[ExI] Call To Libertarians

[Darren Greer]

On Thu, Feb 24, 2011 at 5:28 AM, Darren Greer <darren.greer3 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> 2011/2/24 Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com>
>
> >Unfortunately for your argument I have too many friends in Canada and a
> few in England to buy your claim.<
>
> Samantha: the claims is yours actually, that there
> are routinely life-threatening waits for medical procedures in my country.
> The burden of proof is on you. I considered briefly citing my own experience
> as a person with a serious illness having lived in both Canada and the U.S.,
> but then considered that it is a weak defense compared to actual documented
> evidence. Therefore the "I have a friend" approach gets the same treatment.
>

Samatha: in light of Fred's comments, I have decided to forward you the
Romonow report.  The Romonow commission was set up to investigate the
problems with the Canadian health care system over a two year period, and
the report was released only last year. I was an advocate against, and
professional critic of, our health care system for a number of years, and
worked as a consultant for Health Canada to devise ways to improve the
system in specific areas and increase accountability, most notably for
Aboriginal health issues.

There is a small section on diagnostic wait times that admits the need for
improvement, but what the report doesn't say, and that you can find
elsewhere on the net, is that those who wait for diagnostics or treatments
with serious illnesses do so almost entirely because of initial
mis-diagnosis based on symptoms. These cases have been used by insurance
lobbyists and private health care advocates in other countries who cherry
pick data to support their own agendas. As Fred said, for every Canadian
that claims he had to go the U.S. for cancer treatment, you'll find someone
from the U.S. who had to go India for a heart operation or to Poland for the
new MS procedure. That kind of thing is not helpful, and is the source of
much of the confusion and mis- (and dis-) information, on both sides.

Start with this: it will give you an idea of the problems. If your country
(and I'm not sure what that is) has any equivalent criticism, national in
scope, of the health care system you champion, it would be helpful to see. I
don't have a lot of time these days, but I'm willing to have a civilized
debate about the subject.

http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/CP32-85-2002E.pdf

Darren

>
> Darren
>
>


-- 
*There is no history, only biography.*
*
*
*-Ralph Waldo Emerson
*
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