>
> "People line up for care, some of them die. That's what happens," says Canadian
> doctor David Gratzer, author of The Cure. He liked Canada's government health
> care until he started treating patients.
>
> "The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people
> waiting for radiation therapy, waiting for the knee replacement so they could
> finally walk up to the second floor of their house." "You want to see your
> neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! Just wait six months.
> You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! Just wait six months."
>
> Polls show most Canadians like their free health care, but most people aren't
> sick when the poll-taker calls. Canadian doctors told us the system is cracking.
> One complained that he can't get heart-attack victims into the ICU.
>
> In America, people wait in emergency rooms, too, but it's much worse in Canada.
> If you're sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours.
>
> "We can't send these patients to other hospitals. Dr. Eric Letovsky told us.
> "Every other emergency department in the country is just as packed as we are."
>
> More than a million and a half Canadians say they can't find a family doctor.
> Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor. In Norwood, Ontario,
> 20/20 videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a
> lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor.
>
> Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor
> in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked
> artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery
> "elective."
>
> "The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live," she said.
>
> It's true that America's partly profit-driven, partly bureaucratic system is
> expensive, and sometimes wasteful, but the pursuit of profit reduces waste and
> costs and gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and save
> lives.
>
> "[America] is the country of medical innovation. This is where people come when
> they need treatment," Dr. Gratzer says.
>
> "Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease
> has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for
> that type of advancement."
>
> Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American
> innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying
> for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care—forever. Government monopolies
> don't innovate. Profit seekers do.
>
> We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy
> access to cutting-edge technology—CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy,
> etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn't have to wait.
>
> But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the
> one area of medicine that hasn't been taken over by the government. Dogs can get
> a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.
>
>
>
>
>
>