Michael Moore - Sicko

According to Michael Moore Canada's health care system is wonderful. I would hate to disabuse him of that fact, but he is wrong. It might be better in some respects than the U.S. system, but it is not a panacea.

Just a couple of things stand out right away for me, just recently my mother was in hospital with several heart issues and stroke issues. I was discouraged from the get go about life saving techniques such as intubation. I was told, "well she is 84"...yeh so what. Under stress of having practically lived there for 5 weeks I concurred.

Just yesterday I read another bloggers report about her elderly father in the U.S., who had similar health problems with a bleed on the brain. He was given live support and rallied and came out of the coma. He is now back at home with his family. Of course now I'm second guessing myself big time.

His other example if about a woman who was told to have all her teeth pulled or pay $30,000 bucks to fix them. Well dear Michael, we in Canada are not covered for dental care unless we have private insurance, and guess what Michael, we are not covered for drugs either until we turn 65 and then only for generics and not all drugs. In fact, we are not covered for the latest cancer drugs on the market either.

There is of course private insurance above and beyond what the government will pay for but if you have even the slightest existing condition you will not be able to get it, at all, at any cost.

When my Mom was in the hospital, I was expected to provide basics like towels, wash cloths soap and yes even diapers. Not only that, they (the nurses) were expecting me to do her personal care. That's our wonderful system that he talks about.

Wait lists, most Americans haven't a clue what that means, here it means you could sit in a wheelchair for up to 18 months waiting for a hip or knee replacement. I've been told by my doctor that I need my gallbladder out. My cousin in the U.S. went straight to a surgeon who booked her operation. She got to choose her surgeon whereas I'm told to wait until I have another bad attack, go to ER and hope for the best. My mother waited three weeks in hospital for a 1 hour pacemaker surgery! My cousin in Michigan got hers within 2 days.

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. For all of the above services, we are taxed to death. There is no perfect system and both Canada and the U.S. need improvement, but to hold Canada up as the best is disingenuous. Go see the movie by all means, but take it with a grain of salt...Oh by the way, we lock our doors at night and guess what? we even set the burglar alarm.