America's great "no wait" health care system.

[Lefty48197]

We've all heard the right wingers claim that Canadians, the French, the English, the Germans etc. all have to WAIT long periods of time before receiving health care in their countries, due to their socialist health care systems.

I have a story about an American that was told she had to wait to have cancer surgery. My aunt recently learned that she had a malignant melanoma on her face. She went to the doctor who confirmed that the growth was cancerous (Squasalcell melanoma - the "bad" one). She was told that she would have to wait two months for the surgery even though she said the growth was getting noticably bigger by the day. After a couple of weeks, she became terrified and told the doctor that she didn't want to wait one more day for surgery. He told her that he could perform the surgery the following week, but that the wound would have to remain open because the plastic surgeon wouldn't be available for another 3-4 weeks. Feeling she had no other choice, she had the surgery as soon as the surgeon was available.

The plastic surgeon finally rearranged his schedule or something and wound up treating her wound after about 1 1/2 weeks instead of the 3 she was expecting. Either way, that's a long time to wait for medical treatment. Imagine the pain and discomfort of an open wound on your face. Bandages yes, but no pain killer beyond over the counter tylenol.
Mom just came back from a visit and tells us the doctor said he removed all of the cancer from my Aunt, and the plastic surgery (skin grafts) have started to heal. We're all very greatful for the work of the wonderful Doctors that treated her.

My question to the Republicans is: If America has such a great health care system where people don't have to wait for emergency surgery, then why was my Aunt told she had to wait two months for emergency surgery, even though the cancerous growth was getting bigger every day?

[readmoreoften]

1. My doctor wants me to have an MRI because of a small brain tumor but admits "it can wait"

since my insurance is so bad that I can't afford the thousand+ dollars for the MRI let alone the treatment that would follow. He says there is no indication that it is growing or malignant, so we can hope for the best since there is no realistic way for me to afford treatment. From the looks of things, I've been harboring the critter for awhile. And this is a good urban public health professional, not a bougie doc in the burbs.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. When I was diagnosed with AIDS, I had to wait 4 weeks for my first appointment.

No hurry or anything. Just because you are 30 lbs underweight and recovering from pneumonia is no reason to rush to see the doctor or anything.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. and uh some of us can't go to the doctor at all

unless we wish to go bankrupt.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. Wonderful doctors who gave her nothing but tylenol for pain, mmkay.

[SidDithers]

5. As a counter story...

involving Canadian health care, my dad was diagnosed with Kidney cancer about 2 years ago. From the detection of the tumor (lucky ultrasound, the were checking for a hernia), to surgery removing the kidney (done arthroscopically!), was ~ 10 days.

There are lots of things wrong with the Canadian health care system, and waiting lists for non-critical surgeries, like knee or hip replacements, can be unacceptably long. But when things need to happen in a hurry, they usually do.

Oh, and the total cost for Dad's kidney surgery? $45.00 - for 3 days of phone and TV in his hospital room.

Sid

[antigop]

6. I needed an emergency MRI--doc said GET ONE IMMEDIATELY

Took me about a week to get one.

Now repeat after me:
Our healthcare system is great. Canada's sucks.

Keep repeating.

:sarcasm:

[xchrom]

7. when i needed an mri --

couldn't get one for over a week.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

8. when I needed my gallbladder removed - I couldn't

unless I wanted to hock everything and pay cash.

I didn't want to leave my kid with a pile of bills so I did without the surgery
and ate cream of wheat for about 2 months.

It still acts up now and then, but I didn't have to get surgery that I couldn't pay for.

[area51]

9. Kick.

It's long past time that this country tries to move toward first-world status and become civilized by changing to single-payer healthcare.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. If that were me, I'd just whack the damn thing off myself

rather than wait. Pretty much every day you wait increases your risk of dying from something like that.

Someone should really start marketing do it yourself surgery kits in this country.