On Oct 25, 11:30 am, "Yang, AthD (h.c)" <eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com>
wrote:

Conservatives "prove" Canadian Healthcare bad... by making ***** up

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/canada.asp

As someone living and raising a family in the heart of Toronto, I'm
always skeptical of claims that the Canadian health care system is in
"deep trouble". Costs are high, but, then again, so are our federal
and provincial surpluses (how's that US surplus going, Bush? Oh? It's
a deficit?) Further to that, it saddens me that so many Americans
believe whatever is fed to them about it.

A few anecdotes:
- When we first found out my wife was pregnant, she immediately had
access to a regular OBGYN, and was kep on a regular schedule of
appointments and ultrasounds up to the day of labour, when the same
OBGYN was there to help deliver the baby.
- Our first daughter was born in January of this year, and has had her
monthly appointments like clockwork - including all of the mandatory
and optional immunizations (covered by our healthcare). A couple of
months ago, our daughter was getting a fever and a cough. We called
her doctor, and were in the office the same day.
- My wife and I probably add to the "no family doctor" statistics,
since we don't have one. We both run and work out regularly,
participate in sports and eat healthy, with no history of illness on
either side; the odd time either one of us has a situation that
warrants a doctor, we go to a walk-in clinic, especially when the
situation is fairly obvious (hard to mis-diagnose a broken toe or an
ear infection). Maybe as I get older, I'll look into finding a family
doctor (as of last week, there were six within a 10 minute drive of
our house that were accepting new patients)

The snopes article is correct - coverage varies from city to city,
province to province. I can't imagine receiving the same service in a
town like Minden ( 2 hours north of Toronto. Pop. 3000) as I do in
Toronto. If something serious is wrong, we get service immediately. If
we're inconvenienced by a sore knee that will need replacing, we wait
a little while. If you don't want to wait, you can do what all
Americans do - go to a US hospital and pay money.

I'm not trying to argue that the Canadian system is flawless -

far
from it. But myself as well as my friends, family and co-workers
receive exceptional service and treatment across different provinces.
Perhaps American critics of our health care system should spend their
time examining their own system and devising viable improvements,
instead of trashing someone elses.

On Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:30:03 GMT, "Yang, AthD (h.c)"

<eacmole@/*AWOLBUSH*/mail.com> wrote:

Conservatives "prove" Canadian Healthcare bad... by making ***** up

http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/canada.asp

"Using Ontario (Canada's most populous province) as an example, we
find that provincial wait times measured in mid-2007 ranged from 13
days for angioplasty"

That's a problem - a severely blocked coronary artery can result in
death in a lot less than 13 days - 13 hours (or less) in some cases.