Canadian perspective...The truth about "FREE HEALTHCARE"

You won't believe it all, but I'll try.

First off, I'm healthy and rarely go to the doctor, but I'll tell you of the experiences that my close relatives and in-laws had.

1) My mother waited almost a whole year for a hip replacement. She was supposed to recover within a week and be released from the hospital. However , due to a sore(resulting from the operation)?? she spent 5 months in the hospital and the hospital staff were were giving her psychological testing and several other types of testing trying to get her to go into a "old age home". They also tried to get her to sign over her property to pay for the care. They wanted her to fill out several pages of forms listing all of her property. Ontario Government pays for mininmal health care. The nice "assisted living" centers cost $3000 a month. The ugly ones (like where my dad stayed) cost $1800-$2200 and was payed for by his employers health insurance. These places are all understaffed. I'm not sure what happens to the uninsured. We have an old hospital on the west end of my city where people go to die. I don't know any other way to put it. Anyone I have known who was placed there lasted only up to 6 months.

2) My mother-in-law has a history of respiratory and heart problems. She waited in an emergency waiting room for more than 8 hours while complaining of chest pains.

3) My father spent many whole nights waiting in emergency rooms because there were no beds in the hospital.

4) 2 hours is the average amount of time to wait in a clinic to be seen by a doctor.

5) Many of our good doctors leave Canada and go to the U.S. where the pay is better.

6) Appointments with a "specialist".....pre-booked up to one year ahead. On average, many specialists won't see you for 4-6 months.

7) If I get a heart attack, our city of 200,000 doesn't have the proper doctors or machinery to keep me alive. I either must travel 100 miles to London Ontario or go to Detroit. (where I will get a big bill) For a long time, we didn't even have an MRI machine here. We booked our MRI scans in London.

8) In the "old days" , a woman would spend 1 week in a hospital after child birth. My wife spent 3 days after a C section. My niece just had TWINS and spent 1 day !!


So you see. Nothing is really "FREE".

Dan