Ryan is an outright liar on Canadian health care.

[riverbendviewgal]

Last edited Tue Aug 14, 2012, 01:58 PM - Edit history (1)

I can vouch this with the facts .

There is no waits in my Canada if an MRI is needed. I saw my GP last September because my eye was losing sight. She got me an MRI for the next day. It turned out it was a detached retina which is serious but not as bad as a brain tumor, which my 24 year old son had. He had seizures one day and was getting an MRI the same day and brain surgery 3 days later..

My MRI last fall showed I had a cyst....I saw a specialist and she wanted me to get an enhanced MRI, which I had to wait a couple weeks for ...It was not an urgent matter. The results are no change. Cysts are very, very common in brains.


In Canada your ailments are triaged..but let me tell you if you are in need of a MRI right away you get it. I live in the rural North of Ontario.
When my son was diagnosed we lived in Toronto. I find our health care equally good in both areas.
Up north we just have to go further for specialist and MRIs BUT we get our gasoline paid for and if we have to stay in a motel that is paid for.

BTW my son and husband were diagnosed with a brain tumor and Non-Hogkins Lymphom TWO months apart. They got the best treatment...I know my son had the same brain tumor as Ted Kennedy...I read what treatment Ted had and my son the same treatments.. and our costs that we do pay are : parking fees for the hospital. other wise - ZERO dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Here is the article where Ryan is lying. I feel like yelling right in his face a big one.
How dare he lie about Canada...but we know why he does because he wants the ignorant ones to believe him.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/13/paul-ryan-canada-taxes_n_1772444.html

When it comes to Canada's health care system, however, the 42-year-old Congressman from Wisconsin's 1st district has little nice to say.

In a widely circulated 2009 article on the health-care reform debate for the American Spectator, Ryan argues Canada's public system results in long wait times, less-advanced care and the problem of brain drain caused by doctors choosing to practice in the U.S.

"The average Canadian now has to wait over a month after getting a primary doctor's instruction just for a CT scan, and more than two months for an MRI. Canada's medical equipment is old, unreliable, and obsolete," Ryan writes. "Canadians notoriously travel to the U.S. if possible for treatments for everything from cancer and emergency care to hip surgery and childbirth."

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. I lived in Canada and we didn't have to wait - he should be called out

How dare he

[yourout]

2. He lies about everything else....why should Canadian health care be any different.

Hell I'd be more shocked if he actually said something truthful.

[Cleita]

3. Thank you. I recently have been arguing about this to acquaintances who

are repeating these allegations. One person even told me that they were at a party where there were a couple of Canadians who said they moved down here because of the weather and the national health care, and how it was so much better to be in the USA and not have to deal with the "system". How do we Americans who admire your system fight turncoats from your country like that, who are continuing to perpetrate the lie?

Thank you again. I am printing this out and keeping it to show to everyone who believes the lies.

[riverbendviewgal]

6. They must be rich

if you stay longer than 6 months, you lose your health care.. There are Canadians that I know that have come back when they get a serious illness.

They know where it is good.

[Cleita]

10. They are going to be in for a big surprise here if either of them get a chronic

disease like diabetes or even a terminal one like cancer. The treatments are uber expensive and insurance coverage, if they have it, is limited or not even available depending on what coverage they have.

[polly7]

42. I know a professor who teaches in Regina, he has dual-citizenship and almost the second he

got it, he saw a specialist to schedule what would have been a very expensive surgery he'd been putting off getting down there. I had to laugh when he seemed so amazed at the good care he got. It's like he was expecting third-world treatment and sub-standard medicines, despite having one of the top specialists in western Canada.

[laundry_queen]

20. 'Deal with the system?'

WTF? That has to be made up bullshit by that one person you were talking to. One of the greatest things about our healthcare system is never DEALING with the system. You flash your healthcare card and everything else is dealt with by doctors. No pre-approvals. No calling insurance companies. No haggling over bills.

