My Canadian readers are clamoring for clarifications on my posts that extol the free universal healthcare system in Canada. To ensure that my relatives who are in Canada don’t stop talking to me, I will clarify: the Canadian healthcare system is absolutely amazing if you have a serious health issue. You will get an operation, the most sophisticated tests, the best care for free. You will be kept at the hospital for as long as you need. Doctors and nurses will dance around you, making sure that you are healing properly. Nobody is pinching pennies to get rid of you as soon as you are marginally OK. Post-surgery or post-treatment outpatient care is also absolutely brilliant.
If a person suffers a heart attack or a stroke, God forbid, they will receive the kind of care that will allow them to restore their faculties as much as possible and as soon as possible. And it is, indeed, a huge relief not to worry about the cost while you are on a hospital bed.
However, when your ailment is not as major as the ones I just named, you’ll run into problems. Even in big cities, getting help for less serious issues is very hard. To give an example, I had my first spike in blood pressure when I was 24. I had no idea what it was that I was experiencing and I was terrified. My sister took me to the emergency room (this was in Montreal.) For over six hours, I waited in line (this was during the night time), suffering horribly. If your BP ever spiked to 200 (which I really hope it never does), you’ll know what that feels like. (For those who are worried for me, I will clarify that I learned to manage my BP non-medicinally and haven’t had a spike in a long time.)
Finally, I was seen by a nurse who took me to make tests. For some incomprehensible reason, nobody took my blood pressure. Now I know what it was after experiencing the same spike in BP many times after that. Then, I had no idea. And neither did the medical stuff. Everything occurred extremely slowly. I kept being left sitting in cold rooms alone. Eventually, a doctor saw me.
“This is something weird that you have,” he said. “I suggest you go home and take a Tylenol.”
This, of course, is just my own story. However, I hear many other people say that urgent care is slow and very difficult to access unless you are on the death’s door. Then, it becomes miraculous and fantastic.
As for the specialists (gynecologists, otolaringologists, etc.), there is a shortage of them in Montreal. Finding a gynecologist who is taking on new patients is very hard. You have to wait for appointments forever. Many specialists prefer to move to the US, which is what results in the shortage.
P. S. People seem to get huffy when I narrate my experiences, which is surprising to me. This is a personal diary where I record what happens to me and what interests me. If I filled posts with copy-pasted statistics from the official governmental releases, would anybody even read them? I thought that people came here with the goal of reading my opinions and stories and sharing theirs. If anybody is here to be told the one objective truth about everything, you’ll be disappointed. I don’t even think such truth exists.
I’m sure there are people who have the opposite experiences with Canadian urgent care. They are welcome to share their stories. I, however, will continue sharing mine because they are part of my life and they matter to me.
Clarissa's Blog 
“Finding a gynecologist who is taking on new patients is very hard. You have to wait for appointments forever. Many specialists prefer to move to the US, which is what results in the shortage.”
There are much more reasons (and more relevant) for that in Québec:
1) The Collège des Médecins restricts voluntarily University admissions in medicine, to aritificially create a scarcity (In Cuba, they don’t have this problem).
2) Some premature voluntary departures were conducted by the Québec’s government at the end the 90’s.
3) Soviet-style healthcare with his normal bad management of human resources.
4) Anti-metropolitan money bonuses for doctor’s and nurses who practice outside of Montreal.
But in general, this is a great post!
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Very true about the Soviet-style HR management. People are drowning in bureaucracy.
Maybe I should also write about the horrors of state bureaucracy both in Canada and in the US. But it’s too painful at a topic right now for me.
I hate bureaucrats passionately.
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Me too.
In French, I call this “bourreaucrassie”.
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Hee hee hee. (Giggling). 🙂 🙂
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😉
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And I have major issues (not as major as their “we don’t about secession” stance, though) with a lot Québec Anarchists who supports this soviet-style heathcare crap (even if I share some of their concerns about healthcare privatization).
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You also forgot to mention relatively rigorous written French examinations, which keep those not educated in Quebec from practicing medicine there even if they would like to come.
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“we don’t care about secession” stance
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Another perk of Canadian health care: Outside of Alberta (of course, sheesh) sexual reassignment surgery and everything that goes with it is covered, and the waiting period in BC is only about one year, as opposed to two years. Plus, with no insurance companies involved, there’s a lot less questioning of your “motivations” for transitioning. A lot of trans people in the U.S go bankrupt just trying to keep up on their hormones. The ones who have more resources but still can’t afford the SRS often end up going to Thailand to get it done.
