are complaining about what the govt has done, but not seeming to realize that this IS what a universal system is like (for our basic care at least) - but then they turn around and tell Americans that our system was great without really giving the REAL details: Prior to Jan 09, Albertans were paying around $200 a month for their health care plans, if they did extended as well. The cost of my family's plan was $88 a month for basic, and $140 a month for extended (but the workplace chose to pay half, so our portion is $67 a month). It still wasn't perfect, but if you think about it, either the basic premiums we paid were not enough, or the tax money was being mishandled while divvying it out among the mutlitudes of social programs (or both). Alberta DID NOT HAVE universal care, and still doesn't fully, but we are getting a taste of it now and don't like it --- so shouldn't we be passing this info on to our American neighbours while their president is trying to push something similar onto them??
___
Just adding in a little tidbit for an example. My friends are here from South Carolina right now and we were randomly talking about our kids and allergies. I mentioned my daughter's strange allergies and my friend's husband asked if she has been to an allergist. I laughed - it's a year wait for people that have anaphalactic reactions --- how long would I have to wait with my daughter just getting a rash from bandaids? Anyway he said they have allergists all over the place - I said we have to drive 3 hours to get to Calgary and those appts can take a year. He was shocked. I wasn't. THIS is what can happen with a small across-the-board premium and tax-based system, and now it will only be worse with a purely tax-based system. And before you get any ideas - the population of their city is LESS than the small city I live in right now. They have allergy centers right there in the city with several docs in each. But nah - Alberta folk have to travel to Calgary and Edmonton for testing.
It bothered me because #1 - Albertans had to pay premiums for all these years, on top of any money collected via various taxes. So guess what? It was NOT technically a universal system. If you did NOT pay your premiums, you got a nice big fat bill in the mail for any basic medical services you required. Case point: my former coworker fainted on the hospital grounds after attening a prenatal class. She was taken via ambulance to the other side of the hospital, she had an xray done on her arm, and was treated and released. A couple of months later, she discovered the hard way that her ex husband was not paying her health care insurance premiums because she got a $250 bill in the mail for the xray. He also wasn't paying her EXTENDED health care premiums so she got a $300 ambulance bill, and other assorted charges from her emergency room visit. THAT is NOT 'universal health care'. Alberta did not have that - but people keep saying we did and it's really annoying.
But guess what? We DO have universal health care for basic health NOW - and it SUCKS, doesn't it? So all of these people who complain about what the govt is doing right now, but keep calling what we had before 'universal', need to think about what they are saying. NOW it is universal - before it was not. There have been people doing organized protests all around Alberta, one here in my city this past week. They do NOT like it - they don't like the cuts, the transfers of some things to 'extended' health, etc. But this is what universal is really like, so why are they whining?
For many many years I have heard various people in Alberta complain that because we are such a rich province, we should have free health care. Talking about using royalites from the oil companies to pay for it, etc etc. Well what good does that do when taking royalities scared away some companies, and now with uncertainty in the future do to 'other reasons', only 25% of Western Canada's rigs and wells have been up and running this year.
I think it was totally mental for the AB govt to cut the premiums and then turn around and say it doesn't have enough money to support certain things like glaucoma surgery --- but I am not the one crying out for free health care either. This is just for 'those people'. What's great about free? Haven't they heard the saying 'You Get What You Paid For'?? You pay taxes, sure, but how much of it actually goes to Health Care? Taxes are spread so thinly across a multitude of programs, and the red tape and bureacracy that goes with it, not enough gets to where it 'should' be going. We have a saying at work that goes 'Every dollar in funding we receive has been spent 40 times before it reaches us'.
Now health care is under the wire. May I also point out that Alberta definitely hasn't had a 'universal' system for eons because we have to pay extended health care if we want to be covered for Eye, Dental, Ambulance, etc... now Casts fall into that category, chiropractors, physio has been in that category for years, and so on. How is that universal? But people keep calling it that for some reason.
