FIRST: THE U.S. “HEALTH CARE SYSTEM”

As an American who has experienced the Canadian health care system for four years, I can tell you that comparing the health care system in Canada with what goes on in the U.S. is like comparing apples to stones.

First off, labeling the mess in the U.S. a health care system is a misnomer.

What the U.S. has is a health insurance business run by and for insurance companies to maximize profit. And in this business, those who will cost the system money are dropped or not insured, and then find themselves with no access to medical services.

Those who say that instituting a government-supervised one-payer health care system in the U.S. will put a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor fail to tell you that, right now, you have a capitalist accountant between you and your doctor, and that his job is to deny care.

I understand why U.S. insurance executives are spreading so many lies about the Canadian system. They want their cash-cow stranglehold over the American people strengthened, not weakened.

But it really burns me when Congressional representatives and Senators speak out against a one-payer system as though its some great evil.

That’s total hypocrisy considering that they already have what they are denying everyone else, no-cost medical care provided and administered by the one-payer provider they deride: the U.S. government.

Of course they do it because they are not only told by insurance industry lobbyists what to say, but that the industry will work to defeat them in the next election if they don’t say it.

So here is the truth about the Canadian system:

THE CANADIAN SYSTEM

There is no one between me and my Canadian doctor.

I go see my doctor, and the Canadian government pays for the visit. My doctor refers me for a test or a procedure, I have it done, and the Canadian government pays for it.

Period.

Doctors do not have to call for authorization to do a test. Their judgments are trusted.

Canadians are not denied access to treatment or procedures. They are trusted to seek medical care as needed, and not without need.

In fact, doctors here encourage yearly checkups, and have no problem with referring their patients for routine and preventative testing, such as mammography.

Furthermore, every single Canadian is entitled to this free medical care because Canadians know that their country is only as strong and healthy as her people.

Regarding wait times, they are no worse than what I experienced in the U.S.

In fact, the worst wait times I have experienced have been in U.S. emergency rooms which is where so many uninsured Americans go for medical treatment when they are too sick or injured to keep on going without seeing a doctor.

SUMMARY

In Canada, everyone is under a one-payer medical provider. The system is efficient and pretty much hassle-free for the patient. You go in, get your treatment, and that’s it. No getting approval, no bills, no deductibles, no juggling, no making decisions between paying your electric bill and going to the doctor.

In the U.S. forty million people are uninsured and tens of millions under insured. People are standing in line for free outdoor clinics, as Wendell Potter saw in his home state of Tennessee, just as they do in third world countries when the organization Doctors Without Borders shows up.

Yet those who do have insurance never can be sure their medical bills will be paid since everything is subject to approval.

In addition, they have deductibles and payment plans that add to the stress of being ill.

Bottom line, there is no justice or equality in the U.S. when it comes to medical care. If you have plenty of money, you get it, but if you don’t, you go without.

There just is no comparison between that and the Canadian health care system.

Dedicated to peace, justice and healing since 2002:

www.prayerforce.org

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