Out of respect for the dead, it’s not in my nature to slam the dead. Senator Kennedy is no longer a factor in the political world anymore, and any naming of any health bill would be just as disrespectful.
As the US government looks to do health insurance reform, not health care reform, their solution is to add an option that is not burdened by performance evaluations (like private companies need for their stockholders), taxes (like the private companies will have to pay to their main competitor, the government), or even maintaining a profit (while the federal government can run a deficit and still use the excuse that they’re doing it for “the people”). This is what the government considers “increasing competition.” Most private insurance companies as it stands are already so heavily regulated that they practically run as monopolies. (Read more here.)
Regardless, the agonizing process that Sen. Kennedy went through in his diagnosis and treatment of his brain tumour needs to be contrasted with how he might have done in a place like Canada. How well is Canada doing with its own diagnosis of cancer? According to the report card put out by the Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada has a condemnation of the system:
Can employers and citizens absorb the offloading by our governments? The answer is, it depends. Your eligibility for private insurance, the type of plan you have and how your insurer feels about paying for clinic infusions will directly impact your finances after a cancer diagnosis. Canadians might wonder if this is fair. Where did medicare go? The rules are set out in the Canada Health Act, but lacking a definition of “medically necessary”, the provinces seem free to offload “out-patient” drug costs as they choose.
Suddenly the costs of the drugs used to treat cancer is being either picked up by private companies or citizens. Why are the provinces doing this to us? Luckily enough for them, the Canada Health Act is just ambiguous enough that the provincial governments have full leisure to decide what is a “medically necessary” treatment. The increased burden is passed onto the patient and has been on the rise. The CBC article states that a majority of the cancer drugs available on the market are not made available to the public. So we don’t allow competition with private clinics, but all the drugs you can somehow get your hands on are yours.
When Sen. Kennedy was suffering from his brain seizure, he was rushed nearly immediately to a hospital for an MRI. A June 2006 study of median wait times and right on page 2 they outline the median wait time as 75 days, three times the recommended wait time of 25 days. According to thsi article on the Peace Arch Hospital, the number of MRIs in all of British Columbia, a population of over 4.4 million people, is 22. Meanwhile, in 2004, all of Massachusetts with its 6.4 million population has 145 MRI scanners, and the article points out that is the same number as in all of Canada. Canada now appears to be up to 222 MRI machines as of 2008, but we are still lagging far behind the United States for per capita MRIs. (Have a look at wait times for each province, as well as private vs. public wait times, here. Many thanks to Captain Capitalism.)
With such a huge wait time, as well as a dearth of MRI machiens available, how confident are you that Senator Kennedy could have had his tumour diagnosed in time?
Forget the major job-killing provisions in the bill, which tax certain-sized businesses a penalty unless they provide health care (”8 percent of the average wages paid by the employer”), which will either cost the company huge profits or force them to lay people off to get just under the limit of employees. Forget that unless “the government does not find that ‘Federal health reform savings’ have saved at least $150 billion per year by the end of 2012, the first two surtaxes increase to 2 percent for families making over $350,000 and 3 percent for families making over $500,000.” (Got that? if the program didn’t work, they get to place a surtax on the rich to make sure it DID work.) Forget that it imposes a “tax on individuals without acceptable health care coverage” of 2.5 percent of income in excess of the filer’s exemptions (essentially $3,300 for a spouse and for each dependent).” (All can be found here.) All you need to remember is that Canadians are in this situation now, and our only alternative for access to proper health care is south of the border, our one haven from this mess known as public health care. The Democrats are looking to dismantle our haven.
If that is enraging enough, we should be a little more enraged at the purely awful health care here at home.
