From today’s Grope & Flail:
For the second time in a year, a tribunal has ordered the Ontario government to reimburse a patient for hip replacement surgery done in the United States, decisions observers say may encourage more patients — plagued by some of the longest waits in the world — to head south for the operation.
In a little-known decision earlier this year, Ontario’s Health Services Appeal and Review Board ordered the province to reimburse a Toronto woman for the surgery she paid for in Florida after it found that the 18- to 24-month wait she faced here would have caused “medically significant irreversible tissue damage.” The decision comes on the heels of a 2004 ruling, in which the province was ordered to reimburse a London, Ont., man who went to Port Huron, Mich., for a hip replacement.
The tribunal’s decisions mean more joint replacement patients might be eligible to have treatment paid for out of Canada, where they face some of the longest health-care queues.
[link — h/t: NealeNews]
That buzzing sound you’re hearing is Tommy Douglas spinning in his grave right now.
I say we tie a generator onto Tommy and make him do some useful work with all that spinning, for once.
Hell, if it weren’t for his own socialist ideas, Tommy might still be alive
Believe it or not old Tommy fought FOR public Health Insurance and AGAINST public delivery of Health care. At first. Then the big public sector unions saw a gift horse – a monopoly on Health Care labor, everyone forced to join the union (Yah baby, now that’s democracy) and all those fat juicy union dues just rolling into Union HQ without a penny of organizing costs and voila . . you have our current system. Tax payers lose, patients lose. Public sector Union’s bank accounts win BIG TIME.
I thought Douglas was entombed alongside Lenin…
Speaking of Lenin, let’s suppose his separated at birth twin (and someone in great shape being over 100), Jack Layton needed a new hip and just pretend for a minute that he wasn’t able to advance to the front of the line because of “who he is”. How many of you think he’d remain true to his pinko roots and suffer the indignity of waiting months for surgery, or would he and Yoko be on the first Aeroflot flight southbound for the Mayo Clinic?
I thought I might be in need of a hip replacement one day when I found myself singing along to a Celine Dion tune while driving down the road.
When I realized what I was doing, I felt overwhelmed by dumb-shit, squareness … perochial Canadian values attack etc.
I immediately tuned into a station that was playing some Steely Dan and Michael Brecker music. I felt a lot better and realized that I am okay, it was just a momentary moment of dazed driving and not paying attention to what was on the radio.
Whew!
I also realized that you can’t get a hip replacement in Canada. too jive a country for that.
In reading the whole article in the Globe, I was struck by the fact that the very source of the problem, ie the government run monopoly in health-care was preaching about “tackling” the problem of wait-lists. The problem will not be solved by more indexed-pension bureaucrats and government interference. They have controlled the system since its inception and are responsible for the current state of affairs.
The solution lies in allowing those who have the knowledge and skills to do the job to have a go at it independent of government.
But for this to happen, Canadians themselves must overcome their inherent preference that the system, though mediocre, must remain mediocre for all. To date there is no more alarming electoral hot-button in the mind of the electorate that the meer mentioning of the dreaded “two-tiered” health-care.
The fact is however, that the system is two-tiered in that anyone with resources can go and get any health-care they want.
In the end, I am convinced that it will change and the way will be increasingly open to private providers and to choice for consumers. It must be remembered that about 15 percent of the population consume about 80 percent of the health-care resources and thankfully most do not require major health-care services until they get older. But as increasing numbers of people, now tolerant of the mediocre public system, end up in the queue themselves, the calls for change will increase.
You can-too- get a hip-replacement in Canada, ( because my ex-ladyfriend’s mummy got one). Unfortunatly, they botched her meds afterwards- turned her into a temporary veggie,(Alzheimer’s symptoms), then yanked her out of her senior’s apartment and stuffed her into a ‘critical care’ facility, full of crazies. Beware! This could happen to you and yours!
Duke: Singing along to a Celine Dion tune on the radio!?! (Dreaming that you are standing on the forepeak of the Titanic while driving your car….) See a specialist! (“I do not accept this award for Canada, but for Quebec!”)
Thanks to the recent rejection of the House of Commons in raisng the age of consent, Celine Dion can now breath a sigh of releif that her own marraige is now legit. I wonder if she has cheap Mexican help or if she herself shops the Vegas Wal-Mart for hubby’s Depends.
Well said, otlx.
If we deliver healthcare like the Soviets delivered bread should we be surprised that we have to line up around the block to get it?
I would like to thank Tommy Douglas for all the help in developing Alberta�s economy.
Hey Eskimo, the only way Layton would go to the Mayo Clinic is if he thought it was spelt ‘Mao’ Clinic.