At 05:01 PM 12/15/98 -0500, you wrote:
>oh-
>
>I see it's Cathy Livingstone who's from Canada. So, how's your health care
>hangin'?
>
>
It's hanging by a thread. Since an overwhelming majority of Canadians support our nationalized health care system (except for the rich) any frontal assault on it by government and business is soundly defeated. Most Canadians look at the American system of HMOs, etc. in complete terror. Before the Canadian dollar collapsed and there was still a lot of cross-border shopping in the US, Canadians would buy extra medical insurance to cover a three HOUR stay there. Everyone knows of at least someone who paid thousands of dollars (overevaluated American ones to boot) for something as minor as a sprained ankle. Most of us are constantly amazed at the hype in American media about how awful the Canadian system is (we're the red bogeyman). Watch out when we join forces with Cuba. ;-)
All this national pride aside, Canadian neo-liberals has devised new methods of undermining our system. Governments have used the classical deficit argument to seriously cut health care funding despite, in poll after poll, Canadians saying they want it increased. (For some reason the Republican party and impeachment keeps popping into my head). The way patients experience this is shorter visits with doctors and longer waiting lists for operations, tests, etc. This is one of the ways that Margaret Thatcher and her boytoys undermined the British medical system and allowed a two tier system to be created.
My own GP and doctor friends of mine who believe in our healthcare system, are feeling particularly crushed and burned out by trying to provide good medicine within shorter and shorter periods of time. I've talked to hospital administrators who actually sound socialist because they are dealing with one financial crisis after another and they KNOW it's fabricated. The disability claims of nurses has skyrocketed because they work long hours, forced overtime, and deal with stressed out patients, doctors and administrators. The cost of this disability alone would cover hiring plenty of extra nurses (this is from one of these administrators).
So, while governments wave the red banner of 'socialized' medicine, they are eroding people's confidence in it. If you got a few extra bucks and you don't feel like waiting for a month, why not pop down to the States where money speaks. What harm can it do? Some medical services, once completely covered by healthcare, now require user fees of various sorts (for example, much of out-patient physiotherapy). They are still quite small (I've experienced $5-15) but if you are fairly poor and require regular treatments, this can be a real burden. And, of course, this means we've made the ideological leap into paying for services actually used: it's become individualized.
So now you're pissing off the rich, the already stressed out hard-working stiffs with waiting lists and doubtful treatments and the poor by forcing them to pay for 'extras'. Perhaps if enough people die in emergency rooms because they're left unattended in hallways and waiting rooms (the numbers are increasing), the fear of death will make us see the error of our 'red' ways. Better capitalist than dead, eh? (Had to throw that 'eh' in, many Americans are disappointed if you don't use it at the end of every sentence). After all, we're told, isn't it inevitable (convergence theory, globalization and all that) that we adopt the highest standards of neo-liberalism.
To top it off, American medical groups have decided we're fertile ground (thanks to free trade) for 'specialized services' - i.e. the one's that are increasing defined as 'not covered' by healthcare. They have become influential lobby groups in certain provinces with right-wing governments, encouraging them to define more and more medical services as not covered. Free trade has also encouraged a drain of doctors and nurses to the States where big bucks (and 'freedom') await.
Well, I hope I haven't scared you off for a visit. (chuckle) I've been told that we are very nice but boring people - we come in various wallflower shades. David Letterman apparently likes us, a ringing endorsement I'm sure (although I haven't watched him since the very early days when he had bite). Howard Stern apparently doesn't like us which I know is a ringing endorsement. But if you do visit, you should be careful about raising any of these facts about our declining medical system with Canadians: there's a lion underneath our pussycat demeanor when it comes to healthcare. Grrr
Cathy