Anyway NOW we are getting a little taste of what a Universal System is REALLY like and it's crap. Can you imagine how awful it would be if eye and dental were on there too? At least when I call my dentist or eye doctor now, I can get an appt within a couple of days (or that afternoon!), but good luck getting in with a medical doc.
Can you believe my son is 16 months old and my family doctor has never laid eyes on him?? So many appts have been cancelled, rebooked for when I can't take time off work, or I found out a replacement was filling in, I have given up seeing him at all. He is a super nice doc and I really liked him, but I can't get in so what's the point? My MIL has him as well and she is very ill right now, but has to see him at walk-ins instead of making appts because he is booked over a month in advance all the time. How is that a good thing? And that has nothing to do with the cuts - it's been like this for many years. The premium cuts only just happened in January of this year.
So anyway I just wanted to ramble on about this. People are complaining about what the govt has done, but not seeming to realize that this IS what a universal system is like (for our basic care at least) - but then they turn around and tell Americans that our system was great without really giving the REAL details: Prior to Jan 09, Albertans were paying around $200 a month for their health care plans, if they did extended as well. The cost of my family's plan was $88 a month for basic, and $140 a month for extended (but the workplace chose to pay half, so our portion is $67 a month). It still wasn't perfect, but if you think about it, either the basic premiums we paid were not enough, or the tax money was being mishandled while divvying it out among the mutlitudes of social programs (or both). Alberta DID NOT HAVE universal care, and still doesn't fully, but we are getting a taste of it now and don't like it --- so shouldn't we be passing this info on to our American neighbours while their president is trying to push something similar onto them??
___
Just adding in a little tidbit for an example. My friends are here from South Carolina right now and we were randomly talking about our kids and allergies. I mentioned my daughter's strange allergies and my friend's husband asked if she has been to an allergist. I laughed - it's a year wait for people that have anaphalactic reactions --- how long would I have to wait with my daughter just getting a rash from bandaids? Anyway he said they have allergists all over the place - I said we have to drive 3 hours to get to Calgary and those appts can take a year. He was shocked. I wasn't. THIS is what can happen with a small across-the-board premium and tax-based system, and now it will only be worse with a purely tax-based system. And before you get any ideas - the population of their city is LESS than the small city I live in right now. They have allergy centers right there in the city with several docs in each. But nah - Alberta folk have to travel to Calgary and Edmonton for testing.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Post-Holiday Random Musings...
On our 3 day trip through the Rockies (Banff National Park, and the David Thompson area near the Saskatchewan River Crossing), we noticed some interesting things. First off - holy CRAP there was still a lot of snow up there. Mountain after mountain was heavily snow-covered compared to this time last year when we went through, with many peaks looking like they were going to dump it all down into the valleys at once.
But the most interesting thing was visiting two Glaciers and discovering that their receding/melting has DECREASED over the past several years.... WHAT? how could this be? I thought we were being bombarded with the news that glaciers are melting faster than ever before, receding, disappearing, etc etc etc... but no! Actually, the ones around the Columbia Icefield have SLOWED. Crowfoot Glacier at Bow Lake and Crowfoot Mountain was a good example. Even the tourist information signs told us that it may be slowing... 
Click photo to enlarge and read print on lower left side.
Click photo to enlarge and read print on lower left side.Anyway we had earlier noted that the Athabasca Glacier may appear to be shockingly melted at first, but if you look at each marker they set out, it melted a LOT more between 1890 and 1945 than it did between 1945 and today. What's this? It melted more BEFORE automobiles were in such great abundance? What's this? It melted more BEFORE there were semi-trucks belching fumes around the planet? BEFORE heavy oil and gas production and refineries popped up? Wow... that's pretty interesting, don't you think?
All you have to do is look around... take mental note of things, use your senses, your brain, your thought-powers, and your eyes. Go to a website such as the Dinosaur Provincial Park one in Southern Alberta and look at the history of the prairies. You will see several mentions of melting and freezing going on over the past several hundred thousand or millions of years. A repeated cycle, over and over, WELL BEFORE humans even inhabited this planet, let alone industrialized anything. Think about it, if the earth has done this countless times in the past, why are we suddenly at fault this time? If the climate is changing, and has done countless times over earth's existence, why is it OUR fault this time? I don't get that... They say the melting is speeding up, trying to tell us it is happening faster than any time in the past and THAT'S why it's our fault,,, yet I go up to climb around on some Glaciers and find differing info right there in front of my face. Why is that?
