The Shadow:
Here’s your dose of reality:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/18/pardon-the-interruption/
(2) Americans have significantly better survival rates from cancer than Canadians? (Sources: United States Cancer Statistics, National Program of Cancer Registries, Centers for Disease Control; Canadian Cancer Society/National Cancer Institute of Canada; also June O’Neill and Dave M. O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.,” National Bureau of Economic Research, NBER Working Paper 13429, September 2007. Available at http://www.nber.org/papers/w13429.)
(3) Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than Canadians? (Source: O’Neill and O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.”)
(4) Americans have better access to preventive screening for major cancers than Canadians? (Source: O’Neill and O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.,” Table 8.)
(5) A marker for inequality of access and quality of health systems, the “health-income gradient” (i.e., that higher incomes achieve better health and lower incomes mean worse health) for adults 16 to 64 years old reveals a more severe disparity in Canada than in the United States? (Source: O’Neill and O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.”)
(6) In the United Kingdom and Canada, patients wait far longer than Americans (about twice as long, sometimes even more than a year) to see a specialist, have elective surgery like hip replacements or cataracts, or get radiation treatment for cancer? (Sources: “Waiting Your Turn, (17th edition) Hospital Waiting Lists In Canada”; Critical Issues Bulletin 2007; N. Esmail, Michael A. Walker MA, and M. Bank, Studies in Health Care Policy, August 2008; N. Esmail and D. Wrona “Medical Technology in Canada,” Fraser Institute; Sharon Willcox et al., “Measuring and Reducing Waiting Times: A Cross-National Comparison Of Strategies,” Health Affairs 26, No. 4 (July/August 2007): 1078-87; O’Neill and O’Neill, “Health Status, Health Care and Inequality: Canada vs. the U.S.,” M.V. Williams et al., “Radiotherapy Dose Fractionation, Access and Waiting Times in the Countries of the U.K.. in 2005,” Royal College of Radiologists, Clinical Oncology 19, No. 5 (June 2007, 273-286).
So you find it acceptable that your 55 yo aunt had to wait 14 months in pain to receive a knee replacement? I hope she wasn’t the primary breadwinner of her family–14 months is a long time to have restrictions on your mobility and have to deal with daily pain.
The operative word is “elective”. In Canada, elective is defined as anything that is not immediately life threatening. So what if you can’t work or endure constant pain or have no control of your bladder or are slowly going blind. And, that suspicious mass in your abdomen, brain, breast? Maybe cancer but maybe not so get on with your life while you wait 6-12-18 months for the diagnostic scan to determine if you have cancer, what type it is and what the treatment will be. And then you get to wait another few months to begin treatment. I guess Canadians are much less vulnerable to that kind of stress and anxiety than Americans.