I'll give you an example. When I had my first gallbladder attack (actually, it wasn't my first, but it was the first one that didn't go away after 15 min or so) and ended up in the ER, they were supposed to schedule me for an ultrasound the next day. I went home, waited for the call, no one called me. So I went back to the ER, asked for the ultrasound, complained about not being called, and told them I was still feeling really sick. They got me in immediately for an ultrasound ( & apologized profusely) and ta-da tons of gallstones...within the week I was meeting with the surgeon and 2 weeks after my appointment with the surgeon I had laproscopic surgery. The whole time the ONLY people I dealt with were the doctors and the receptionists. There was no 'system' to 'deal with'. And at the time I had an out of province health care card as I had only just moved to a new province. NO questions asked about that at all.

That's just one example. I don't know ANYONE who had to 'deal with the system'. People deal with their doctors, that's it.

[Cleita]

23. I almost made a call on the made up BS except that the person at the party

who told me was my stepdaughter and she would have no reason to lie to me. However, I do wonder if the so-called Canadians at the party weren't dishing up a lot of BS and/or just trying to fit in. This is a conservative area of well off ranchers. Whatever their motivation, it does no good when they spread lies like this.

Since I had worked near the Canadian border as a campground host and had many Canadian campers, I got to know about your system from talking to them, so I was able to counter the disinformation with my stepdaughter because I told her I had pretty good knowledge first hand from many Canadians and I really thought her new friends were full of it. I told her that the first minute one of them got cancer or another debilitating disease, they would be returning to Canada for their health care because they would find out they wouldn't be getting it here without going bankrupt.

[markpkessinger]

52. "I was at a party with a couple . . ." -- Did you ever notice...

...how these claims are ALWAYS of a non-specific nature? I mean, it's never someone they can actually identify. It's always some anonymous third party they talked to someplace. It's a cheap debate tactic. They use it because they know it is impossible to prove it true or false.

[Cleita]

61. I called my stepdaughter on this immediately.

Like I said she would have no reason to lie, however, she didn't question that she could be lied to. I told her that the facts, which could be verified with a little research, were quite different than what her new friends were alleging.

[riverbendviewgal]

64. Well, I was in different places

In restaurants, museums, waiting in line at groceries, sitting on the beach.. talking to maids while staying in the motels. At racetracks You be surprised how loquacious people can be. Talking to old people in Florida who can't stop working because they can't afford their meds, even on medicare.

Lots of money in America. Lots of good health services but they are for sale to those who can afford the services.

[PDJane]

4. This is more of Ryan not wanting to share any pieces of the pie.

The most inadequate response to the need for universal health care I've ever heard came from a bunch of Americans who were afraid if everyone could get health care, their doctor would be too busy to see them when they wanted him to. They'd have to make (horrors) an appointment!

A bit greedy and elitist, don't you think?

[liberal N proud]

5. He is a Republican, can you expect anything else?

Now he is connected to the biggest liar of them all.

[Liberal Veteran]

7. A perfect fit for Romney. Both lie with impunity. - nt

[Bainbridge Bear]

26. And without shame

[SidDithers]

8. DU rec...nt

Sid

[riverbendviewgal]

9. BTW about my detached Retina

I did see an eye specialist the day after my MRI and he sent me to an eye surgeon that same day. The eye surgeon did the operation the same day I saw him. I was an out patient in the hospital. ....

Don't mess with detached retinas...My eye is good as new, if not better vision.... You do have to sleep 10 days sitting up and not bend down.

We have great health care...


I did not go bankrupt with my son and husband's illnesses. The government even sent me $2300 dollars toward EACH of their funeral expenses.

What do you get from the USA when your loved one dies?

[Cleita]

12. $250 from Social Security is what I got when my husband died.

It didn't even cover basic cremation.

[barbtries]

28. as i recall

that's what my mother got when my father died. in 1968. jeez.

[Cleita]

38. This was in 2004. n/t

[barbtries]

58. it's probably still at $250

my mother worked for years paying off my father's funeral...he died before the insurance policy kicked in. he was a veteran as well but my father died out of state and was buried in another state. i don't know because i was young, but i think it was primarily the funeral itself that set her back.

not nearly enough clearly.

[Segami]

11. Paul Ryan: Manipulator, liar and disinfo artist. I hear he's also a hunter like someone else...

[Cali_Democrat]

31. ...

