2 months? no way. I have a family doctor here in Canada, but if I need specialist I go to the states. I have a coverage over there.
2 years ago my son needed to see specialist, here I'd have to wait 5 months and travel 2 hours to London, in Detroit I had to wait 2 days.

From 12-7-02

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A Cheyenne woman who was denied coverage for a potentially lifesaving bone marrow transplant has died of leukemia.

Cathi Blevins, 30, died Wednesday at United Medical Center-West, only one year after she was first diagnosed.

Blevins and her family spent the past couple months trying to find
money to pay for a bone marrow transplant.

She had few options because Wyoming Medicaid does not cover
transplants for people over age 21

"She went from having a 50-50 chance at living to no chance at all," said Trish Lovett, Blevins' sister.

Blevins, who is survived by an 11-year-old daughter, was beginning her second year at Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs whenshe became ill.

She eventually moved to Cheyenne so Lovett could help care for her.

Blevins went into remission in October and doctors at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center told her it was an optimal time for her to receive a bone marrow transplant.

When Blevins' cancer returned about three weeks ago, she told Lovett she did not feel strong enough to go through chemotherapy and on Nov. 22 she checked into the hospital.

Her family spent Thanksgiving with her in the hospital, bringing food, but Blevins was too sick to eat any of it.

"I can't imagine other people having to deal with this," Lovett said. "We've got to make the government see what they're putting people through. I probably wouldn't have lost my sister if they'd given her a chance

I can post hunderds of stories like that about canadian health care. People dying while waiting 4 months for cancer surgery or chemotherapy. Waiting 6 months for MRI. And that BS about free health care hehe, do you really think it's free? It's just the one big myth.

Yeah, I lived in England for a while, in fact I was born there. We had the same sort of system as Canada. My mother is moving back there next year to take advantage of it because she needs full time, long term care for Multiple Sclerosis. Its not too bad. You do have to wait for more minor stuff.. a few months for an MRI (for a non-life threatening condition) is not so unreasonable etc. but if you have something life threatening, or you need expensive, long term care, they'll take care of you.

The US is great if you have very good insurance or you can afford to pay outright. If not, you can get fucked really badly. Its a very have / have-not system, and in todays economy the have nots vastly outnumber the haves.

One irony is that is that because we don't have a universal "fake free" healthcare system US hospitals end up bleeding shitloads of money because they have to provide tons of REALLY free care. You can't be turned away from an Emergency Dept. here by law, and you don't have to show I.D. You can imagine that a good percentage of people who get care in Emergency rooms do so under aliases and will never pay for services rendered. Shit, even if you do use your real name you don't have to pay the bill as long as you aren't worried about your credit.

I dont know nothing about England, but you propably dont know much about Canadian health care. Or is cancer just minor stuff for you? I know woman who had to wait 4 months for a cancer surgery. 4 months may be the difference between the life and death. And again It's not Free, we pay for it. It's sad to say that but even small country like Czech republic has better health care system than us in Canada.

Depends entirely on the type of cancer. They waited several months to do surgery on my dads.. uh.. I can't remember the name of it.. a relatively non-agresssive skin cancer on his ear.. to see if less invasive treatments would work.. and because removing it, as they finally had to do, cost alot and necessitated some reconstructive plastic surgery.

But you are right, I dunno alot about Canada's system. Never lived there.

All I know it was a breast cancer and she didnt make it.
BTW I am sure that in UK they allow private clinics right?

Not sure to be honest, its been a long time since I was there. Its funny how we'd both prefer each others healthcare systems because of our personal experiences tho.

I guess your situation would be ideal.. have coverage in the US and universal in Canada for the stuff that can wait. Do alot of Canadians do that?

To be honest I dont know if many canadians do that. But easier for me, as I live one mile from the border and my husband works in the US, and his employer pays for the coverage.
But I know for sure, there are only three countries in the world with completely socialized health care system: Cuba, North Korea and Canada. Makes you think

ROTFLMAO!

Something about glass houses comes to mind....

:) :1orglaugh :GFYBand

fuck iraq, how about bush deals with the real threat, N. Korea

Right, but after Iraq, troops over there, billions spent, lost lives. will America be still ready to attack the real problems:

-Alqueda
-North Korea
-Pakistan ( were Bin Laden ,aybe is located, were a US journalist was executed, and so on)
- Saudia Arabia


Maybe Bush is going after Irak because it is the easiest... I really don't get him aside to make daddy happy.

Lucky you. We had to wait OVER 4 months to get my daughter to a specialist for her back..