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I don’t know if SRS is a particularly good use of our limited health care resources. Given the % of people that this would benefit, compared to money better invested in orthopedics, oncology, diabetes, etc. . . .
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What a jerk you are, Patrick! Fuck you, heteronormative phallocrat faggot! Limited by what?
This money is better used for this than subsidizing cars, meat, victimless crimes, war on drugs and militaro-terrorism. But you’ree to retarded to make that kind of reasoning for this, fucktard!
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Let’s try to remain polite to each other.
And to encourage mutual politeness, I will write a post on the war on drugs that I think people are eager to read.
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And this money is better used for this than to enrich pharmacological fat cats with their fucking patents!
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Oh, don’t even get me started on the pharmacological companies. This is another sore point.
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Yes, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! 😦
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What a jerk you are, Patrick! Fuck you, heteronormative phallocrat faggot! Limited by what?
This money is better used for this than subsidizing cars, meat, victimless crimes, war on drugs and militaro-terrorism. But you’re too retarded to make that kind of reasoning for this, fucktard!
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You convinced me with your elegant and insightful arguments. Screw the 65% of the population who suffer from heart disease, as long as we pay for someone to get a new wang.
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Talk about missing the point!
So I repeat; This money is better used for this than subsidizing cars, meat, victimless crimes, war on drugs and militaro-terrorism. But you’re too retarded to make that kind of reasoning for this, fucktard!
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I don’t argue with fools.
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So, you don’t argue with yourself?
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Maybe I should stop argue with stupid.
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Out of curiosity…what would you define as a victimless crime?
I’m also not against the so called, “war on drugs”, but that is another issue.
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It’s literally life and death for trans people. I also didn’t truly understand until I became friends with two trans women. After spending time with them and hearing their stories, I think no amount is too large to pay for these procedures.
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Yeah, you’re right. And the US Healthcare system is certainly not a benchmark to inspire from for Québec.
US Healthcare system is a caricatural of a fake-private hyper-ruled exploding costs organization, and that’s horrible too.
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More interesting are some Western Europe healthcare systems, which are better.
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Really? SRS is covered in Canada? That is fantastic! Only a completely barbaric government prevents people from having this vital surgery. I know that in my country, where it isn’t covered, the suicide rates among trans people are absolutely staggering. You have to be very rich to afford the operation or save forever. 😦
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I know! We were crying with joy when we discovered how much is covered, for many, it literally is the difference between life and death.
Canada is still not perfect on transgender rights, such as protection in the workplace from discrimination, but at least the medical system doesn’t treat them like they are disposable.
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We can also talk about abortion accessibility, which is better in Québec.
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MUCH better. And people are a lot more enlightened about it.
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yes, much!
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Holy shit for real? Is there like a website for acceptance criteria, etc.? I joke a lot about moving to Canada but now…
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RE: David’s / nominatissma’s posts on Canadian SRS.
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Okay, let’s abolish SRS to subsidize professionnal sport! Patrick will love this! 😉
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Oh my god, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds take drugs during their baseball careers. So let’s abolish SRS and prosecute them!
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As I said, I can’t condemn Patrick because I used to have the same misunderstanding of trans issues as he does. I also thought, “Why should society pay for somebody’s whim?” Today, I’m extremely ashamed of how ignorant I was on the issue. But I’m not going to pretend that I was always enlightened about it. This is the truth and I own to it.
Until I met the two trans women I mentioned, I was grievously ignorant and stupidly self-satisfied. The good thing is that they took the trouble to educate me and I managed to realize what a jerk I had been.
Seriously, just talk to some trans people and you’ll realize how serious the issue is and what infernal suffering, discrimination, and humiliations such people undergo in their struggle to be who they are.
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I agree but my main problem with him is when he said: “our limited health care resources.”, which I debunked!
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I’m not minimizing the plight of the trans-gendered. I’m talking about efficient use of finite resources. Pardon my geek, but “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. You’ll get no argument from me that there are a lot of problems and a lot of waste within our public spending. But you can’t let the emotional stories of a limited few direct the public policy for millions.
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Limited by what?
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But if it’s just a few operations, the overall cost can’t be that high.
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The line must be drawn somewhere – and we have to realize that to fund one thing generally means we forgo funding of something else. And that ‘something else’ will always affect someone – perhaps a lot of someones. As long as we’re willing to tell those people that they’re not as important as these few, than that’s our decision.