[Jamaal510]

34. My eyes!!!!!

[Segami]

44. LOL!

[Lucy Goosey]

13. A good, recent article on Canadian healthcare myths...

...and it's from the AARP, not from Canada. Ryan is so full of shit on this.

http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-03-2012/myths-canada-health-care.html

Myth #1: Canadians are flocking to the United States to get medical care.

The authors of the study started by surveying 136 ambulatory care facilities near the U.S.-Canada border in Michigan, New York and Washington. It makes sense that Canadians crossing the border for care would favor places close by, right? It turns out, however, that about 80 percent of such facilities saw, on average, fewer than one Canadian per month; about 40 percent had seen none in the preceding year.

Then, the researchers looked at how many Canadians were discharged over a five-year period from acute-care hospitals in the same three states. They found that more than 80 percent of these hospital visits were for emergency or urgent care (that is, tourists who had to go to the emergency room). Only about 20 percent of the visits were for elective procedures or care.

Next, the authors of the study surveyed America’s 20 “best” hospitals — as identified by U.S. News & World Report — on the assumption that if Canadians were going to travel for health care, they would be more likely to go to the best-known and highest-quality facilities. Only one of the 11 hospitals that responded saw more than 60 Canadians in a year. And, again, that included both emergencies and elective care.

Finally, the study’s authors examined data from the 18,000 Canadians who participated in the National Population Health Survey. In the previous year, 90 of those 18,000 Canadians had received care in the United States; only 20 of them, however, reported going to the United States expressively for the purpose of obtaining care.

I'm one of those Canadians who had to get urgent care in the US while on vacation - but the idea that I would go to the US to get stitches because of waiting lists at home is nuts.

[Cleita]

14. Thanks for this too. It's going into my notebook about this. It looks like a lot of lies need

debunking and waiting for our media to set the record straight is a fools errand.

[riverbendviewgal]

15. Very good article

Americans should have this up on their grocery bulletin boards and other places. Leave in waiting areas for doctors, buses, airports, trains.....People sitting around like to read ..I do anyway.

[janlyn]

16. telling it like it is

I am originally from Cambridge,England. I moved here when I was 6. I am constantly getting in debates with people about British healthcare...My Grandparents NEVER had to wait an inordinate amount of time for any medical service.

My Grandfather was diagnosed with Stage 4 throat cancer on a tues. and they wanted him in hospital by the following monday.he was 78 yrs. old...no wait and no supposed death panel saying he was too old for treatment.

My mother was diagnosed in the states with stage 4 brain cancer and received immediate treatment within a week.

The only difference between GB and US, was the doctors in GB were honest about the fact that his cancer was almost surely terminal and he opted to not treat...

My mother was never told she was terminal,and spent 3 months of hell with radiation and chemo..So that someones pockets could be lined off of her illness.

Our health care system in this country is seriously flawed...

[riverbendviewgal]

17. My son now lives in England, near London

He loves it...and says the health care is good...

He moved there last year to live with his fiancee..She has two parents still living in their 90s. Her dad has Alzheimers....

Her parents are able to live in their own home, while their daughter and my son check in on them. In the USA I think they would not be able to do this.

It is criminal how in the US that health care is for profit. So sad.

I met so many Americans while vacationing down there who had no health care. Their option was to go to the emergency room.

There was always so many spaghetti suppers and benefits to raise money for those sick with serious illnesses down there.

[Lucy Goosey]

18. Just to add something about wait times in Canada...

Some procedures do have waiting lists in some parts of Canada - that's inevitable, I think, when you are trying to cover healthcare for 34 million people spread across a huge geographical area.

BUT - one of the reasons some of our waiting lists might me longer up here is that WE LET EVERYONE ON THE LIST. Everyone who is a legal resident of the country has the same care available to them. People are moved higher or lower on the waiting list for medical reasons only - nobody can buy their way to the top.

So when Ryan complains about waiting times in Canada, I think what he is really complaining about the fact that millionaires can't buy themselves a shorter wait time than people on social assistance. He doesn't like the fact that we let everyone on the waiting list.

