business talk

[StarryNight]

I'm not bragging or anything; we've got some serious political problems of our own up here in canada. Just a quick anecdote about health care. I had to take my wife to emerg a couple of weeks ago. She was in a lot of pain when we arrived and was placed in priority sequence (i went to the nearest hospital). after about 5 min. we went into triage where she got some pain killers and was examined by a doctor. After a few hours of waiting, her surgury was booked (she signed some papers) but the soonest was 4am so she got put into a hospital room shared by one other woman and spent the night. I picked her up the next morning and we went home. No one even mentioned the words money or insurance to us or ask us what we do for a living or how much we make (and she's recovering just fine). Now, it's not always like that. Bigger cities have longer wait times in emerg and there are cutbacks happening left and right. fyi, The guy who created socialized health care in canada is Tommy Douglas in 1962. Anyway, back to pickups!

[Possum]

....

Your same scenario in the US would be far different, and you would come home with a likely bill and presicriptions of probably around $1500. If she required surgery you would be out thousands of dollars. If it was an ongoing health problem thats serious you could lose your home. If you had insurance, they would bend over backwards looking for ways to say sorry we don't cover THAT. In the US, health care is a gigantic, huge money making machine, its ALL about making money, not about healing people or keeping them well. Thats why the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies avidly fight to take away the right for people to buy vitamins and herbs and supplements without a prescription, every year they try to pass legislation in that pursuit. We have a law here that actually says ONLY DRUGS CAN CURE DISEASE. So if you have a website selling say valerian and say it can cure insomnia, you could go to jail for claiming an herb can cure a disease. Unfortunately pharmeceutical companies have most politicians in their pockets so our health care gets worse and worse and over-medicating kills thousand and thousands of people every year. The truth is the medical system killed my wife's Dad, their antibiotics they used trying to rid him of an incurable staph infection he got IN a hospital, made him deaf, incontinent, and they eventually cut off his lef to rid him of the infection in his knee. the level of care we saw was abhorrent, doctors walking by his bed and prescribing medecines he was allergic to that would have killed him, not even reading his chart. Pretty bad.....wife had to threaten one at the top of her lungs, with malpractice before he would stop trying to give him something that would have killed him on the spot....

You really should watch SICKO despite what you may think about Michael Moore. People who criticize his movies invariably are the ones who've never watched them :-)

[belwar]

A staunch republican salesman I work with (very hardcore - Keeps a picture of Reagan in his office, doesnt believe in global warning, so on and so on) was the one who told me to watch sicko. I was so shocked that HE told me to see it! As a transplant Canadian in America, the movie really hit home.

[Ruel]

Your same scenario in the US would be far different, and you would come home with a likely bill and presicriptions of probably around $1500. If she required surgery you would be out thousands of dollars. If it was an ongoing health problem thats serious you could lose your home. If you had insurance, they would bend over backwards looking for ways to say sorry we don't cover THAT. In the US, health care is a gigantic, huge money making machine, its ALL about making money, not about healing people or keeping them well. Thats why the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies avidly fight to take away the right for people to buy vitamins and herbs and supplements without a prescription, every year they try to pass legislation in that pursuit. We have a law here that actually says ONLY DRUGS CAN CURE DISEASE. So if you have a website selling say valerian and say it can cure insomnia, you could go to jail for claiming an herb can cure a disease. Unfortunately pharmeceutical companies have most politicians in their pockets so our health care gets worse and worse and over-medicating kills thousand and thousands of people every year. The truth is the medical system killed my wife's Dad, their antibiotics they used trying to rid him of an incurable staph infection he got IN a hospital, made him deaf, incontinent, and they eventually cut off his lef to rid him of the infection in his knee. the level of care we saw was abhorrent, doctors walking by his bed and prescribing medecines he was allergic to that would have killed him, not even reading his chart. Pretty bad.....wife had to threaten one at the top of her lungs, with malpractice before he would stop trying to give him something that would have killed him on the spot....