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So we should abolish SRS to commit a militaro-terrorist genocide on foreign territory?
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In the “war on drugs” thread I see you talking game about saving people from self-destruction. The disparity between a trans person’s born sex and their felt gender is a serious social and psychological issue that can lead to suicide from pressures both internal and external, whether that person feels forced to perform a gender with which they don’t identify or simply because they hate their bodies to the extent that day to day living is agony. SRS is an option to resolve the psychic trauma, allowing the trans person to experience their body as they do their mind. But for many in America at least it’s prohibitively expensive, especially when taking into account stigmas against non-traditional gender expression in the workplace. As David points out, there are many money pits from which funds could be diverted to address this (as well as any number of other health issues not receiving adequate funding, as you point out). It just seems if you’re going to be consistent about saving people from themselves this is not the issue to be dismissing so blithely.
Also, apologies, Clarissa, for continuing this silly derail.
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No apologies needed! This is a very important issue, and I’m glad we are addressing it.
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Oh do I want to hug you, Helena. My fiancée is a Canadian trans woman, and you said everything I wanted to say (and did elsewhere) on this topic. Thanks very much.
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Be always careful when a capitalist talk about scarcity and limited resources.
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My oldest two daughters (twins) were born prematurely at 26 weeks gestation and weighing 600 gms.(just over 1lb.). Both of them were in neonatal ICU in TO for four months. Today both of them are fine and graduated Summa cum laude and Magna cum laude from post secondary institutions. The only amount of money that I paid was $8 for telephone calls. So I’m as strong a defender of Canadian healthcare as you can find. I’m tired of American BS about how bad the Canadian system is.
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There is a huge difference between the quality of healthcare services in Quebec versus other provinces. Quebec consistently rates last in terms of waiting times, availability of GPs and gynos and the overall quality of care.
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I find your article interesting. As an American I’ve always heard the Canadian healthcare system touted and highly praised by the Liberals in this country–mainly by those who would push or would like to see the same type of system implemented here. Privately I’ve met people just like you who have shared similar experiences, especially in the more populated areas and cities in Canada and they offer what they see as problems. A while ago, PBS also ran a segment comparing different countries and their healthcare systems–both the good and the bad.
Healthcare is expensive here–I’ve had to pay for my share of medical bills–it created debt for me. I was lucky to have a better insurance plan in place (benefits) through a work situation that covered an operation and all the invasive tests leading up to it awhile back. Now the same company (given the economy and the rising cost of insurance–by 60%) no longer offers this insurance. We pay more money out in insurance premiums and receive less benefit. I have a $5,000K deductible I have to meet for the year. While I decline to offer more pesonal information on this forum about my experiences or health issues I will say that I’m very skeptical that implementing a healthcare system similar to Canada would be the solution.
What I would agree with is that I do see a necessity for reform and change, but I was not a supporter of Obamacare–I didn’t see that as a solution.
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I have no idea if I support Obama’s medicare plan because I simply don’t understand it. All I know of it are different – and certainly – biased regurgitations of some of its parts in the media, and how does that help?
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Well you are far from alone, because it apparently wasn’t read by those who passed it either. What I don’t like is that congressional Dems basically railroaded it through Congress.
Yes, of course that is all most people know of it–the parts that are regurgitations by the media. No, it doesn’t help. It’s not exactly summarized in a concise readable format. I try to listen to several different viewpoints as well as do my own research and read. I’m not particularly aligned to one party, although I’m getting rather turned off by the left and I’m a Democrat. Likewise, one has to sift through the information as well.
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It’s hard not to get turned by the kind of left we have here, so I’m with you.
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You are on track Patrick, ignore the intolerance of the peanut gallery, who think that up is down, wet is dry and wrong is right. You are as much entiteld to an opinion as anyone, do not forget that.
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For the completely illiterate among us, the peanut gallery on this blog is assigned by me, the only owner of the blog.
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I see freedom is not valued here, nor are people who cherish the right to freedom of expression. The word censorship comes to mind immediately, and the policy that one can say whatever one wants as long as it does not disagree with politically correct agendas.
Hmmmmm
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Buddy, I’m not a country. I’m a private individual. I don’t have a constitution, a congress, or a standing army. Just like you are justified in setting the rules of how people behave in your private space, I’m justified in deciding who gets to say what in my private space. I don’t care about anybody’s politically correct agendas but I do care about not being disrespected on my blog.
