High-Priced Medicines? Not High Enough, Yank!

I'm just pointing out what a fucking idiot Rex is for suggesting we let people die in the gutter if they can't afford medical care.

If that were really the case how are so many illegal aliens, getting treated and sticking taxpayers for the bill?

Hell, how are so many citizens getting away with the same thing?

 

Because the key to getting free health care in this country is:

Quit work.
Go to the emergency room.
Ability to speak spanish is helpful.

 

Emergency care is not health care.

 

Don't forget the ability to speak Canadian too.

 

Exactly. You can get emergency care, but if you need any further operations, and don't have health insurance, you're going to have to pay through the roof.

 

Having just been released from a Canadian hospital today, I'm going to defend the Canadian system.

I had to wait two months for my surgery, and that was partly my fault, because I canceled the first appointment. My surgeon is regarded as one of the top three in North America. He did an excellent job. My nursing care was very good. I got my gall bladder removed at Cedars Sinai in L.A., which I believe is one of the best hospitals in the U.S., and they did not do as good a job. The pain management here was better. Even the incisions are cleaner. (Cedars also billed me $48,000. The only pieces of paper I left with today were my reminder for my followup appointment and a prescription.)

I was not rushed out of the hospital. There were empty beds. The room at Cedars Sinai was much nicer, but that was the only check in their plus column.

I went to the pharmacy today to pick up my painkillers. They cost me $3.03.

If you need "non-essential" surgery, like my dad's knee replacement, you might wait a while. If you have a cancerous bowel, like the man in the bed next to me, you will not wait. That's where the rationing comes in. For instance, my mom broke her wrist this winter and needed surgery, and she waited three days. She was treated -- put in a cast and set -- but she had to wait for the surgery. That was partly because a dozen people in Ottawa broke their wrists that days on icy sidewalks. But again, the surgery was done well and she has made a full recovery.

Don't bash the Canadian system. It is much better in almost every sense than the American system. It's not like we're pouring over the border in droves, as some posters would have you believe. I would much sooner be treated here.

Hell, go to the pill colonies outside Yuma and tell me your system isn't fucked up.

And the idea of universal health care is that while yes, we're paying for the occasional idiot who rides his motorcycle too fast, we're also safe from becoming bankrupt if, one day, through no fault of our own, we fall ill -- as is the case for people who become sick with cancer, MS, Alzheimer's, and God knows whatever else -- we will be cared for. That's the deal. We'll continue to take it.

Sorry for the edits. These pills are fucking ridiculous.