So What if an MRI Takes Longer in Canada?

I was in a wreck in NC in 2002. Pretty bad wreck, but I was largely ok. They scanned the crap out of me within an hour of me getting to the hospital. An MRI is the one where you have to drink stuff, right?

That one.

You're confusing emergency medicine with non-emergent conditions. And while you might have been given a gadolinium drip for an MRI, if you had to drink something, you're equally confused about what kind of test was done.

If you could see this post, I have no doubt you could cite examples where Canadian patients involved in accidents and requiring emergent care were turned away or left to die.

In the meantime, it seems as if U.S. medicine has failed to correct your tunnel vision.

To be honest, this is one instance of something that didn't go well in Canada and one instance of it going better in the States.

That's kind of like using one game to show "the superiority of the Detroit Tigers over the New York Yankees" (not that I'm saying, or even about to admit, that that's not the case...). If you choose the right game, the "demonstration" is very easy. But a sample size of 1 doesn't really prove anything.

does our 2-4 years of added life expectancy imply anything about which system provides better care?

To be fair, many of the technologies and innovations in health care come from America as well, too.

That aside:

The fact that insurance covers everything from surgeries to a basic doctor visit is definitely a big part of why health care is so expensive. I shouldn't have to have a sixty dollar a month health care plan just to be able to see the doctor of my choice. I should have the option of just paying insurance for big shit, like accidents or some illness that'll take me months to recover from. If I have a bad cold or flu that I need to see the doctor for once a year, I'm okay will shelling out 80 bucks for the visit and meds....that's a hell of a lot more practical than paying 1200 bucks a year for that purpose.

And that's the way it used to be, until the for-profit insurers entered the market.

There can be horrid waits in Canada for something like an MRI, especially if you don't have an emergency.

It also depends on where you are located. Alberta has money to burn so they can spend more on healthcare. Manitoba is broke as fuck, so their healthcare tends to suck.

I fractured my sternum a few years ago playing hockey in Manitoba, and they took X-rays after a 7 hour wait, and everything came back negative. The reason it took 7 hours was simply because of administrative bullshit and nurses fucking around. Once you finally got to the doctor, he did a great job.

I came back to Alberta a month later, and I still had pain so I went back for another checkup. Was in within 10 min, x-rays, got everything checked, nothing serious....and out within a hour.

So.

There are simple fixes to the system that would fix a lot of problems. Sadly, like the US, Canadians don't actually want to talk about the actual issues, and instead focus on the soundbites.

They do here, often.

Usually because of administrative bullshit.

Same crap happens here too.

This might be apropos.


When you hear that Canadians like their health care, that would be the survivors

But we've been told by our President that we do too many tests. :|

Since you can't even tell one from the other, in your case that might not be bad advice.

It might, if that was the only thing that was different. When you take into account Americans' "supersize me" mentality, however, it becomes pretty much irrelevant, as any good statistical analyst could tell you.

Like the ones who actually, y'know, live in Canada?

I have heard plenty of people I know in real life who live in Canada knock their system. Because we have what, 3 Canadian posters, 1 of who likes it and 2 of whom seem "meh" this first hand account is dismissed?

Hardly.

Ah, I forgot to take your ignore list into account.

Whereas you anytime an American complains about the U.S. system. Apparently in your universe Canadians are honest and Americans are liars.

Why do you hate America?

Except for Canadians who like their health care system. They're liars too.

Socialized medicine is a political no-brainer. People whose illnesses aren't life-threatening love it, and the ones who die all go on to vote Democrat anyway.

Good thing that's not what this is about then, huh?

Down here the wait for non-emergency and banal health issues is almost non-existent.

In fact the people I know who've required MRIs were limited primarily by when they would be able to get off work to get to the MRI not to when the MRI had an open slot.

And of course what's true in Podunk *must* be true everywhere in the U.S.

Where is 'down here'?

The Lower "Fuckin'" Forty Eight.

so that's suggesting that we have better access to health education as evidenced by helathier lifestyle choices?


or is it that we arent as prone to self destructive stupidity?

I'm leaning towards the first one, given the number of fast food joints...

Personally, I would lean toward the second one. For Americans at least, I don't think education makes that much of a difference.

Its depends on how high of a priority your personal Dr puts you on the list.
If your Dr feels you need it, you can get it in right away. If you have to fight your Dr over the fact that there is even something wrong with you it can take months.
We have a family member whose entire side of her head and body has gone numb and she had to fight with her Dr to even take her seriously, she finally got someone to listen to her and her MRI isn't until August.
It also depends where you are. Where WAB lives, the waitlist probably isn't that long. Here the wait list for even a simple Ultrasound can be 2 months and the closest place for a specialist is anywhere from 2-8 hrs away.

Of course, I'm sure that the States is like Canada where the systems vary vastly depending on where you live. If you live in bustling metropolis ON and claim that the system is the same as in far northern AB/BC you would be sadly mistaken

We have a great system compared to what a lot of my friends in the States from other boards suffer from. Some have been given bills for $4,000 2 years later for baby births because their insurance refused to cover it. Ours? Nothing. StepDD comes out to live with us and has suffered from terrible pain for years - I finally browbeat her into going to a Dr and following up on it and within 2 months she had her tests done and US (because they had cancer concerns) - she got shoved to the top of the priority list right away. No worrying about how to pay for the tests. I know a lot of people in the States who NEED tests done to save themselves and can't because they can't pay for it.

The only thing our system doesn't seem to cover is 'alternative' meds. For instance - if I wanted to have a home birth with a midwife (which I asked for and DH refused. Twice). It is not covered in some provinces - as of last year in AB it is. They will cover pill form birth control but my insurance company would not cover either IUD. They will cover chiro but not massage therapy and they will cover chiro if we get it in AB but not in BC (not sure what the reasoning is behind that one). Our insurance company will cover say..chemo..but not if I went to a wellness centre and got some form of herbal therapy.

I don't know what WAB pays for health insurance but in AB you need extra health insurance and we pay $168 a month for 5 people. That covers 80% of dental/eye care and prescription lenses ever two year, medical prescriptions, chiro, and hospital care. If you don't have health insurance it is $50 per Dr visit and $100 for a basic hospital visit in Dawson (I don't know about AB)