This blog is my personal hobby and if anybody prevents me from fully enjoying my hobby by comments that annoy me will be out of here.
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Wrong, in my life I am tolerant enough to let anyone speak their peace, whether I agree or not. The only rules I set are that nobody becomes intolerant of my perspectives and I will tolerate theirs. A country is but an enlargement of it’s people, and if you are not big enough to allow freedom of expression, you are a lot smaller than you can imagine.
So you consider it being disrespected by hearing diverse views? You should work for the “Inhuman Rights Commissions of canuckistan, here they have a 100% conviction rate for those who do not parrot the politically correct drivel of the left. Bloody hell, I had relatives who shot beter people in the last great war. You have the atitude of an intolerant and if that is the case, I do not see how you could enjoy anything.
So you do not mind seeing Patrick verally abused by some intolerant dweeb who thinks his view is the only relevant and acceptable one in existence? Better give your head a shake, for sure.
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The only dweeb I can see around here is you, buddy. Have you tried participating on simpler blogs? This one seems to be too much for your tiny intellect.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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Your arrogance and intolerance is apparent, and as to intellect, I am not like you in your baseless and crass questioning of my intellect…there is a 98% chance you and most others here are away down the scale relative to IQ as measured by an independent organization. Tiny intellect? Here we go, yet another demonstration of leftist judgmentalism from another great oracle of pseudo knowledge.
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Are you writing in this extremely pompous way on purpose? Just wondering.
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A person who believes in “IQ as measured by an independent organization” should get used to being ridiculed.
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Hey come on now an IQ test is a wholly indifferent mechanism that by testing one’s ability to recognize patterns and answer math questions can accurately determine the relative social worth of any human being completely independent of regional educational infrastructures or lack thereof as well as ideological biases about what it means to be “smart”.
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Actually I was trying to mimic what I see here that you describe as pompous, that is, many speaking (including you) in a condescending manner and attacking others who have alternate viewpoints…I would have thought that you would realize learning is a voyage, not a harbor. You are a teacher, are you not? This is a very important thing to teach to students, that learning is never a harbor, and to be content with one’s opinions is in fact, ignorance in practice. Hmmmmm
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Actually, nobody cares what you were trying to do.Also, nobody cares about your stupid opinions. Go away, stupid troll.
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Oh do not worry, as a man who believes contrary to the sacred cow of political correctness, I get lots who would ridicule me but none who would care to consider that just possibly they are wrong. Especially entertaining are the screams of truth uttered by the left who are hurt by the cutting edges of the truth. Again, hmmmmmm.
All is not ever as it meets the eye and the agendas of fools have littered the landscape of history throughout the ages. I can see the same thing happening today.
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Then just stop littering the landscape of history already, fool.
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Well spoken by a disciple of the left, chained in bondage to her own ideals.
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Well spoken by a disciple of the left, chained in bondage to her own ideals.
Let’s see your tits, baby.
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Tell me Clarissa, do you pout when you do not get your way? Huh?
I have a client who I am in fact very close to, she and her husband are doctors and she is very good to me, and has a very similar face to yours. Others in the medical field who are also my clients and know that gal, told me that if she cannot go around something, she will go through it. She is an atheist and we have interesting discussions but like you, she has the perfect facial structure to enable her to pout effectively. She is also very intelligent, and I am looking for the signs in you that I see in her…still looking. I am sure you are aware of the initial key indicator of intelligence, what with being a teacher and all.
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Buddy, go make an idiot out of yourself someplace else instead of spamming my blog. You can pout or not on the way, ok? And take your gals, atheists, and facial structures with you.
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edward has a crussssshhhhhhhhhhh. Smoooooch. 🙂
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I have a feeling he sleeps with my photo under his pillow. 🙂
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Which one, left or right, but I cannot show both, as the sight would be overhwelming.
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By your definition I would expect you think a fool is someone who thinks in any way other than what you do. Hmmm
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No, a fool is somebody who doesn’t think. Like you.
Buddy, how do your comments relate to the subject of the thread, huh? Either say what you have on the subject of Canadian healthcare or stop spamming.
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Just saw this, and as you will. Before I go, a few short words from Rousseau, “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”. I say that one can be in bondage to one’s ideas and I can see that here in abundance, but I will accommodate your wishes, apparently you cannot differentiate between trolling and seeking lively debate.
You will of course not forgive the postings I made before I saw this…
Bye all…
Always Edward
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