To Whom It May Concern.
We have watched with great interest over the past year the on going election process in your beautiful country. We have the social health care system that is being batted around by your Democratic Party and thought you might be interested to hear from someone in British Columbia, Canada ... 
Our health care system in Canada began under the best of intentions ... “Health Care for All” and we have heard many times that most Americans believe our system is an excellent one.  DON’T BELIEVE IT AMERICA!!!!  Our health care system is collapsing. We are a country of about 30 million people and have a national debt of 720 billion dollars. The growth of this debt has slowed but only at the expense of our health care system, schools, social programs and our military.
In many cases we have to wait up to a year or longer for CAT Scans, up to a year for a specialist appointment and more than a year for surgery.  If you are lucky enough to be able to afford it and smart enough to do it you take your problem across the border into the USA and pay for what you need there to ensure you will at least live.  Lots of Canadians are doing just that. Our hospitals in British Columbia are dirty, over crowded, understaffed and they can’t keep up with the load of patients they have to see.  Our Doctors and nurses are worked to the bone and stretched to the limits.  You think you are finally going to have that surgery you waited so long for and you get to the hospital only to find out that it was cancelled because the operating rooms could not be staffed.  Wards are being closed because of personnel shortages and patients are sleeping in the hallways.
We have the finest doctors and nurses in the world but we are losing more and more of them to other countries where they can receive better pay, be appreciated for their work and have a life with their own families. A lot of them are in America. Family doctors are a rarity here in Canada now.  Clinics are the only way most of us can get care and we often see a different doctor every time. 
Our school systems have suffered greatly.  If you think you have problems with your public school systems in America just add health care to the list of things that need to be paid for and see what happens.  Good programs that we did have are being cut left right and center because of the drain ... our schools are bulging at the seams ... they are overcrowded and under funded ... we simply do not have the money to sustain our social programs. One of our daughters is a special education teachers assistant trained to work in the school systems here. She has four children and is so discouraged by the failing of the system she home schools all of them.
When we started hearing about the social health care system that has been suggested to you in America we decided to warn you all about what the cost will be. If you go down the same road we have here in Canada ALL of you will pay and pay dearly no matter what income level you are. Once you are on the road and like us find it is the hugest money pit ever, how do you try and turn around again? Taxes, taxes and more taxes that never work. As middle income Canadians we represent the majority of taxpayers in Canada so it our collective contribution that feed our social programs - and it keeps going up. Once you go down this road you cannot turn around. It is a one way path. You lose your choice of care along with many other things.
No matter who wins your election America, your country has come a long way. It is an exciting time in your history but remember that voting with your heart is going to hit your wallet hard!
If you want to go the road of public health care and be one of the highest taxed country in the world we will be more than happy to pass that title on to you but you won’t like it. Just a view from a Canadian neighbour!
Kindest Regards,
Cam and Linda Vallee
11372 87A Avenue
Delta, British Columbia V4C 3A6

Interesting.  Thanks for taking the time to post here.  I was just posting about health care this morning, so your post is rather timely.  I have been to Ontario numerous times on fishing trips, and visited the University of Waterloo for computer programming contests while in college.  On one of my trips a family member did require medical care, and it was a rather big shock to visit a doctor and not receive a bill.  However, there was an equal shock of a different kind when we went to the pharmacy to pick up the prescription.  :)

Social health care can work for some countries, simply because there are other countries that have a competitive open market.  The competition and resulting potential economic gain for doing something new or better is a strong incentive that pushes research.  These gains and discoveries can eventually be used by other countries with systems that do not encourage such progress.

Again, thanks for taking time to post here.  I searched the internet, expecting to see the text of your message pasted all over the place, but I only saw it on one other forum.

The phone number is from British Columbia.  Why don’t you give them a call?

I am still here if you would like to ask me something. Feel free to call us as well as you will find us listed on 411 ...
Linda Vallee

You can look for the Vancouver Sun or the Vancouver Province Newspapers ... the one that deals with us locally is the Surrey Leader which often has stories about Surrey Memorial Hospital ...
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=e4fbd662-3cb0-4051-8f13-2c623a20baba&p=2

I will look for other links and post them here as I find them if you like ...

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=305524a3-fd5c-4368-ad97-b0eb7f147d18

Cambo, we have had a number of people come through here from outside trying to influence our local community’s thoughts on the candidates.  Our main two concerns are that candidate staffers might be posting here as a “regular” person to promote their boss, and the use of sockpuppets by locals.  That is why John is questioning who you are.