[Cleita]

19. Speaking of waiting times. I have to make an appointment with my primary care doctor

three months in advance for a routine exam. I do have Medicare so I do have access to health care, which many of my younger American friends don't. If I have an emergency, I am sometimes squeezed in with a nurse practitioner that day, who either can treat me or sends me to the ER for a band aid and an appointment with the doctor is made down the line. I never get right in if I need her. I had a small surgery last year on my nose and I had to wait four weeks to get it. A few years back I had to go to the ER with a cut hand. I had to wait three hours to see a doctor to get stitches. Frankly, I don't see our medical system is any more efficient than yours. It's just a lie perpetrated by the for profit insurance companies and health plans.

[laundry_queen]

21. I think you hit the nail on the head there

That's exactly what the problem is. Rich people believe they are entitled to get better care because they think they are more important than other people. That's the crux of a lot of the debate over privatization I see here in Alberta as well. Rich people think they are better. Rich people think they are more important than everyone else. They are horrified at the thought of being on a list where some homeless guy gets treatment before they do.

Truly disgusting. Bunch of sociopaths.

[spinbaby]

22. Aw, man, you even get free parking

Currently I have to go to the hospital once a month for a 5-minute appointment. It costs me $5 to park every time plus a $30 copay.

[riverbendviewgal]

29. oops. there are parking costs

I clarified this and did a re-edit.

Parking fees vary. Up north here it is $3.00 a day...while in Toronto it is by half hour or hour BUT you can deduct the parking fees from your income tax forms as medical expenses. They could add up if you have cancer and have to go for treatments ...

[laundry_queen]

57. Parking was pretty pricey where I am.

It was $12/day IIRC. Not long after my surgery, there was a huge outcry about the costs of parking at hospitals. It was in the news and everything and our local health authority promised a review. Not sure if it's better now or not as I haven't had to go to the hospital again, but it definitely could add up. It's one thing if you are having a baby and stay for 2 days...$24 not a huge deal, but what if you have a chronically ill child and HAVE to be there for weeks or months at a time?? Very costly.

When I lived up north, parking at the hospitals was always free.

[riverbendviewgal]

65. Parking up north used to be free but since I moved up here in 2005

they shortly started charging but it is not as bad as downtown Toronto Hospitals.

When my husband was dying I found out I could get a weekly parking pass. A little less money but still costly.

[Canuckistanian]

72. You can deduct hospital parking fees?

I did not know that.

Thanks!

[SunSeeker]

24. Ryan is an outright liar. Period. nt

[cleduc]

41. I live in Canada

Ryan is full of it.

My mother lost consciousness for a few minutes recently. She was in emergency via ambulance within minutes. Because she quickly regained consciousness and was not showing deterioration, she was not at the top of priority list but had a CT scan within an hour or two (that was clear). Looks like seizure or TIA. They gave her blood thinners, a battery of tests and she was released with an MRI scheduled within a week. If she had stayed in the hospital, they could have done the MRI sooner. Out of pocket cost for the 4 day hospital stay including food, etc and all testing was $10 for the private phone in her room and $40 for the ambulance (~20% of the ambulance cost). She has no 'special' insurance - just standard, single payer Canadian coverage that all Canadians get. All she had to do was flash her health card photo id.

To double check what they did with my mother and develop questions for follow up, I was able to go review all her tests results going back years (doppler, CTs, MRIs, blood work, etc) right up to her recent emergency visit .. on line. All follow up appointments and tests will be completed by the 19th of August.

My sister in Baltimore goes to John's Hopkins. We've taken Canadian family there for second opinions when the health issues are serious. They've never found fault with Canadian diagnosis or treatment in the last 40 years.

My parents used the Florida heath care system for years during their retirement there.

My Baltimore sister's brother-in-law was head of (oncology?) or cancer treatment for the CDC a few years ago. When my father had lymphoma, he told us Princess Margaret in Toronto was ranked #4 in the world for radiation treatment. My father survived for 20 years after that treatment for lymphoma. When my father had stroke trouble, one of the two best places for research on blood thinning issues was Hamilton, Ontario.

