J
JDs Couch
Well-known member
In civilized countries, those are all free.
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
Not true. They'd be paid for by taxes.
NoHassle
Well-known member
You have ZERO idea how economies actually work.
I REALLY thought you were more intelligent but again, I'm proven wrong.
J
JDs Couch
Well-known member
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
Wait a second....
I thought you said health care was free in civilized countries????
J
JDs Couch
Well-known member
No. I said those medications are free to individuals.
You could be someone who pays zero taxes: a visitor, a homeless person, or a billionaire, and you could walk into a hospital, have a major emergency procedure, and leave without a bill.
No matter how you use pretzel logic, you simply can't defend the US health care system in comparison to any other high income nation.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
Ya think ? I got a buddy in Canada who’s waited ten years to have a liver byopsy because the doctor doesn’t think he needs one. I could walk into any hospital and ask for one and get it tomorrow.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
Canadians don’t really get to have an opinion on the American healthcare system because everything you think you know about it comes from some left wing media outlet.
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
H
harddriver
Well-known member
J
JDs Couch
Well-known member
Bullshit.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
This will flip your shit upside down. This is a guy I spent lawyer money trying to get him and his family legally situated in the US about 20 years ago. He's from Brazil. After a couple of years trying he ended up in Canada because it was far easier to legally immigrate there than the US and he did not want to sneak across with his wife and young daughter. He has since divorced and is remarried and has a slew of health problems. This is a post he made a couple days ago on a forum I've been involved with since 2006.
"Healthcare in Canada Sucks"
"So just over four months ago (and after a day of being reluctant about it, because *I* myself worked in an ER here, and know how miserable the experience can be) I went to a local ER with puncturing chest pain (varying from 5-7/10) and shortness of breath. Some 14 hours later, I was drugged up (hydromorphone), and the attending physician showed me my ECGs, which had the characteristic ST elevations and reciprocal ST depressions - a telltale sign of the disease. I was sent home with prescription anti-inflammatories, but exactly nothing for pain management aside from OTC stuff, which does not make a dent in pain.
As expected, causes were not investigated. It was medicine by “waiting it out”.
Then three weeks ago - exactly four months to the day of my first ER trip - I found myself with the same pain. Only harder (varying 6-8/10), and with a much worse case of SOB. Back I went - same hospital, same ER.
My dear wife, as a pharmacist, was speaking on my behalf (I could barely speak anything), and made the mistake of giving the triage nurse a full list of my current meds - which includes pills for GAD, something I’ve been taking for three decades without issues.
From then onwards, it was a hellish night, and variations of the following dialogue happened no fewer than five times:
Me: “Please give me analgesics. Chest pain is getting worse.”
Medical staff: “You are probably just anxious. Calm down. Would you like an Ativan?”
Me: “Ativan is an anxiolytic, not an analgesic. I don’t have a lack of calm; I do, however, have increasingly unbearable chest pain.”
Med. Staff: “There’s nothing we can do, then…”
Me: “Fine. It won’t do much, but I’ll take whatever you are willing to give me. Tylenol, Ibuprofen- whatever.”
Then I waited and waited, and then waited some time more. Gigantic native Canadian dude behind me, who came earlier, fell to the ground, crashing his skull on the floor - as he was seizing. (I wonder how much more time would he have waited if not for his seizure and head-first fall.)
An overworked doctor finally saw me several hours later. Told me that my bloodwork excluded the possibility of me having a heart attack. Once more: “nothing is wrong; you are just too anxious”. In vain, I explained that the chest pain got *worse* when I laid down - which is a very peculiar symptom of pericarditis.
“Nah, you’re fine. Get outta here!” (Said the doctor, while lightly punching my arm).
As mentioned, that was three weeks ago. I’ve been bed-ridden ever since, and only leave to eat (once a day) and shower (every second day). The pain is unbearable, and it is a surprise the neighbors haven’t knocked on our door yet, because I am making too much noise.
Can I go back to the ER? Technically yes, But there’s an equal chance of me being treated as a human being (like in my first visit) or as someone who’s “just anxious” (as in my second visit).
