The Anal Coulter affair here in Ottawa is just the tip of a plot to turn North America into a military state. The controversial, and slanderous (according to me)talking head comes into Canada to spew her outrageous spittle and cries censorship when Ottawa University activists try to shut her down. What did the press do? They branded activists as opposed to free speech.
But at the same time this is going on in Canada, the friends of Coulter are threatening lawmakers in the US with violence and death because they had the audacity to pass a health care law.
Coulter and her right wing loonies need a wake-up call and maybe U Ottawa delivered it. Now the press should wake up also.
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
American Health Care at its best?
I was talking with a buddy the other day. He lives and works in Denver, Colorado. He has developed at strange lump on his nether region and sought the advice of his local doctor. He is one of the lucky Americans because he has health care coverage through an HMO paid for in part by his company. For those who do not know, an HMO is the American equivalent to a combined group practice and membership-only clinic.
HMOs general work pretty well as long as you don't have a really difficult case because many HMO also subscribe to a regime called managed practice. One example of managed practice is as follows; if you have condition A, you can be treated for condition A. But is you have condition A and then develop condition B, you may have to wait for condition A to be cured before condition B is treated because, and here is the real rub, the insurance companies that fund the health care coverage will not pay for the second condition. Why not? There is a caveat in many US health care policies that talk about pre-existing conditions. Condition B may or may not be related to condition A but the pre-existing condition clause make the insurance company the arbiter of the condition... not the doctor.
In my buddy's case he had a hernia about 10 years ago - before he went to work for his current company. His insurance company decided that his current suspected condition was the consequence of that hernia. It is a totally stupid assertion but try to fight the insurance company over it. The company will not pay for his treatment. Maybe he should come to Canada for treatment. Or maybe go to Mexico or even... Cuba.
With all its warts and blemishes the Canadian health insurance system does better than my buddy's private one. Just remember that when the Cons come knocking on your door trying to sell you a private plan.
HMOs general work pretty well as long as you don't have a really difficult case because many HMO also subscribe to a regime called managed practice. One example of managed practice is as follows; if you have condition A, you can be treated for condition A. But is you have condition A and then develop condition B, you may have to wait for condition A to be cured before condition B is treated because, and here is the real rub, the insurance companies that fund the health care coverage will not pay for the second condition. Why not? There is a caveat in many US health care policies that talk about pre-existing conditions. Condition B may or may not be related to condition A but the pre-existing condition clause make the insurance company the arbiter of the condition... not the doctor.
In my buddy's case he had a hernia about 10 years ago - before he went to work for his current company. His insurance company decided that his current suspected condition was the consequence of that hernia. It is a totally stupid assertion but try to fight the insurance company over it. The company will not pay for his treatment. Maybe he should come to Canada for treatment. Or maybe go to Mexico or even... Cuba.
With all its warts and blemishes the Canadian health insurance system does better than my buddy's private one. Just remember that when the Cons come knocking on your door trying to sell you a private plan.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Layton plan to fix Healthcare once and for all? Bull!
Jack "Moustache" Layton has determined that spending $1 billion over five years will fix health care "once and for all". That money will increase the number of medical school places in Canada and provide up to 1,200 new doctors per year. The reality is that you could put 5,000,000 new doctors on the streets in Canada and that would still not solve the problems - not if you are also dedicated to preserving our current system of health care funding!
Every doctor in the system bills an average of $500,000. If you put 5,000 new doctors into the system, billing will go up by $2.5 billion. Who pays those fees? Assuming that each of those 5,000 new doctors orders 100 MRIs each year, that's an additional 500,000 tests. Who pays for the new machines, the radiologists and technicians who support the machines? Then we count lab tests, hospital admissions, nurses and on and on - ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Who pays, Jack?
Throwing money at a identified problem (and health care accessibility is a problem, no doubt) is the easy way to side step and issue and get some press during an election but it does not solve all problems. In fact, it could raise new problems, like who pays for the extra costs that the provinces will incur? Will that be user pay?
Why doesn't some reporter get off the Dion-basing wagon for two minutes and Layton if he is advocating the destruction of our current health care system?
Every doctor in the system bills an average of $500,000. If you put 5,000 new doctors into the system, billing will go up by $2.5 billion. Who pays those fees? Assuming that each of those 5,000 new doctors orders 100 MRIs each year, that's an additional 500,000 tests. Who pays for the new machines, the radiologists and technicians who support the machines? Then we count lab tests, hospital admissions, nurses and on and on - ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Who pays, Jack?Throwing money at a identified problem (and health care accessibility is a problem, no doubt) is the easy way to side step and issue and get some press during an election but it does not solve all problems. In fact, it could raise new problems, like who pays for the extra costs that the provinces will incur? Will that be user pay?
Why doesn't some reporter get off the Dion-basing wagon for two minutes and Layton if he is advocating the destruction of our current health care system?
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