You really should watch SICKO despite what you may think about Michael Moore. People who criticize his movies invariably are the ones who've never watched them :-)

Makes me wonder why a lot of Filipinos would want to migrate to the US. I mean we may not be doing great here but IMO, nothing beats being home, especially when things are not looking good.

[David Schwab]

You really should watch SICKO despite what you may think about Michael Moore. People who criticize his movies invariably are the ones who've never watched them :-)

Yeah, the same people think Bush doesn't believe in global warming, but he does. He said it's real, but he didn't like the fact that the biggest polluters didn't want to join in doing something about it, so he wouldn't either.

I love the part in the movie where Moore anonymously sends money to the guy who runs the anti Moore web site so the guy's sick wife can have an operation, and the guy wont have to shut down the site!

That and taking the sick 9/11 rescue workers that the Gov wont take care of to Cuba for free medical treatment!

Really, everyone, rent that video!

[Possum]

...

I like the part too where his buddy dislocates his shoulder doing a flip on a crosswalk, Moore takes him to a hospital, then Moore keeps asking where do they pay their bill at the hospital and couldn't find such a place :-)

[Possum]

....

That was in the UK, forgot....

[David Schwab]

I like the part too where his buddy dislocates his shoulder doing a flip on a crosswalk, Moore takes him to a hospital, then Moore keeps asking where do they pay their bill at the hospital and couldn't find such a place :-)

Oh yeah, he goes to the "cashier" window, only to find that you don't PAY the cashier... because the service is FREE. The cashier pays YOU, so you have cab fare home! And the guy wasn't even a UK citizen, he was just a US tourist.

And that's how it is everywhere but in the US my friends. No one pays for heath care. Why is that? Because the insurance companies are greedy and corrupt here and want to make a lot of money off you being sick.

I had to switch doctors several times at my last job because they had to keep switching insurance companies because the premiums were going up and up. Now that I'm self employed I had to get insurance for my kids and myself. So I found a state run HMO, but it was like jumping through hoops.

My wife started working full time, and had to change doctors with her new insurance, after having to switch doctors several times at her old part time job at A HOSPITAL, because they kept switching insurance companies. And she can't afford to insure us.

Now with her new insurance they wont cover preexisting conditions for six months, and she has asthma and just had cataract surgery (the cataracts were caused by the steroids used to treat her asthma when she was in the hospital two years ago) and luckily she got in an asthma study where they are giving her free meds!

She talks about when she lived in Spain and Italy, you could walk into any pharmacy and get what ever you need, dirt cheap. Asthma inhaler? $2 in Spain, and about $150 here.

This should not happen in this country, but people here think it's normal, because we are told we don't want socialized health care, even though we have socialized public schools and postal services, so that the rich people can keep getting richer, and we have less and less choices for heath care.

Until everyone stands up and demands something different, we will continue to have the shortest life span of any developed country in the world, and have the worst heathcare system.

This is a wealthy country, but where's all the money going? Surely not to help the people who live here.

[chevalij]

I had a job interview in Boston a few years back. The pay they were offering was decent, but they kep ranting about how good their insurance plan was. I didn't really get why that was so important until now. Guess I'm just a dumb Canuck

[Possum]

....

We also have the highest infant mortality rate in the industrialized world as well. The sick thing is when you try to have this conversation with anyone in government etc. they snicker and say "oh sure, you want us to end up like the CANADIANS?" Like they have some incurable disease or something. Closed minds. The other part I enjoyed and was amazed at was the interview of the French doctor couple, Michael asked them if they were paid poorly and struggled being socialized medecine doctors. Their house was beautiful, they had a really nice expensive car, and he was making a high income....making sick people well for free. If McCain wins Suz will probably discuss emigrating to Canada, but unfortunately so will alot of other people and they have really tightened up who can come over. We are both self employed so wouldn't be a drain on their economy, but mostly they want young people, farm workers and the like...