So You Want Socialized Medicine? Read This First
From The Midnight Sun with permission to publish in its entirety:
Written by ~J~Got this from via email from a friend today. Worth reading, and quite informative.
Subject: Canada’s Health care system from a Canadians point of view.
Hey Guys; I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton
Introduced her new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in
Canada. I also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up
Here in Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives
With the Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about
This great medical plan that we have in Canada.First of all:
1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every month
Of $96. For Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great he. What they don’t
Tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care system afloat.
I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my earnings go to taxes.
A large portion of that and I am not sure of the exact amount goes directly
To health care our #1 expense.2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is more like a
Health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough so
He can tell you “yes indeed you are sick or you need an operation” but now
The challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting lists
Out the ying yang some as much as 2 years down the road.3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is to
Prescribe drugs. Have a pain, here is a drug to take, not what is causing
The pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more important
To move as many patients thru as possible each hour for Government
Re-imbursement4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.
5) Don’t require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the
Emergency room waiting for treatment.6) Shirley’s dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it
Required that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had to pay
$125. For a splint because it is not covered under health care plus we have
To pay $60. For each visit for him to check it out each week.7) Shirley’s cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a waiting
List . Died before he could get treatment.Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no more
Operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case and
Embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are
Increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get shorter.
Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but it never goes away.
But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they don’t call it a
Tax anymore it is now a user fee.10) My mother needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she
Is a smoker they will not do it. Despite her and my father paying into the
Health care system all these years. My Mom is 80 years of age. Now there
Is talk that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because
They are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in
Canada is a health care system for healthy people only. That should reduce
Our health care costs.11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.
12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes,
Junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law
To spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be
Jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey player or
Athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figger. Where else in the
World can you spend money to kill yourself but not allowed to spend money to
Get healthy.13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at tax payer
Expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no premiums.14) Oh yeh we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them
Healthy. Wouldn’t want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and
Stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the health care
System have to pay for their needles because it is not covered but the
Health care system.I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the
States you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down
There and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make
sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food
for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject.Step wisely and don’t make the same mistakes we have.
Guss Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 5:13 amVisit Guss
Thank you J, you have changed my mind. I will no longer drink from the troth of medical care for everyone. As long as I’m doing OK, to hell with everyone else.
david Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 7:26 amVisit david
J-I hear the opposite from an old friend in Alberta. He’s used the medical system a lot since an accident on the oil fields. He says the emergency care is excellent, but it took 2 years to get a knee replacement. Jerry’s pretty conservative and he would not lie to me–it wasn’t that type of conversation anyway. There must be 2 sides to this story. I’ve known him for 30 years. His brother was my best man.