Sorry Nobama ... I really am from British Columbia and will search for links to support what I said if you like. Never thought about that actually ... I retired last year from a job I held for almost fourty years as a forklift driver and am your typical middle class Canadian.  My mother had what they called a “minor” heart attack in the spring and ended up in Surrey Memorial Hospital.  She appeared to recover after several days and we were able to bring her home but a few days later we had to rush her back and after about three weeks of testing they were finally able to tell us that she had a type of blood poisioning that she probably picked up on her first visit.  She almost died.  We had not had a lot of dealings with the hospitals per say but a few years ago our Provincial government privatized the cleaning staff.  It used to all be controlled by govt but costs were spiralling out of control so they contracted the cleaning and cooking out - lower paid non union workers were hired and almost every hospital is in a ruddy mess.  Contact with family members across Canada has confirmed for me that the failure of our health care system is happening right across the country.

... she is one of the lucky ones who still has a family doctor but he did not have hospital privleges.  They have doctors on call at the hospitals now and family doctors no longer deliver your babies - nor do they have any say in your treatment while you are in hospital here.  It truly is a mess up here and when I heard you were perhaps being offered our system of care - free for all - well, my wife and I figured it might be a good time to let you folks know what is happening up here. I do have cousins in Colorado, Florida and New York and was able to reach them with our opinion of how well our health care system is not working up here - it was them who suggested we try and reach out to America this way ...

... anyone that would like to reach me can do so at
... it is a Delta Cable network in Delta, British Columbia, Canada ... I was born 1947 in New Westminster BC and don’t know what else I can do to prove I am from here

Yeah, those physicians are called Hospitalists.  There are positive advantages to hospitalists, and the nearest two (small) hospitals - Wythe County Community Hospital and Pulaski Community Hospital - have both started using them to some extent.  In Pulaski I think it is the ideal scenario, because the hospitalist is part of the local group of internists, who are responsible for all non-surgical admissions to the hospital.  The hospitalists are taking care of patients after hours and on weekends, and the other internists make their normal rounds in the morning and evening to see their own patients.  The problem with general practitioners having admitting privileges is that they can often bite off more than they can chew, by having to keep demanding office hours plus take care of their admissions.  If one of their inpatients take a turn for the worst, the physician will often have to leave their practice (and thus all the people stranded in the waiting room) to oversee treatment.

Hospitalists are specialists, so they have extra training in issues and treatments specific to hospital care, so ideally they can get people well faster, reducing the length of stay, and thus reducing health care costs.

However, it sounds like you guys have taken it to the extreme.  So basically your doctor sends you to a hospital where all care is turned over to a bunch of hospitalists that you do not know, and who do not consult with or interact with your family doctor who you are comfortable with.  That certainly could be scary.  I know that if I had to be admitted to a hospital I would insist that my family physician (an internist who is also my business partner) would be responsible for directing my treatment.

Geez I did reply to what you last said but I think it ended up posted somewhere else. . I have to take some lessons to learn how to use this contraption better .. I’ll see if I can find where I put it and get rid of it ... well that was a fruitless search ... somewhere in this forum is a post by me that is going to make absolutely no sense ... only from Canada eh?
I have left this link open so I can get back to it via an e-mail note .... hope that what I sent will be food for thought for someone ...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E2DF1530F932A35752C0A9649C8B63

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/international/americas/26canada.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-07-02-opcom_N.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/americas/28canada.html

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E2DF1530F932A35752C0A9649C8B63

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/international/americas/26canada.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2007-07-02-opcom_N.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/28/international/americas/28canada.html

I don’t have links to provide, but I do have a sort of experiential knowledge here. I used to work for a company based in Quebec. When the folks from up there would come down for a visit, they would sometimes talk about the health care system in Canada. I say “talk” but actually they were complaining about the system and telling us how lucky we are that we don’t have socialized medicine here in the states. The one guy that I talked to most (he was indirectly my supervisor) echoed a lot of what cambo posted…the long waits for tests, overworked medical staff, not enough health care professionals, Canadians crossing the border to the States and paying out-of-pocket to have life-saving surgeries, etc. Every Canadian I have ever talked to about health care complains about how bad it is in their home country.

John - 28 October 2008 08:37 AM

... I read a couple of these and they were alot like the other two you posted.

Could that possibly mean that it’s pretty much an accepted truth?

John - 28 October 2008 08:37 AM

.. Anything recent from Canada? How about from your Government?...

Why in the world would the government publicize any information telling people what a horrible job the government is doing?

I did manage to find a link for you though.
The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care

I think you’ll find one particular quote of interest, John, if not downright joyful.

“This is a country in which dogs can get a hip replacement in under a week,” he fumed to the New York Times, “and in which humans can wait two to three years.”

Just having a bit of fun with ya there, big guy :)