Log In | Register
Health care is continuously evolving and its functions vary significantly in various different countries. Canada has been known for its health care legislature and enforcement in Canada, which varies from province to province. However, this weekend in the United States, Americans wait patiently for the health care reform to take place.
© Ale Ventura/PhotoAlto/Corbis 2010
Last summer was quite the time of my life and I don’t mean that in a positive aspect. I have never experienced anything like last summer. It was an emotionally and physically draining period my family and I went through and I learned not just a lot about myself but about life on a grand scale. I once told a dear friend of mine that life’s challenges were not meant to paralyze us but rather push us in the direction of discovering who we are and what we stand for.
I believe standing up for proper and efficient health care should be a top priority.
My sister is my best friend. Sometimes, we’re mistaken for twins as we find ourselves speaking at the same time and sound alike even though I am five years younger than her but am four inches taller than her; she’s a big part of who I am.
As kids she was always the one with the health problems and when she turned seventeen, her life took a turn. At a time when most high school students were exploring the options of university and their first bursts of freedom, my sister was confronting and understanding her current health condition as she missed lots of school and socializing with her peers. She was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease but it was a long time before she got properly diagnosed because what she was experiencing simply didn’t fit the norm and symptoms of the disease as per what the doctors read from text books; it was hard for them to pinpoint what was wrong. Our family doctors simply passed it on as menstruation cramping, stress or indigestion. There was a point when they didn’t bother pushing with certainty but nonetheless, she was diagnosed after seven or eight doctors later. She was then prescribed Pentasa, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat the inflammation of the digestive tract.
For years since her diagnosis, my sister felt normal again and had control of her life and the direction she wanted to go in. However, it was up until a year and a half ago that she started feeling sick again. Her specialist discovered Pentasa stopped working so she was put on steroids and an immunosuppressant but that didn’t help her as her condition was worsening. She was losing weight drastically, couldn’t eat properly and the situation was daunting.
An example of an Ontario Health Insurance Plan card; a resident of Ontario must have a health card to show that he or she is entitled to health care services paid for by OHIP. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care pays for a wide range of services, however, it does not pay for services that are not medically necessary, such as cosmetic surgery.
© The Canadian Ministry of Health & Long Term Care
After a CT scan, it was discovered that she had abscesses surrounding the small intestine and her doctor advised her that the next day she be admitted to the hospital to get them drained out. She was admitted on a Saturday afternoon and waited for about twelve hours before getting a hospital bed and wasn’t seen by a doctor until Monday morning. The abscesses were drained out on a Wednesday and she was then told to stay in the hospital until further tests were done to fully clear the abscesses.
When my extended family had come to learn about my sister's condition, cynicism of my country’s health care was up for discussion; saying she should have been taken to the United States for treatment but this is an unrealistic answer. All of our problems shouldn’t resolve by leaving our country and picking up to go somewhere else.
If there’s one thing that ticks me off most with this whole health care debate, it’s the picture some U.S politicians and lobbyists are painting of Canada. They appear on the news and make false allegations and argue about how bad health care is here. As a resident of Canada for the past twenty-four years, I can vouch that our Canadian health care system isn’t perfect but it is one of the best health care systems in the world. Each province has its own version of the natural health care system which is similar to dispensing medical universal treatment. Patients can go see any physician of their choice and regardless of economic status can benefit from the best health care service across each province and across Canada.
Our health care system is noticeably better than the United States – as of now, though. All could change for the United States in just mere hours.
Currently, my sister doesn’t have private health insurance. Getting a private insurance plan for her would mean paying premiums of up to $400 a month and that wouldn’t cover all her medications. Although Crohn’s is a disease without a cure, there are ways to keep it under control and keep it in remission if the right medications are prescribed.
As a resident of Ontario, we’re blessed with one thing that’s certain and solid; the government-run health plan called the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). If you have OHIP, you get basic health care for free and that applies to you in most other parts of Canada. Every province in Canada has the same type of government-run plan and it covers you for physician visits, dental visits (while done in a hospital), hospital stays (in a four-room ward), examinations and procedures, eye care (under the age of twenty or over sixty-five) and medications given to you while you stay in the hospital.
Canada’s health care system looks after about 32 million people and costs more or less than what the private-sector health insurance companies build in returns in the U.S, which unfortunately looks after less than half of the population with unwarranted premiums. The fact is that the United States has the most fragmented health care system as we know it compared to other countries. For instance, the infant mortality rate is much lower in Canada than it is in the U.S. However, major illnesses such as cancer and heart disease are better treated in Canada.
It’s a sad fact that more than 31% of every dollar spent on health care in the U.S goes to paperwork, expenditures, CEO salaries, profits, etc. In Canada, the provincial single-payer system functions with just 1% expenditures. Just imagine for a second: why would you need to spend a huge amount of money to decide who gets health care and who doesn’t when in reality, shouldn’t all citizens be covered?
Some have argued about the taxes in Canada versus the United States when in actuality they are nearly equal on both sides of the border. Canada’s are slightly higher than those in the U.S but we have many more benefits from our tax dollars, and that goes past health care and taps into such things like tax credits, family allowance, cheaper higher education, etc., hence the end result is effective.
Elective procedures, like the one my sister ended up having on July 4th 2009 to remove diseased bowel, also known as an ileocecal bowel resection – those sorts of surgeries take longer in Canada as compared to the U.S health care system but you can’t compare the two; it’s like apples and oranges. More precisely, the overall Canadian population should be held in comparison with the tens of millions of Americans who are uninsured and uninsurable.
