Not Our Way

Yeah, this will be good for our public system. Once the greed fever sets in, doctors straddling both systems will give rich people all the love and attention money can buy, while treating middle and lower income people like a burden because they can`t offer up any spare cash. In fact, I`m starting to see this trend in some doctors already!

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Dave Ruston

Exactly. Some doctors double book appointments so that two people are coming in at a given time. The assumption is that one of them will not show up, which is not always true. Of course the habit of running to the doctor for trivial problems or asking for antibotics for viral infections must be a pain.

King Ralph will get another taste of voter anger, just like he did with 'Bill C2' (?), the last time he tried this stunt. With the excessive excess surplus, there is no reason not to fund medicare properly. If he wants cost savings, start at the top and get rid of the buildings full of paper pushers that have nothing to do with providing health care.

Is is just me, or has Ralph been 'slipping' lately?

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"I think it's important to always carry enough technology to restart civilization, should it be necessary." Mark Tilden

I have developed a cynical view of the medical profession over the years. I have no faith in Canadian doctors standing on guard for our universal health care system. Doctors are businessmen first and medical practioners second. They will stand by and out of view and let politicians like Klein take the blame for allowing the errosion of the Health Care act and wait to reap the financial benefits of a privitized health care system. Last year, doctors in Ontario voted two-thirds in favour of allowing some form (meaning the introduction of) of privitized health in Ontario. The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons continues to remind Ontarians of the ills of health care by publishing papers highlighting a doctor shortage all the while dragging its heals on recommendations to recognize foreign credentials. Mass importation of immigrants can affect doctor salaries as well. Luckily the OCPS is there to shut them out to keep salaries intact, the crisis ongoing, and soften public perception of private health care. There are doctors who sincerly care about our health care system and accept the lower pay (relative to overseas salaries) because they believe in a socialized health care system and are willing to fight to protect it. Unfortunately they are in the minority. Most people do not become doctors because they "want to help people." If you want to help people then become a social worker. But how many social workers do you see taking two vacations a year and driving BMWs?

There is already a private health system in place. In most provinces, health insurance does not cover the cost of prescription drugs, dental care, ambulance services and prescription eye glasses. Health insurance does not cover alternative medecine either.

Those "services" are all needed and are part of being in good health. Last time I had to pay over $1000 to the dentist for my wife's wisdom teeth. That should be covered since those teeth were a health problem that she had to deal with with masive dose of Tylenol. Eye glasses are a must for people that don't see well to live. That should be paid for. Drugs are part of the treatment and should be paid for. The ambulatory services should be paid for since obviously you cannot make it to the hospital on your own when there is an real emergency. All those should be paid for because they are part of our health.

When they say that it would cost too much if we were to include those services and that the system already costs to much and needs to be privatized, they should look at the cost of what the doctors use and the cost of the drugs. It is crazy... On the dentist bill, for example, a simple i.v. was over 350$, my daughter's inhalator (plastic tube) was over 50$. It is not only the doctors that are abusing the system but all the pharmaceutical and health related device/equipment companies that are taking advantage of that very fat cow. The government should impose prices for all medical related device/instrument/consumable/drugs.

If they do that, then Canada will truely have the best health system in the world.

On the subject of doctors abusing the system there is an interesting investigative report in today's Toronto Star.<br />
<a href="http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141426212337&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154">http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141426212337&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154</a><br />
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Just keep in mind when reading it that those who choose to be doctors do so becasue they "want to help people."<br />
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"In most provinces, health insurance does not cover the cost of prescription drugs, dental care, ambulance services and prescription eye glasses."<br />
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Yet abortions are. What a lovely country we live in. We wont invest in the ongoing basic care of many of our citizens who experience health deficiencies due to genes yet we are comfortable in investing in the elimination of future generations of Canadians especially when we have an ageing population. Thank God for the overpopulated third world eh? They are more than just a source of imported cheap labour.

<p>RayB,</p> <blockquote>they should look at the cost of what the doctors use and the cost of the drugs. It is crazy … On the dentist bill, for example, a simple i.v. was over 350$, my daughter's inhalator (plastic tube) was over 50$. It is not only the doctors that are abusing the system but all the pharmaceutical and health related device/equipment companies that are taking advantage of that very fat cow.</blockquote> <p>when I had two prosthetic teeth implanted some years back, the dentist held up the screwdriver that he used to secure them to the new posts in my jaw. “Guess how much this screwdriver cost?” he asked me. It was an ordinary-looking screwdriver, except for its size — it was about 3 – 3½ cm long, and would have looked like a scale model of a typical screwdriver except that the “handle” took about half of its length. Thinking that I’d name a number beyond all reason, I replied “A hundred dollars.” He smiled, seeing the humour in my eyes; then he looked at the screwdriver, rolling it between his thumb and index finger, looked at me, and told me “This is a $300 screwdriver.” I thought, <i>Three hundred dollars for an inch-and-a-half-long screwdriver?!</i>, and then it hit me — a sizable portion of its $298 overhead was the manufacturer paying for protection from malpractice accessory lawsuits. (I don’t doubt that another good chunk of that overhead was profit for the manufacturer and commission for the account manager.)</p> <p>I hope that that part of your legal system is more sensible than ours is; if you happen to be down at our level there, then that might be a contributing factor to such medically-related prices as tend to cause jaw droppage.</p> <p>---<br>Shatter your ideals upon the rock of Truth.<br />
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— The Divine Symphony, by Inayat Khan<br />