Cost of Canadian health care is about 54% of the US cost per person.

Canadian life expectancy is 10th in the world at 80.7 years. United States is 38th at 78.2 years.

Our family has used and still uses both systems. Neither system is perfect. We've had few complaints with timeliness or quality of care with either system. Between the two, considering the costs, I'd take Canada's handily.

The one thing about the US that has deeply upset me are the tens of thousands dying each year because they don't have coverage. The 2008 Obama town halls ripped my heart out as did the letters from bereaved family who lost members due to lack of health care and Alan Grayson read those letters on the floor of the House. It really, really upsets me because I can see just how unnecessary the loss of life is having used Canada's system. I don't understand how a country could spend trillions on the military and be so unwilling to pay 54% of what they currently pay to cover everyone. It just boggles my mind and seems insane.

[SunSeeker]

45. Which is why Sara Palin went to Canada for healthcare!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/palin-crossed-border-for_n_490080.html

[cleduc]

47. Before photo ID

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/20/world/americans-filching-free-health-care-in-canada.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

Non Canadians coming to Canada to use the system was a real problem - and for a while, it was part of the reason given for waits for equipment because they had issued more health cards than their population and non Canadians were borrowing health cards. It overloaded the system.

[riverbendviewgal]

70. BORDERLINE MEDICINE w/ Walter Cronkite (trailer)

Saw a few of those old health cards while being a fraud analyst. They had no photo so it was easy to counterfeit. One fraudster had a few of them on her.

I saw a Walter Cronkite documentary a Long time ago....and he went over the differences of health care between Canada and the US
I remember him reporting that Canada's health care card was worth $5,000. That was then,, eh? He was one my favorite journalists
You could trust Cronkite.


This is the trailer of the show...

Borderline Medicine, a one-hour documentary narrated by Walter Cronkite, explores the crisis in American health care and considers the lessons that the U.S. can learn from Canada's 20-year experience with national health insurance. The program features powerful profiles of American and Canadian patients who have similar medical problems, but vastly different experiences with their health care systems. Health policy experts from both sides of the border speak candidly about the merits, liabilities, and trade-off that are part of both countries' health care systems.

[riverbendviewgal]

62. Cleduc, Welcome to DU and a great reply to this thread

I think our DU American friends should print out your response.

You were so clear and concise.

Thanks for letting DU know about all these good advantages we have here in Canada.

I have watched Ed Schultz's one day health clinics in various US cities and it was so sad to see the long line ups and hear how so many have not seen a doctor in years.

Thank you for informing all of us.

My son and husband were diagnosed 2 months apart with their cancers..

One other service we also have here in some hospitals is palliative care. My son was in PC for a week after 6 weeks in Intensive care
and my husband was in PC for 3 months.

It was good to be with them 100 percent without worrying about getting any medical bills.

[FlaGranny]

25. It's not like there is no

wait in the US for nonemergencies. Makes you wonder if he, or any family member, has ever had to make an appointment for a non-emergency CT scan or any other non-emergency care.

[wilt the stilt]

63. don't you think that all congressman have priority treatment

and never get questioned over a claim. i for one do.

[FlaGranny]

75. Yes, but

he has family members, I'm certain. Uncles, aunts, cousins, etc., who don't get congressional benefits, and have to make appointments with doctors who don't know or don't care who they are related to.

[barbtries]

27. thank you for speaking out about this.

you know the republicans lie constantly. i despise and deplore it as much as you do. i swear i have to put in a music CD when i'm in my car because they piss me off so much.

[Cali_Democrat]

30. Ryan is a turd

If America's healthcare system is so great, why aren't other industrialized countries like Canada rushing to change their system to make it more like America's?

Maybe because Americans pay way more and yet have a lower life expectancy than most other industrialized countries like Canada.

Turds like Ryan love to come up with other "facts" that turn out to be complete fabrications.

[Posteritatis]

33. Even Harper - Harper! - won't dare to dismantle the health care system we've got up here. (nt)

[riverbendviewgal]

37. But he would like to

and the other RWrs here ....

We have SUN NEWS up here which is called FOX NEWS North.

