Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 23, 1990 TAG: 9004230204
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DICK MALLEN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A column April 3 by Bob Willis ("Canada model for health?") set me off. Everyone should have read it, despite the hedges and its tongue-in-cheek, try-to-please-everyone approach (much needed when writing for the public). It was a very good, thought-provoking subject.
When $660 billion is spent on health care here in the U.S.A. for only 60 percent of our citizens, and some 25 percent of that amount is purported to be wasted - we should pay attention! In 1986 the United States spent an average of $1,926 per person on health care and Canada spent only $1,370 per person. In Canada, the infant mortality rate was 25 percent lower than the U.S.A., and they had 20 percent fewer deaths from heart attacks.
Willis' last sentence read: "In another column, I'll try to set out more of its purported drawbacks." Drawbacks, hell! Let's hear about more of the merits of copying Canada's health plan. What is more important than giving babies a greater chance of life and having our people live longer, healthier and at a lower cost with less frustration? I mean all of our people, 100 percent of them!
Sure, the American Medical Association would put up a holler, 1,500 private insurers will squawk, and many politicians who are pulled by the strings of the myriad of lobbyists in Washington would feel it in their pockets. So what?
I'd like to add a few facts not mentioned by Willis.
The Canadians do not have all the confusing forms we must fill out. They are given a number, and upon presenting that to the hospital or doctor, all the paper work is taken care of for them. (I know people here who are so confused by all the read tape that they don't fully take advantage of what is due them.)
After age 65, Canadians no longer pay for any prescription drugs - no one!
If you leave Canada for a vacation, you pay about $1 a day and are fully covered. Should you need medical care or even an operation outside the country, you pay the bill and upon returning home present it to the government and are reimbursed. They even include the rate of exchange.
When and if nursing home care is needed, it is all free. Check out what the costs are here and what you receive; it will scare the socks off you! Now, if you do not save and plan to provide for your elderlies' care and dispose of all their belongings, then Medicare does take care of them - after a fashion.
Oh yes, and the Canadian doctors are not employed by their government but do their own billing and enjoy playing God just like their counterparts all over the world!
So often, like children, we don't like to have someone tell us that someone else has something better than we do. Let's get rid of our pork-barrel health care, not let our pride get in the way of a better life. Let's pick up the Canadian plan for health care and, if we can, improve on that. But please, let's get started and take care of all of our people.
by CNB