Thread: Canada’s dysfunctional government-run healthcare system

Canada’s dysfunctional government-run healthcare system

Patients United Now Ad

By Matthew Vadum
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Patients United Now, which is a project of Americans for Prosperity Foundation, is now running an effective TV ad opposing President Obama’s socialist healthcare scheme.

It features cancer patient Shona Holmes of Waterdown, Ontario, Canada. As her brain tumor grew, Holmes was told by Canada’s dysfunctional government-run healthcare system that she would have to wait for six months to see a specialist. “In six months I would have died,â€

I have gotten to the point where I am ready to go on TV and talk about the real healthcare in Canada and inparticular the province of Ontario. As a former healthcare worker I saw first hand how the system really worked and even now I follow what is happening up there. I emailed a letter to the editor of the Sun Sentinel today about it. The surveys they use about Canadians happy with their helathcare is extremely bias. Most Canadians are ignorant to the fact that poor people do not get turned away from the hospital emergency department because they are uninsured and often times that is why they make their system look so good. Almost all my friends from Canada believed that until I told them that is was not true and explained it all. Then you have people here believe Michael Moore's Sicko. Last time I checked you had to live a year in Canada to qualify for their medicare. If I were to go back there tomorrow I would have to wait that time period even though I never gave up my Canadian citizenship. Also the wait times are unreasonable as people go to the emergency department for things that don't need a doctor's attention or non life threatening illnesses or injuries where the person can go see their primary care physician. It takes 2 to 5 months ro see a specialist in Ontario and if you are a priority and someone cancels an appoitment you can get in sooner. Then you have the high income tax and 15% sales tax (8% provincial and 7% federal) on most items and a higher gasoline tax than we have. Yet people here say Canadians have free healthcare. Even though people in Ontario have a higher minimum wage and many jobs pay more up there they are left with less money than what we have. If you make $55,000 a year in Canada you are in a 40% + tax bracket before deductions plus pay the high sales tax and in the end the American who makes the same and pays $6,000 a year for medical insurance for a dependant has alot more money left. In fact if the American made $45,000 instead of $55,000 he would still be better off than the Canadian making more.