I really don't think the Progressive Conservative, Harper's party, will be re-elected in the next election.

[Jamaal510]

36. Whenever somebody brings that up to a Republican,

the typical response they have is "America is a capitalist country..." and "nothing is free.." and blah blah blah...I call BS on that. Last time I heard, it doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution that health care is a privilege instead of a right. What kind of sociopathic country is this, where it's a crime to want to give everyone access to basic human necessities?

[Posteritatis]

32. It baffles me how hard people try to lie about stuff like that

I had an American try to lecture me at considerable length a few weeks ago, claiming that Canadians need to stand before an actual tribunal to get government permission to see a family doctor. When I mentioned that I've lived my entire life in Canada except for a few months in the States as an infant (surprise! time for an exceptionally premature birth! that sucked!), the moron actually continued to make the claim.

Also, on Ryan's "argument" in particular, a few years ago I got a CT scan on about a day's notice, couched in general terms of "you're probably alright, but if you want to be sure we can slot you in tomorrow morning." Paid zero dollars, results went to my doc, paid zero dollars again a few days later to see the results.

[cleduc]

49. Never heard of any tribunal for health care in Canada

That's complete nonsense.

[Posteritatis]

55. Yeah. Like, even by the standards of nonsense about Canada that got a "WTF?" from me

Most of the other claims are the standard ones - we all pay eighty percent tax, it takes months to see a doctor, basic treatments aren't approved, yadda yadda yadda - and people dig in their heels just as much on those in the face of evidence.

It was a nice, secure, second place on my list of Most Fucked Up Things Americans Claim About Canada in any case.

[1StrongBlackMan]

35. Being in Tucson ...

I can play golf pretty much any day of the year. It is for that reason many Canadians (that golf) end up here.

A couple of years ago, I got paired with a couple Canadians and a local guy. This was during the midsts of the ACA fight.

After a couple holes, the local guy began riling about the "socialist plot" that was the ACA. The Canadian couple listened quietly.

I finally asked the Canadians their opinion with respect to the Canadian vs the American system. Their comment was, "The U.S. is one of the last places left where someone can wake up one day a millionaire. But compared to Canada, one would need to be a millionaire ... if you get sick."

[SheilaT]

39. They pay for your gas AND motel room if needed?

O. M. G.

I think I should move north. Although I like to brag that I have the Republican Health Care Plan, which is I actually never get sick.

[Lucy Goosey]

40. If you can't get the treatment nearer to home, yes.

In such a giant country, it would be impossible to have every type of specialised care within a reasonable commute of every person, so that's one of the ways the system works to prevent offering inferior service to people who live in the middle of nowhere. It's not perfect or anything, but it works pretty well.

[riverbendviewgal]

43. Up north and even in Toronto we have our gas/motel paid if it is a certain distance away.

I am in Ontario so we have OHIP...Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

Up northern Ontario, where I live, we don't have the same amount of people who live "south" like in Toronto. We have less doctors too.

I live in a small town that I call the "Tiny Apple". (Toronto is the little Apple, after NYC.) I can walk to the train/bus station, the 4 restaurants, 2 coffee shops, 3 gas stations, 2 banks, post office, grocery store, lawyers, liquor store (LCBO - govt run), funeral home, legion hall, 3 hairdressers, hospital and walk in clinic that has 5 doctors. We have an elementary school and 3 day care centers. There is a high school too. We have about 5 churches. A dentist, butcher shop, hardware store, 2 drug stores, 2 Laundromats, a radio station, a vet. lumber mill and a fire department (volunteer) and Library. There is an Arena too where hockey, dances and meetings are held.

Not bad for about 1500 people. There are farms and smaller towns that use our services.
The hospital does not have a CT scan or MRI....so we get sent to the nearby bigger town for a CT scan That is a 20 minute drive.

Toronto is not bad for getting to Doctors/hospitals. I always tried to use the TTC which was buses, street cars and subway.

The MRI's and many specialists are in various places in the province so if we have to see a specialist further than 80 km we get paid for our gas.. per mileage and we may have to stay overnight due the distance or a MRI may be in the middle of the night. They are used 24 hours a day. So that is why we are sometime paid for gasoline and motel.

