I have a friend in Canada who developed breast cancer--she lives near Winnipeg, she and her husband teach at a university in that area. They told her she needed to wait 10-18 months before any surgery was possible. Being smart folks, they went down to Minneapolis--to save her life.
Here is another example of socialized medicine--that everyone thinks is marvelous.
YES FOLKS--this does happen.
ALL THE TIME!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/a...l-sent-home-wait-operation.html#ixzz2COXSILES
Well, my nephew and his wife live near Quebec and my niece in law was diagnosed through a routine mammogram (free) with stage 2 breast cancer after a (free) biopsy was made (within a week of the mammogram) to remove and analyze the small lump found in her breast by the mammogram.
A week later she unerwent the first lumpectomy (free) that removed the lump the analyzis of the tissue removed. This analysis (free) showed that the margin around the incision was not wide enough to assure that all the cancerous tissues had been removed, so a second lumpectomy to remove more tissue and to remove most of the lymph nodes under her left arm was schedule for. . .the following week. Luckily, none of the lymphnodes removed showed that the cancer had spread.
She then was advice that, as a matter of precaution, she should undergoe chemo therapy and Radiation treatment. However, she refused the chemotherapy, and her oncologist accepted that decision due to the fact that the lymph nodes didn't show that the cancer had spread, but insisted on her having 45 days of daily radiation. She began radiation treatments (free) EXACTLY 32 days after her first mammogram.
This happened 5 years ago. The cancer has not returned.
I think that, once again, it is funny how you guys "poopooed" the article about the young woman in Ireland who lost her life because she was refused an abortion as "an unfortunate accident that happened in ONE specific hospital and cannot possibly be the norm!"
Yet, you do not hesitate to post "unfortunate accidents that happened in ONE specific hospital" in a case (the child with the pencil stuck in his hand) where, although terribly uncomfortable and sad, was OBVIOUSLY NOT a case of life and death. . .and was corrected by travelling 20 miles to another hospital ran by the SAME National health system.
Double standards to prove your point?
I have family living in Canada (Quebec), Australia, France, Belgium, and Italy. I have close friends living in Portugal, and I have lived for 4 years (while raising my children) in England. I am intimately familiar with ALL the systems of health care in each one of those countries, and those "legends" of long waiting line are EXTREMELY overstated.
Certainly not more common than my own story right here in the US.
I was involved in an accident (as a passenger) and my left clavicle had a severely displaced fracture. Since it happened on July 3, 2011, I was told in the emergency room that I would require surgery to set the bone with a metal plate, and that the orthopedic surgeon would make a "special" effort to see me as soon as he came back from his 4th of July break. . .on July 6th, 2011. Then, the surgery was schedule for July 10, 2011. . .while I returned to my hotel (we were travelling in Colorado, away from my home) with the two pieces of bone clicking against each other for 7 days.
The surgery went well enough. . . but was not done properly, so that one of the screw that held the plate to the clavicle was inserted at the exact place where the bone had been crushed. . .so it actually didn't hold and broke the bone even more about 4 days after the surgery. By then, I was on my way back to South Carolina, and it "ONLY" took me 3 weeks to get an appointment with another Orthopedic surgeon in my city. . .who at first didn't want to take my case, since he had not done the first bloached surgery. After some pleading from my family physician, the Orthopedist agreed to reconsider, and the second surgery was scheduled for September 7, almost TWO months after the accident.
After over a year with that plate in my shoulder, the orthopedic surgeon decided it would be safe to remove the plate. This was done on November 2, 2012. The bone broke again the next day, and I am due to see the Orthopedist surgeon again to "see what can be done" on November 27, 2012.
EVERYONE can find a story of long delays in obtaining proper care.
The difference between other, more universal, system of health care is that EVERYONE can obtain care, and that the waiting time is not set by "who can pay," but by the emergency of the injury or illness. And that, because access to preventive health care is free and easily accessible, many of the most deadly disease are diagnosed BEFORE it is too late to be treated.