Can I get this matter investigated by a GP? Yes, in three weeks, when my doctor comes back from vacation. Will she then refer me to specialists for the number of fields pericarditis can come from? It’s basic at her discretion. And, even if she does, there’s no guarantee I’ll be seen in months or years (wait lists are not measured in weeks ‘round here. More like in geological ages).
TL;DR: Canadian healthcare sucks, and it sucks hard. I am honestly considering to obtain a Portuguese passport (something that never interested me in the past), if nothing else to be able to hop on a plane to Amsterdam (there are direct flights), and get health services as an European citizen. This is a travesty, considering how rich this country is, and considering that I already pay almost half of my income in taxes."
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
I then told him I was sorry it was happening to him and I hoped he got it resolved soon.
His reply:
"Thank you.
Related: did I ever tell you about the time a request for a liver biopsy got “lost in the system”? That was about ten years ago. I have bilateral history of liver CA, and at that time my enzymes were high, so my then GP ordered one “in an urgent basis”.
I waited six months, called his office and discovered he had retired. Some hours later his secretary called me, saying the request went MIA."
I then asked if he ever got it done.
His reply:
"No. Been insisting with my new GP for almost a decade."
His reply:
"Thank you.
Related: did I ever tell you about the time a request for a liver biopsy got “lost in the system”? That was about ten years ago. I have bilateral history of liver CA, and at that time my enzymes were high, so my then GP ordered one “in an urgent basis”.
I waited six months, called his office and discovered he had retired. Some hours later his secretary called me, saying the request went MIA."
I then asked if he ever got it done.
His reply:
"No. Been insisting with my new GP for almost a decade."
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
By the way, my friend was a prosecuting attorney in Rio and his brother was/is a cop. He fled because of violence and the fact that he had a wife and infant daughter. In Canada the best he could do was orderly at a hospital. He put his ( 1st) wife through school, she left him for a professor and he hasn't seen his daughter other than a handful of times in the last decade. Poor fucking guy.
NoHassle
Well-known member
Women REALLY can be evil and I've been to Rio a few times and yes, it can be super dangerous away from the tourist areas.
Canada? Once upon a LONG time ago not a bad place...today FORGET ABOUT IT.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
Yeah, I remember him telling me that the place was run by drug cartels who owned politicians and killed the ones they couldn't buy.
I guess I was shocked that a guy with a law degree and experience as a prosecuting attorney in Brazil couldn't use that degree in Canada. Poor fucker ended up sweeping floors in a hospital. Then he got sick, then his wife left him and took his daughter.
I tried for a few years to get him legal status here. Even was going to give him housing and get him a job. I spent a few grand and in the end it was just an impossibility due to the fact that it'd take years to make it happen and he didn't feel like he had years to wait. I actually encouraged him to sneak in, but he wasn't having it. In the end another friend of ours who is Filipino and had already successfully immigrated to Canada got him in up there.
He is still very thankful he isn't in Brazil.
Floyd Eye
Well-known member
When they got to Canada they didn't really have shit. Especially comfort shit. So my wife and I made them up some care packages. Books, a guitar and other related stuff, things women and little girls would like, etc..
NoHassle
Well-known member
Yes, when I was there it had 5 'burroughs' and the last one (5) was a broken down shanty town full of trash heaps that was run by the drug cartels.
At night in the tourist areas it was very dangerous in parts.
You did a heck of a LOT for this guy...so much respect to you.
Canada like most other Commonwealth countries looks shiny on top but full of shit underneath. You need money on money to live well and it grows worse each year.
The original Westminster political system was a problem but the Commonwealth countries that use it today have bastardised it and party solidarity doesn't exist. Their policies are quasi moving targets each and every day.
The real problem with the Westminster political system is its legal arm which in reality REALLY runs all the Commonwealth countries. Politicians come and go but Judges etc have no term limits and can back room harm any political leader. In fact, the legal system can demand that politicians go to court and apologise to the legal council for anything negative a politician may say in public about them and it has happened in Australia.
So, your friend escaped physically dangerous Brazil but he's still in a harmful place that uses different techniques of violence.
J
JDs Couch
Well-known member
Bullshit.
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