I really appreciate what my province does. and to think our health care was just started in the 1960s. There was resistance when it started but let me tell, if some politician tries to take it away, he /she is dead meat.

[SheilaT]

51. Your town sounds like a lovelyh place to live in.

Is there good train/bus service to larger cities? It is my eventual goal to live in a place where I don't need to own a car, which in this country tends to mean a limited number of large cities.

I have two grown sons. I keep on hoping one of them will emigrate to Canada or Australia. I would follow soon after.

[riverbendviewgal]

66. Just a little over $100 one way for a train ride to downtown Toronto

The train even has WiFi

It is a 6 hour car drive but train is about 8 hours.

[SheilaT]

68. Personally, I'd take the train for the ability to

read or crochet or whatever during the trip. Plus, I've been to Toronto several times and I know how absolutely amazing their public transportation system is.

Perhaps I should simply look into moving to Canada in a few years.

[marlakay]

46. I have two close friends who married canadians

and have lived there now for 35 years, have had kids, operations, doctor visits, etc with no problems. Both in BC one in small town and one in Sidney.

They both say they wished their families in america had the same.

[thecrow]

48. I know..

My cousin had a really bad headache a few years ago....
She went to the medical clinic in her town and the doctor sent her to ahospital in the nearest big town...20 minutes away.
She got an MRI and they saw she had aneurysms in her brain... 5 of them. She was AIRLIFTED to Halifax where they planned a surgery. She waited for a couple days BY CHOICE until her children could get to the hospital. Some of them lived in Ontario.
Had the operation and came through it just fine. And no medical bills.
No months long waits... she could have had the operation sooner, but she waited for her children.

Ryan is a liar.

[SoCalDem]

50. Canada is not THAT far away or different, and yet

we have NEVER seen REAL Canadians sitting around talking about how they access/pay for medical care.

Why?

because American's heads would explode and there would be congresspeople/senators running for cover if the majority of US citizens really knew how successful Canadian health care is..


Just think.. if things had gone differently in 1776, we might BE Canadians

[Posteritatis]

56. The whole divergence point's kinda fascinating to me there

There's a monument to the Loyalists on the waterfront of my hometown, which baffles visiting American friends as they're apparently seen, ah, differently south of the border.

[Cleita]

60. As I said up post, I once worked as a campground host near the

Canadian border so I had a lot of Canadian campers. During that time whenever a camper got injured I had to call the local EMTs. The loggers in this area had a volunteer fire and rescue department so their services were free when they came to the campground. However, many times the injured campers refused transport on the ambulance to a medical facility because they couldn't afford it or weren't sure their insurance would cover it. My Canadian campers were mystified with our system and told me politely what would happen back home. That's when I started admiring their system as compared to ours. The big epiphany came when my husband got a stroke and I had to have him medivac'd on a helicopter to Spokane. Our insurance found a reason not to pay so we had to pay all the bills, the helicopter, the MRIs and the hospital care. I think they payed for doctor visits, but didn't because of a deductible. The other medical bills we paid were unimportant and not relevant to their "rules". My Canadian campers who had witnessed all of this were amazed at the callousness of our system and really didn't understand how the insurers could get away with it.

[Posteritatis]

73. I still can't wrap my head around "can't afford to go to the ER." (nt)

[Cleita]

74. Medivac in a helicopter is very expensive and when you

are out in the wilderness and the nearest ER hospitals are in Spokane or Coeur d' Alene, I think you get the picture. To drive in took a couple of hours and many of those people did exactly that. The Canadians told us there wouldn't have been a dilemma in Canada because getting those injured to a hospital would have been of prime importance in Canada not who was paying.

[markpkessinger]

53. Ryan is an outright liar on ___________ (fill in the blank) n/t

[fifthoffive]

54. Five Myths about Canadian Healthcare

From the AARP. Very good article.

[link]http://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-03-2012/myths-canada-health-care.html[/link]


***************************
Sorry - didn't see this linked up thread.

[Justice wanted]

59. I don't blame you for your anger. my friend has lived in Canada for about 11 years now. She would

NOT come back to the United States for anything. She said she rather die if she had to live in United States.

