blackascoal
The Force is With Me
Actually the delay at the beginning is very common as patients have few symptoms (I mean I've hit my head and never thought to get treatment many times, probably you have too and she was on a very small beginners hill), her delay was only ONE hour, but she didn't arrive at a facility capable of treatment (with the diagnosis perhaps still unknown) until SIX hours after the injury.
CT scans are far more common in private healthcare in the US than universal healthcare Canada.
Honestly just read the whole article, it explains all this and very well, it's written by a physician.
The reason this case is mentioned is because it was someone famous, but it highlights the larger main problem of universal healthcare systems, wherein with no check on demand as it is free, combined with the usual inefficiency of government, you have longer wait times for just about any procedure, even emergency ones.
There was even a case in their (Québec) supreme court where they ruled that it was not acceptable that their universal healthcare system of denying people care by long wait times and that more private healthcare would be allowed.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1118315110253_28/?hub=TopStories
Canadians don't wait in long lines for critical treatment .. they wait for elective surgey and other non-threatening solutions.
Let's drop the pretense and leave Ms. Richardson alone because this isn't about her, how to prevent this from happening again, or any of you giving a damn about her families grief. This is about the right-wing distaste for nationalized healthcare .. period. So how about we act like grownups and debate the issue of nationalized healthcare without the morbid pretense.
Let's start from here .. Canadians are healthier than Americans, with a longer lifespan and lower infant mortality, even though they spend much less on medical care.
Canadians devote about 10 percent of their gross domestic product to provide full health coverage for all citizens. American health costs account for about 14 percent of GDP, yet 45 million Americans have no health insurance and many more have limited coverage.
Some wealthy Canadians, not as many as you think, come to the US for some healthcare issues such as access to better medical equipment such as high-tech diagnostics, and for more immediate non-emergency treatment .. but the healthcare system is over-whelmingly supported in Canada .. in fact they see it a source of national pride and something that seperates them from America.
The issue of wait-time in a nationalized system can be addressed and solved by allowing for private clinics, which would also help in funding. If someone wants to bypass the public program in Canada, for example, and pay a doctor to perform non-emergency surgery after hours, they cannot. Because of fears that slipping the doctor a little something extra could lead to the breakdown of the equal-access-for-all principle, paying for insured services is illegal. By allowing for more private clinics we could reduce the wait time and lower the burden on the government. This is an idea that is growing in Canada and should be considered in our plans.
Surely we can examine the examples of nationalized healthcare that is in every other industrialized nation and devise a plan that best suits our interests.
There are a wealth of legitimate issues that can be discussed concerning nationalized healthcare ..which 62% of Americans support .. and it is becoming more and more apparent that those who oppose it have to resort to Terry Schiavo tactics because they don't have enough serious arguments to stop it.