Emmc

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by reloop

The majority of reasonably healthy Canadians I've grilled about their healthcare system ( and I've come across many in my work and I ask a lot of questions about it mainly because I'm nosy ) like it. They tend to be middle class tax-paying citizens as well. There are some who are displeased about having to wait for certain services and treatments. They often come here rather than wait, but for run-of-the-mill basic healthcare, they seem pretty content with it.

This is a pretty good representation of what I've heard from Canadians I've interviewed about their healthcare system, and this quote is one I heard nearly verbatim when I questioned the number of Canadians who seek radiation therapy in Maine:

"Yes, there are those instances where a patient can wait up to a month for radiation therapy for breast cancer or prostate cancer, for example. However, the wait has nothing to do with money per se, but everything to do with the lack of radiation therapists."

And this was similar to what a family member told me about her mother's hip replacement:

"It is not a perfect system, but it has its merits. For people like my 55-year-old Aunt Betty, who has been waiting for 14 months for knee-replacement surgery due to a long history of arthritis, it is the superior system. Her $35,000-plus surgery is finally scheduled for next month. She has been in pain, and her quality of life has been compromised. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Aunt Betty — who lives on a fixed income and could never afford private health insurance, much less the cost of the surgery and requisite follow-up care — will soon sport a new, high-tech knee. Waiting 14 months for the procedure is easy when the alternative is living in pain for the rest of your life."


As with any healthcare (even in the good old US of A) I've heard complaints about having to wait for therapy/treatment/surgeries. I had to blow a jugular vein with the office staff myself when the my DD was scheduled for an MRI to rule out a bone tumor. Ewing's Sarcoma anyone? She was 10 years old. They were fiddly-farting around with trying to figure out if the insurance would cover it. The insurance company was balking about it and bear in mind, between our premiums and what my DH's employer pays, they make $16,000.00 per year off us alone. We are rarely sick. We are the kind of 'risk' they love. I told them I'd give them my friggin' Visa card and prepay for it myself if necessary. I was ruling out cancer in my child. Fortunately, it wasn't cancer. I'm willing to blow off a sniffle or slight fever, but not Ewing's Sarcoma. That's a veritable death sentence.

Nothing is perfect by any means, but it can't keep going on like it has been much longer.

When I lived in the UK, I had to be treated in one of their hospitals. Everything was clean and they were all very professional. However it was obvious that there were long waits for procedures, and doctors were not at all rushed. It felt very unionized. Talking to other patients, they went out of their way to explain the system of rationing and why rationing of healthcare was needed. I was a 'high' priority since I was a servicemember of an occupying military. I was not elderly, nor a peasant, nor unemployed.

When I lived in Italia, I never required civilian healthcare. [at that point in my career, I had gone through enough situations that I had learned it is often better to stitch yourself, rather than expose yourself to a 'professorial who has had 6-weeks of training] I did have to respond to Ospitale many times to retrieve US citizens who had gotten themselves into scrapes, etc, and found themselves waking up in Italian Ospitale. Italian healthcare is not something I would wish on an enemy.



I am not aware of any nation whose government is efficient at providing any 'service'.

To my observation, when a government gets into providing service it is like the DMV. You take a number, and the workers are union.



The US Federal government already provides a bunch of separate individual healthcare systems that have no interaction with each other.

I served for decades in the US Navy. I have the utmost respect for US Navy Hospital Corpsmen. With 6-weeks of training, they will set your broken bones, deliver your wife's babies, carve out your wisdom teeth, remove an appendix, and more. I have seen all these things and more, ask my wife, or I can show you the scars.

On the other hand, if you want doctors. Who have been to college. Who then went to medical school. Who then went through some form of residency training, and proved themselves to have some minimal level of proficiency. You do not want any of our Federal government's healthcare systems.



Canadians come to the US, because they can get diagnosed quickly in Canada. But then the waiting lists for treatment, are often longer than their projected lifespan. They come here for treatment. The rationing is 'good' for diagnosis, but lacking in treatments.


I think EMMC is great.

EMMC has DOCTORS. which puts them head and shoulders above what the US Federal government provides.

EMMC facilities are clean. I have never slipped on any sawdust used for soaking up bodily fluids on the floors. And I have never seen any doctor at EMMC with blood soaked clothing attending another patient. True story I have never seen either of these things at EMMC.

EMMC people are friendly, and appear to be well trained.

Things in the USA are changing now. We have the capability of treating patients quickly, diagnosing them and performing procedures on everyone. This is changing as we speak. How will it become? I have no idea.

I certainly hope that our healthcare does not go the way of European healthcare.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by Submariner

When I lived in the UK, I had to be treated in one of their hospitals. Everything was clean and they were all very professional. However it was obvious that there were long waits for procedures, and doctors were not at all rushed. It felt very unionized. Talking to other patients, they went out of their way to explain the system of rationing and why rationing of healthcare was needed. I was a 'high' priority since I was a servicemember of an occupying military. I was not elderly, nor a peasant, nor unemployed.

When I lived in Italia, I never required civilian healthcare. [at that point in my career, I had gone through enough situations that I had learned it is often better to stitch yourself, rather than expose yourself to a 'professorial who has had 6-weeks of training] I did have to respond to Ospitale many times to retrieve US citizens who had gotten themselves into scrapes, etc, and found themselves waking up in Italian Ospitale. Italian healthcare is not something I would wish on an enemy.



I am not aware of any nation whose government is efficient at providing any 'service'.

To my observation, when a government gets into providing service it is like the DMV. You take a number, and the workers are union.



The US Federal government already provides a bunch of separate individual healthcare systems that have no interaction with each other.

I served for decades in the US Navy. I have the utmost respect for US Navy Hospital Corpsmen. With 6-weeks of training, they will set your broken bones, deliver your wife's babies, carve out your wisdom teeth, remove an appendix, and more. I have seen all these things and more, ask my wife, or I can show you the scars.

On the other hand, if you want doctors. Who have been to college. Who then went to medical school. Who then went through some form of residency training, and proved themselves to have some minimal level of proficiency. You do not want any of our Federal government's healthcare systems.



Canadians come to the US, because they can get diagnosed quickly in Canada. But then the waiting lists for treatment, are often longer than their projected lifespan. They come here for treatment. The rationing is 'good' for diagnosis, but lacking in treatments.


I think EMMC is great.

EMMC has DOCTORS. which puts them head and shoulders above what the US Federal government provides.

EMMC facilities are clean. I have never slipped on any sawdust used for soaking up bodily fluids on the floors. And I have never seen any doctor at EMMC with blood soaked clothing attending another patient. True story I have never seen either of these things at EMMC.

EMMC people are friendly, and appear to be well trained.

Things in the USA are changing now. We have the capability of treating patients quickly, diagnosing them and performing procedures on everyone. This is changing as we speak. How will it become? I have no idea.

I certainly hope that our healthcare does not go the way of European healthcare.

Some of the best civilian medical people (including doctors) I've worked around over the years started their training with the military.

Ditto for airline pilots.

My uncle successfully performed surgery and dispensed medication in Vietnam without an MD. He couldn't do that now. He wouldn't be 'qualified.' A lot has changed over the years. The 'qualification' for many military jobs now borders on ridiculously overzealous.