Why are humans being targeted as causing the planet's cooling and/or heating (whichever it is they are going with this week) when it's happened over and over and OVER in the past? Just ask yourself that ONE question and see if man-made Global Warming/Climate Change makes sense... then think about all the commercials, news broadcasts, documentaries, etc you have seen over the past 10-20 years showing melting glaciers and remember that it was happening BEFORE man started driving around in cars.
THEN I want you to watch the short video on this previous post again and ask yourself if these proposals are worth it, when we obviously have no idea how much impact man is having on 'climate change', if any.................. OBAMA'S SKYROCKETING UTILITIES PLAN
___________________________________
Another random musing, unrelated to GW/CC -- I was watching a program the other day where a woman was talking about when she got sick (US) and ended up with a $50,000 medical bill even after her insurance coverage. I was watching her walk around in her huge house, and then she went outside where I saw a new Denali and another large vehicle that looked like a Ford Expedition. All I could think about the whole time was "Why does this woman think it's okay to spend $40-60,000 on a new vehicle to drive around, but she doesn't think it's okay to spend 50 grand on her own life? Her own health?". That truly baffled me. I realize that many families have high bills and don't drive around a Denali or live in a huge house, BUT many of them do and it just baffles me. How much is your life worth to you? Why think it's okay to spend $1000+ a month on a mortgage that will end up costing you 3 times the home's original price tag, or drop $30 grand on a car, but not want to drop 30 grand on their own health? Unbelieveable....
All you have to do is look around... take mental note of things, use your senses, your brain, your thought-powers, and your eyes. Go to a website such as the Dinosaur Provincial Park one in Southern Alberta and look at the history of the prairies. You will see several mentions of melting and freezing going on over the past several hundred thousand or millions of years. A repeated cycle, over and over, WELL BEFORE humans even inhabited this planet, let alone industrialized anything. Think about it, if the earth has done this countless times in the past, why are we suddenly at fault this time? If the climate is changing, and has done countless times over earth's existence, why is it OUR fault this time? I don't get that... They say the melting is speeding up, trying to tell us it is happening faster than any time in the past and THAT'S why it's our fault,,, yet I go up to climb around on some Glaciers and find differing info right there in front of my face. Why is that?
Why are humans being targeted as causing the planet's cooling and/or heating (whichever it is they are going with this week) when it's happened over and over and OVER in the past? Just ask yourself that ONE question and see if man-made Global Warming/Climate Change makes sense... then think about all the commercials, news broadcasts, documentaries, etc you have seen over the past 10-20 years showing melting glaciers and remember that it was happening BEFORE man started driving around in cars.
THEN I want you to watch the short video on this previous post again and ask yourself if these proposals are worth it, when we obviously have no idea how much impact man is having on 'climate change', if any.................. OBAMA'S SKYROCKETING UTILITIES PLAN
___________________________________
Another random musing, unrelated to GW/CC -- I was watching a program the other day where a woman was talking about when she got sick (US) and ended up with a $50,000 medical bill even after her insurance coverage. I was watching her walk around in her huge house, and then she went outside where I saw a new Denali and another large vehicle that looked like a Ford Expedition. All I could think about the whole time was "Why does this woman think it's okay to spend $40-60,000 on a new vehicle to drive around, but she doesn't think it's okay to spend 50 grand on her own life? Her own health?". That truly baffled me. I realize that many families have high bills and don't drive around a Denali or live in a huge house, BUT many of them do and it just baffles me. How much is your life worth to you? Why think it's okay to spend $1000+ a month on a mortgage that will end up costing you 3 times the home's original price tag, or drop $30 grand on a car, but not want to drop 30 grand on their own health? Unbelieveable....
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