This Is So Wrong On So Many Levels

Danny Williams,Premier of the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, is in Miami. No, that's not wrong, Miami is filled with Canadians in the wintertime. No, he is there for heart surgery. In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a “minimally invasive” surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago.

I thought we were to believe that Canada's health care system is so much better than ours. Well no, the officially allowed procedure up there is to bisect the breastbone and chest and operate through that opening. He decided that he preferred the sound of having merely a laproscopic set of incisions under the arm and the operation being done that way. He thought it might be less uncomfortable and have a better success rate.

But he did make it clear through a spokesman that he was not going to the United States in order to go to the head of the line in getting treatment for his heart condition. Do you mean that there is a waiting line for treatment for heart failure? That is certainly what that statement implies.

I have many times spoken and written of the Canadians seeking treatment for prostate cancer here in the Atlanta area, something that Canada considers a waste of resources; but I admit I am tickled at the prospect of all the Obama-supporting fat school teachers I encounter on a daily basis waking up to discover that joint replacement surgery is a luxury and therefore not covered by government health care.

We can't abandon our health care system - Where would the poor Canadians have to go to get care?

There Are No Death Panels - There Don't Need To Be

Those people who for what ever reason are pushing for the Government to take over the healthcare system of the United states typically emphatically state that "there are no death panels in the bill". As if only explicitly declared and named decisions will limit your care.
Some of the withholding of treatment will come by economic rationing - "We have run out of money".
And some will come by physical rationing - "We don't have a doctor available (in your area or not) until April next".
And some will come by treatment review - "Prostate Cancer is a slow mover, something else will get you first".
The bill isn't even finalized yet and treatment review is already starting. The new guidelines were issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and push raising the starting age for routine mammograms from 40 to 50; and additionally, they question the effectiveness and need for digital self-examination. Most of the women I have known with breast cancer have been under 50. Anecdotal, I know, but that is just the way it is.

The proponents of the Government takeover of the US medical system retort with "these decisions are already made by insurance companies". Yes, BUT, at this, I can still (and do) change insurance companies to find a better one. That is a little more difficult with governments.

Senator Christopher Dodd

Senator Christopher Dodd, Senior Senator from the State of Connecticut, and hereditary politician and Senator has announced today that he has prostate cancer and will undergo prostate surgery in early August, in other words, in the next few days. Senator Dodd is 65 years old.

During my cancer treatments in Atlanta, Georgia in 2005, the radiation clinic that treated me was also treating a number of Canadian men for prostate cancer. Apparently using the considerations of age (most prostate sufferers are in advanced years), and prognosis (prostate is often, but not always, a slow moving cancer) Canadian government health care postpones treatment for reasons of economy.

Fortunately, Senator Dodd is in the United States and the new Obama-care health system is not yet in force, so he will get the treatment he needs and age and prognosis will not be considerations of whether he will get the treatment.

Then again, age and prognosis will never matter for him, for he is a member of the elite political class who does not have to live by the same rules and deprivations they visit on us, the hoi polloi.