This is an article about a Canadian's sister's treatment for colon cancer in California. I edited it together for an easier read [hopefully] , there is more if you read it all [link].
At the end, I didn't include it, she makes a statement about Canada's private clinics and a slippery slope where insurance companies make the call in choosing your treatments. Its not a lock-solid connection, nobody knows if we will cross that line in allowing private clinics.
I like, and have enjoyed the benefits of, our Canadian health care system where we all recieve the same treatments for a given illness regardless of ability to pay. Longer waiting periods are better than nothing at all!! As a student and later as unemployed temporarily, I could have needed care I could not have afforded. I want my grandsons to have that too.
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature5.cfm?REF=601
Dateline: Friday, December 16, 2005
What Americanization of health care really means:
Insurance companies truly drive every aspect of "care".
It is important for Canadians to understand the full dimensions of "Americanization of health care".
Most Canadians are not aware of how bad it is in the States.
In America, the bottom line of the insurance companies is truly the driving force in health care. It drives everything from diagnostics to treatment to palliative care. At every point, the companies squeeze patients and doctors in ways Canadians would find incomprehensible.
Lengthy waits for consultations, referrals, appointments, diagnostics and, most critically, approval for all these things from the insurance companies. The delay in approvals often led to setbacks in treatment.
The doctors and hospitals clearly passed off less lucrative procedures to one another. Certain hospitals would only do certain procedures. American hospitals give priority to patients with higher-price insurance premiums.
Unlike in Canada, no homecare is available except from cancer society volunteers. Courses of treatment that run counter to the insurance company's ability to save money are vetoed.
[T]he palliative care they offer is dismal, volunteers and the occasional nurse , [no] morphine pump. The insurance companies control that.
At the end, I didn't include it, she makes a statement about Canada's private clinics and a slippery slope where insurance companies make the call in choosing your treatments. Its not a lock-solid connection, nobody knows if we will cross that line in allowing private clinics.
I like, and have enjoyed the benefits of, our Canadian health care system where we all recieve the same treatments for a given illness regardless of ability to pay. Longer waiting periods are better than nothing at all!! As a student and later as unemployed temporarily, I could have needed care I could not have afforded. I want my grandsons to have that too.
http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewFeature5.cfm?REF=601
Dateline: Friday, December 16, 2005
What Americanization of health care really means:
Insurance companies truly drive every aspect of "care".
It is important for Canadians to understand the full dimensions of "Americanization of health care".
Most Canadians are not aware of how bad it is in the States.
In America, the bottom line of the insurance companies is truly the driving force in health care. It drives everything from diagnostics to treatment to palliative care. At every point, the companies squeeze patients and doctors in ways Canadians would find incomprehensible.
Lengthy waits for consultations, referrals, appointments, diagnostics and, most critically, approval for all these things from the insurance companies. The delay in approvals often led to setbacks in treatment.
The doctors and hospitals clearly passed off less lucrative procedures to one another. Certain hospitals would only do certain procedures. American hospitals give priority to patients with higher-price insurance premiums.
Unlike in Canada, no homecare is available except from cancer society volunteers. Courses of treatment that run counter to the insurance company's ability to save money are vetoed.
[T]he palliative care they offer is dismal, volunteers and the occasional nurse , [no] morphine pump. The insurance companies control that.