My favorite story to tell is her first day moving into her home in Canada she was helping to carry a glass coffee table. It broke and cut her arm from her wrist to her elbow on the inner portion of the arm.

She went to the hospital panicked. She explaining to the nurse that she was moving for her job and that she hasn't gotten all her information from the company and she didn't know how the hospital and insurance worked.

The nurse calmed her down, "Don't worry. Let's take care of you. You are more important than money."

My friend ended up paying NOTHING!

She didn't know what was going to happen and when she moved there she stupidly thought ah, it will be like the U.S.

[riverbendviewgal]

67. This is Canada

I have seen Michael Moore's SICKO several times.....I really like the part where Moore interviews his well off Canadian uncle. Moore asks his uncle if he resents paying his taxes to pay for other Canadians health care...

His uncle said, "No, We are all in this boat together."

see the old DU...review from 2006

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2095850

But the reason most of us were there was to see some clips of his new movie "Sicko", which will be out next summer. It is the first time he has ever screened parts of a movie before it was finished, and he ascribed the technical problems they were having with the "Slacker" clips as a higher being punishing him for breaking with tradition.

He spoke at length about how he loves it when during his shoots he ends up proving his premise wrong. In "Bowling For Columbine" it happened when he realized that Canada has 10 million households and 7 million guns (mostly rifles and shotguns), and yet barely more than 100 murders by gun per year. He had to completely change his movie's original premise (that all they had to do was restrict guns and the problems would go away), in favour of determining what about being American made people want to shoot each other.

While filming Sicko, he knew he couldn't just do a movie about how American health care sucks. After 20 minutes, he said, the audience would just be bored, since most of them would already buy the premise.

So instead, he says that his movie will look more at how Americans are "wired differently" than the rest of the world. In Canada, he said, we are raised with the concept of "we're all in this boat together", and that if one of us suffers, we collectively suffer a little bit. In America, he says, it's always been "pull yourself up by your bootstraps", and "I got mine, fuck you".

[Zoeisright]

69. He's an outright liar period.

Every time he opens his trap it's to lie.

[Canuckistanian]

71. I can vouch for that

I can't recall a time in my life when I've EVER had to wait excessive times for health care.

And in emergencies, it's IMMEDIATE as you'd expect a modern medical facility in the first world to be.

And as far as doctors are concerned, every Canadian doctor I've ever had contact with are proud to be serving in our system and believe in it's philosophy of universal coverage.

And as far as hip surgery goes, my wife had a MINIMAL time to wait for her hip replacement. In fact, SHE postponed the surgery in order to complete her school year as a teacher.

Paul Ryan LIES. Big time.

[riverbendviewgal]

77. Today I woke up with a very uncomfortable feeling

Yesterday I thought something was not right...some pains....some extra bathroom trips....

I decided not to wait another day. I went to our doctors clinic in town....My doctor is part of the group of 5 doctors, with 2 nurse practitioners and a nurse.

The clinic is open 10 - 12 and 3 - 5, Monday to Friday.
I went in . Showed my health card, filled out a paper why I was there. I was asked to give a specimen for a test. I then sat down and waited 30 minutes. Saw one of the other doctors on call. He tested the specimen and agreed I had an infection and wrote out a prescription.

I walked out without a bill......

Got my meds and now home. I did not have to try to "wait it out" or cure myself with cranberry juice.
Since I had these before throughout my decades of life I know it usually does not cure itself.

I love our health care system.
I

[ejpoeta]

76. there is a reason they do this. they want people to fear what universal single

payer healthcare would do. Funny how people don't seem to realize this already happens. You have HMO and the doctor is your gateway. Here you can't even get the MRI because the insurance company says you have a pre existing condition. Or your copay is astronomical because that's how this system is. Canadians don't lose everything because they get sick. I think the problem here is we live in a fast food society.... we want everything RIGHT NOW! It makes me very sad.

[Autumn]

78. Your post is a Fail

Ryan is an outright liar every time he opens his fucking mouth.






K/R