Since health care is covered in Canada, another benefit is that we get to keep a little more in our pocket, compared to an American. No one in Canada goes broke over medical bills whereas AARP calculates an approximate half of personal bankruptcies in the U.S are due to unpaid, high medical bills. Over a year and a half ago, AARP started a campaign that resonated as the U.S economic meltdown deepened where real people discussed heart-wrenching bankruptcy stories to shed light on America’s medical-debt crisis. For many Americans, the struggle with rising health care costs have reached a critical point where now more than two in five Americans under the age of 65 are having trouble paying their medical bills, according to a study by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based health policy research group. Of those people, 39% had used up all their savings and 29% said medical bills left them struggling to pay for basic necessities like food and heat.
The Canadian health care system enhances our economic productivity and that’s one of the advantages of being a resident of Canada. Workers diagnosed with any illness or disease can still change employers and be employable because they aren’t rejected by employers with health benefits due to pre-conditions.
The main difference between the United States and Canada lies in the health insurance plans. Canada’s federal government dedicates itself to providing funding support to provincial governments for health care costs as long as the province in question follows the Canada Health Act’s accessibility guarantees. Some argue that Canada’s health care system is “socialized medicine”, whereas this term is inaccurate. The Canadian system provides public coverage for private delivery and hospitals are controlled by private boards or regional health authorities rather than being part of the government.
In the United States, the direct government funding for health care is limited to Medicare, Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which covers eligible senior citizens, the very poor and the disabled persons and children and does not guarantee universal health care to all these citizens. For everyone else, health insurance must be paid for privately and those whose employers do not offer health insurance or are self-employed or unemployed, must purchase it on their own.
One of the current concerns both the United States and Canada share with their respective health care systems is the wait times. Whether it is for a specialist, a major elective surgery or specialized treatments, wait times are atrocious and both countries have factors affecting it greatly. In the United States, access to health care is initially determined by whether a person has money to pay for a treatment and by the availability of services and by compliance of the provider to deliver service at the prices set by the insurer.
In Canada, the wait time is set according to the availability of services in the area and by the relative need of the patient needing treatment. Case in point, when my sister had to figure out what was ailing her, she had booked an appointment in our town’s hospital but because of the long list of patients needing treatments and services, she’d have wait four months. It was only then that we found out a small hospital, north of our town would book her CT scan immediately for the same week.
It’s unfortunate that in the United States, patients who are on Medicaid, low-income government programs would have to wait up to three or more months to see a specialist. This is primarily because payments are low and some doctors don’t care to see Medicaid patients immediately. It’s sad and makes you wonder, how long would you have to truly wait and why should how much I hold in my pocket be a factor in the value of my life? None of it is reasonable.
The late and esteemed CBS newsman, Walter Cronkite once said that “America’s health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” It’s a sad observation and one that many hope changes. It’s an eye-opener and makes you realize and appreciate the things you have currently, in your life and shouldn’t take for granted. Life is precious and fragile as it is; wouldn’t you want to revolutionize the future and build one of security and sustainability?
The health care system in Canada is one that I am immensely proud of and like I mentioned, we do have our flaws and aren’t perfect but what we have going for us, works. If anything, I hope when the time comes for the U.S, that both countries can finally be satisfied that their citizens are all treated equally. This whole health care reform isn’t just about politics – it comes down to the kind of country you want to be.
Obama's historic health-care reform poised to become law: President Barack Obama reads letters that he has received during his visit to Capitol Hill to meet with House Democrats in Washington.
© Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP 2010
Since President Barack Obama came into power, health care for Americans has been an on-going issue and battle and with any luck, one that will see the light of change. As of today, U.S Democratic leaders are confident they have secured the 216 votes needed to pass President Obama’s health care bill while a handful of lawmakers remain undecided.
As of this moment, procedural voting is now underway in the U.S, with Republicans seeking to draw out the legislative process and bring attention to any flaws or contentious issues in the legislation. The legislation has been forming for more than a year and would extend health care coverage to approximately 32 million Americans who have none. The bill would also prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to patients because of pre-existing medical conditions and cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion over ten years.
The health care system in the United States is becoming more and more unaffordable for a lot of people and the expenditures have been exceeding inflation and insurance companies are partially to blame. However, some can argue that the pharmaceutical companies should also be taking some heat too as they have higher profit margins than most insurance companies and achieve this, by charging twenty times more than production for medicine, claiming they charge the amount because of the amount of research conducted but they spend more on marketing and administration than they do with actual research.
Whether, you’re Canadian or American it comes down to one thing: the value of life and it’s time for a change. Had I lived in the United States last summer, I don’t know what would have become of my sister and her health. She is now fully recovered and far better than last year's health scare but it makes me wonder, would she get the proper treatment in time? Would we be able to afford it? I am blessed to be living in Canada, where access to important services is made available to me. If anything, I hope the United States can somehow be like Canada in that sense, where treatment and health care for citizens is equal and everyone gets the proper attention they deserve.
President Obama addressed House Democrats in Washington this past Saturday, urging them to vote for the health care reform bill, not for themselves or the Democratic Party but rather for all the Americans without health care who badly need it.
“It is in your hands,” he said. “It is time to pass health care reform for America, and I am confident that you are going to do it...”
---------------------
Follow me on Twitter @westlifebunny
Related Articles
