Canadian Health Care

[Sam]

I saw on the news up here in Canada where Hillary Clinton introduced her
new health care plan. Something similar to what we have in Canada. I
also heard that Michael Moore was raving about the health care up here in
Canada in his latest movie. As your friend and someone who lives with the
Canada health care plan I thought I would give you some facts about this
great medical plan that we have in Canada.

First of all:
1) The health care plan in Canada is not free. We pay a premium every
month of $96. for Shirley and I to be covered. Sounds great eh. What
they don't tell you is how much we pay in taxes to keep the health care
system afloat. I am personally in the 55% tax bracket. Yes 55% of my
earnings go to taxes. A large portion of that and I am not sure of the
exact amount goes directly to health care our #1 expense.

2) I would not classify what we have as health care plan, it is more like
a health diagnosis system. You can get into to see a doctor quick enough
so he can tell you "yes indeed you are sick or you need an operation" but
now the challenge becomes getting treated or operated on. We have waiting
lists out the ying yang some as much as 2 years down the road.

3) Rather than fix what is wrong with you the usual tactic in Canada is
to prescribe drugs. Have a pain here is a drug to take- not what is
causing the pain and why. No time for checking you out because it is more
important to move as many patients thru as possible each hour for
Government re-imbursement

4) Many Canadians do not have a family Doctor.

5) Don't require emergency treatment as you may wait for hours in the
emergency room waiting for treatment.

6) Shirley's dad cut his hand on a power saw a few weeks back and it
required that his hand be put in a splint - to our surprise we had to pay
$125. for a splint because it is not covered under health care plus we
have to pay $60. for each visit for him to check it out each week.

7) Shirley's cousin was diagnosed with a heart blockage. Put on a waiting
list . Died before he could get treatment.

8) Government allots so many operations per year. When that is done no
more operations, unless you go to your local newspaper and plead your case
and embarrass the government then money suddenly appears.

9)The Government takes great pride in telling us how much more they are
increasing the funding for health care but waiting lists never get
shorter. Government just keeps throwing money at the problem but it never
goes away. But they are good at finding new ways to tax us, but they
don't call it a tax anymore it is now a user fee.

10) A friend needs an operation for a blockage in her leg but because she
is a smoker they will not do it. Despite paying into the health care
system all these years. My friend is 65 years old. Now there is talk
that maybe we should not treat fat and obese people either because they
are a drain on the health care system. Let me see now, what we want in
Canada is a health care system for healthy people only. That should
reduce our health care costs.

11) Forget getting a second opinion, what you see is what you get.

12) I can spend what money I have left after taxes on booze, cigarettes,
junk food and anything else that could kill me but I am not allowed by law
to spend my money on getting an operation I need because that would be
jumping the queue. I must wait my turn except if I am a hockey player or
athlete then I can get looked at right away. Go figure. Where else in
the world can you spend money to kill yourself but not allowed to spend
money to get healthy..

13) Oh did I mention that immigrants are covered automatically at tax
payer expense having never contributed a dollar to the system and pay no
premiums.

14) Oh yes we now give free needles to drug users to try and keep them
healthy. Wouldn't want a sickly druggie breaking into your house and
stealing your things. But people with diabetes who pay into the health
care system have to pay for their needles because it is not covered but
the health care system.

I send this out not looking for sympathy but as the election looms in the
states you will be hearing more and more about universal health care down
there and the advocates will be pointing to Canada. I just want to make
sure that you hear the truth about health care up here and have some food
for thought and informed questions to ask when broached with this subject.

Step wisely and don't make the same mistakes we have