Meet The Man Who Undermined Medicare

That's what these people want though; they want to have private medicine to jump the queue but still have public medicine there as a backup when the private system fails them. The description you offered of this man is exactly what is wrong with private medicine, they only want to offer it on things they can make a profit on.

Wait, I'm confused. If this is the sort of guy who should be thrilled as punch to have medicare, then why did he spend so much of his own time and money to try and change the system? Sounds like you have no argument.

Great, let's all forget about the problems plaguing health-care including people dying on waiting lists and lynch mob this person. Everything will magically fix itself as it always has, right?

<BR>Selective news stories, how about this one...<BR> <BR> <B><A HREF="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050610/MEDIPATIENT10/TPHealth/">Barbara Hogan would be dead today if she hadn't gone to a private U.S. clinic for treatment of her breast cancer. <BR> <BR> She couldn't get seen fast enough in Canada and found out only after surgery in New York State just how quickly her cancer was spreading. She said yesterday that private care saved her life, the money spent worth "every penny."</B></A><BR><BR>

Selective news story no doubt. It is also very sparse on detail. For example, we're told nothing about what her doctor did in Canada to get treatment or even what kind of treatment she needed. The fact is that her oncologist here in Canada should have know how fast the cancer was spreading before she had surgery at the Mayo Clinic; that's what CT-scan, ultrasounds and mammograms are for. It sounds to me like it her case may have actually been an incompetent oncologist who didn't have the knowledge of the state of her disease that he should have. The other fact is that if he had been aware, as he should have been, this woman's case would have been bumped to the front of the line in Canada.

If this woman did not have access to these tests because of waiting lists then that is the fault of underfunding and not providing the proper equipment and personnel which is what this court case is really about.

the other thing is that Canadians maybe have a skewed idea about private insurance and probably think it is as cheap as provincial premiums and that when they get it, it will cover everything and always be there. In the States, even the most expensive plans don't cover everything, often dictate what kind of care a doctor can offer, and can be canceled when even in the middle of receiving treatment. Ever heard the expression "my insurance coverage ran out. Insurance companies are out to make as much profit as possible (legally obligated to do so according to "The Corporation") and if a patient gets in the way of that bottom line they will seek to dump you by any means possible. This is what I meant on my initial comment that Canadians as the one the article is about want to have private medicine options but also want a public system there when if it fails them. Perhaps just as if doctors can opt out of the public system patients should also be obligated to declare if they are in or out of it and then be forced to access only the private system and pay their private insurance and taxes to support the public system. If they want to go back to the public system, there should be a waiting period of a number of years paying private sytem rates in the public system. My bet is that such a plan would scare patients like the Quebecer right off of private medicine permanently.