This comes from someone whom another subscriber to the CENTAPEDE sent my comment to - my original comment follows the subscriber's pro US medical system comment. I have put the contrary opinion in Maroon. david ingram =========================== Dear Writer, I am a Canadian with health benefits. However, if there was anything worth paying for, it would be for my health. My dear friend and respected doctor in Toronto has very strongly advised me that if I ever have a serious health issue, that I should head south where most of the good Canadian doctors have gone. You sound to me like too many $$ minded people with your health concerns running well behind your $$ concerns. I have tales to tell that could change your opinion on Canada's "Health Care?". I have been treated multiple times at hospitals overseas (both Europe and Asia as well as the States), and i can tell you my first hand experience in relation to our beloved Canadian "Health Care" System. Don't even ask me about how they left my Father after 2 days in intensive care in a Montreal hospital (and i use the term "hospital" lightly) they said that they couldn't afford to keep him there, even though he was conscious and aware. He was shuffled off into the furthest room without any way to communicate, not fed, and died. Thank you Canada after 45-years of dedicated service! Good health, BXXXXXX ps stay away from IKEA ========================================= david ingram replies: I bought a soup ladle and a package of juggling balls at IKEA. Although everything looked sort of neat, I could not imagine myself living in an IKEA world. But back to health care. I recently spent quite some time with a former hospital administrator of the largest hospital in six states, one of which was Pennsylvania. His doctors were all on strike a year ago because they could not afford their malpractice insurance. He is from Canada and when I described a former incident where I was delivered to the Hospital in Osooyos BC in an ambulance with one hand and one foot hanging by threads after a motorcycle accident, and again, only my name (where I was unknown), the US administrator's comment was that I was lucky I had not been delivered to his hospital. I did not even see the bill but he told me I would have been looking at a $45 to $75,000 US bill. As a matter of interest, I crashed on the Canadian side of a mountain trail which was right on the US / Canada border. I am not suggesting for a minute that the service in the US is not good. However, it is only superior to those who have "good" medical insurance or enough money to pay. The last time I was at a dinner party in Sointula, Alaska, two of the families at the dinner, were losing their homes because of medical expenses. The Tour Bus Driver at Denali National Park told me on the same trip that his mother and father had returned to Canada and taken a job in Ottawa at half his previous pay because his mother had Chrons Disease digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/crohns/ and their medical insurance had run out and they could not get any medical insurance in the US covering a pre-existing condition. IN 1950, when I needed an operation (before Medicare) in Winnipeg, my father sold his 1947 Studebaker to pay for the operation and it took another year or two before he bought another car. TODAY, in 2004, "that" choice is a daily choice for over 30% of the US population. Not so in Canada. Does anyone else want to comment anonymously or by name on this topic. It is, after all, important to us all. There will be another election soon in Canada and our health system still needs improvements and always will. If you do write, please tell me if I can use your name? My original comment follows: This is personal and readers will have noticed that there were no Questions and answers over the weekend. I started feeling a little pain in my left chest on Friday afternoon. The week was full of stress and I thought i jut had a little angina. Even went shopping at IKEA for the second time in my life on Friday Night. The pain wasn't bad on Saturday afternoon so , I went on to vote for Doug Mackay-Dunn and Joan Gadsby (who did not win) in the North Van District election. Took my 12 year old daughter with me to see the political process and after voting, I was in enough pain that "Jane" is saying Dad, go to the hospital. I thought of using the cell to call an ambulance, even though I was just blocks from the hospital but I was breathing fine and drove myself of course. Got to the hospital with no identification, no medical card, no money (I had just run down to vote after all). They took my name, looked me up in the computer and had me plugged in right away. 7 1/2 hours later, they sent me home after a cat scan, 2 sets of X-Rays blood tests, 2 ECG's, etc. Previously I had even got to see my heart valves opening and closing on ultrasound and the blood rushing through my nice and clean carotid arteries on Ultrasound. The Pain was caused by a touch of pleurisy on my lower left lung. The prescription, antibiotics and Ibuprofen as a pain killer. My thanks to all the emergency room staff at Lion's Gate Hospital and Dr. Long. My comment involves our Canadian health System. The biggest reason I have clients come back from the United States is that they have run out of Health Insurance. Until the US brings in some sort of Universal Health Care, it will NEVER be as good a country to live in as Canada. Thank you Tommy Douglas, the father of Medicare in Saskatchewan. david ingram --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. 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