I actually found the comments in that blog post to be more enlightening, especially the one that links to a commenter at TPM Cafe.
Hrm, infant mortality rates and hospital death rates are better in Canada? Sean, you’d better tag your anti-Canadian health care posts under “Culture of Death.”
Chet, you’re assuming that Sean can afford health care.
If he could, at least he’d get what he’s paid for, and then some - his doctors need to be good or they get fired. Makes for more conscientious service.
But let’s tackle that time frame. Waiting four months - the average wait - adds to infant mortality since prenatal care in the first and second trimester is crucial to survival rates, as well as the delay ensuring that most cancer patients move into the next stage of the disease before receiving treatment.
The study is also problematic for Canada cheerleaders because it isn’t distinguishing between getting in to get a pap smear and getting in to start chemo.
Since we’re talking about averages, the simple treatments that are less common, like pap smears, will be accomplished in the shorter period. Anything more complex and common will take longer.
So if you want to judge a success based on Canadians’ longevity, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
“Waiting four months - the average wait - adds to infant mortality since prenatal care in the first and second trimester is crucial to survival rates.”
..And yet the infant mortality rate in Canada is still lower. What’s worse, the fewer dead babies resulting from slow care, or the greater number of dead babies due to no care at all?
It would take a pretty detailed breakdown of the statistics to really be able to argue this, but i think the central point Chet was making and that i echo is that griping about slow service in Canada, and claiming that makes America superior, is a logical fallacy of Unrepresentative Sample: one less than ideal aspect of the whole is used to indict the entire whole.
Also, it should be noted that Canada’s government was recently pushed toward the right, and it would be interesting to look into how that’s affected the funding of Canada’s health care system.
Hey Chet, what’s it like going around assuming you’re better than everyone else, as you do, on a daily basis?
“Hey Chet, what’s it like going around assuming you’re better than everyone else, as you do, on a daily basis?”
I dunno. What’s it like going around being a complete dumbass?
Thanks for the answer gimp…that’s what I expected from such a pompous jag like you.
Um, Steve, you’re usually the one who leads the charge into flame wars with snarky crap like “what’s it like going around assuming you’re better than everyone else.” I mean, with that attitude, what kind of answer do you expect?
Dj has a point, Steve.
Also, the reason many american’s can’t afford health insurance is because it is expensive. The reason it is expensive is because healthcare costs are expensive. The reason helthcare costs are expensive is because insurance just pays for health care and there is no competition. No one shops around for helthcare because they pay the same rate of insurance no matter where they get treatment.
I think if people had a vested interest in keeping their healthcare costs down, it would create competition in the healthcare arena and work to drive down prices.
The main problem with the US helthcare system is that there is no competition. I think Health Savings Account style insurance plans could help to fix this.
The one time I was fired, it was left on my answering machine while I was on approved vacation time.
This same wonderful boss tried to cheat me out of my acrued leave time and my unemployment benefits (which I ended up needing for only three weeks).
In re: item 3 - “And yet the infant mortality rate in Canada is still lower.” I am pointing out how - if the numbers are accurate - Canadians are circumnavigating the system by hook or by crook. I’ve said before that they’re either following the English way by having socialized health that only the poor use or they work hard to avoid needing such crappy care, either of which could possibly make up for the skewed numbers.
Given the spate of unraveling “scientific” studies, I will be unsurprised when this one is exposed for the bunk it is.
Seriously - “one less than ideal aspect of the whole is used to indict the entire whole” ? You call actually having access to the health care in question a “less than ideal aspect”?
Yikes. That’s like saying that it’s good for Alberta to pay higher prices for their own gas (currently 90 - 94 cents/litre) than Ontario does (currently 80 - 83 cents/litre) - because it’s *Canada’s* gas, and Ontario needs it more.
Just so long as you understand that your short waiting times come at the cost of about half of Americans never seeing a doctor no matter how long they wait, because they can’t afford health insurance…
Hey, if that’s a reasonable trade-off to you, well, isn’t that what being conservative is all about? Personal enrichment at the cost of everybody else?