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Canadians Create Intelligent Medicine
RunAmuk writes "Engineers at the University of Calgary have developed a pill that, once swallowed, will determine how healthy or ill the patient is, and will release just the right amount of medicine accordingly, according to an article on Wired. As the sensors used in these pills grow more advanced are doctors going to be come obsolete except for real physical injuries? Of course, anyone who has been to a doctor in Canada understands that we need medicine that can do the diagnosis for them."
That was merely intended to be a cheap shot from a rabidly jingoistic twit who's been taught by CNN to hate all government programs not invented in the good ol' US of A and desperately wants to move down there. Pay it no mind.
Here's a quick lesson to those unfamiliar with Medicare up here: the government doesn't run the entire health care system like in Soviet-style communism, they merely fund universal insurance. That's the incomplete short version, but that's the basics.
Not to be confused with the US gov't Medicare program, a totally different animal.
You seem a little harsh, and I have a hard time believing you're canadian. I've never had any of the above mentioned problems, and neither did my friend when he got lukemia. I have never heard of this surgeon quota, and a quick google search didn't find me anything.
There are some problems, however. The salaries do need to go up for doctors and surgeons., as a lot (but certainly not all) do head to the US. Its not an astronomical number as you imply, though.
Most life threatening surgeries/treatments are done quickly, but its the non life threatening ones that are the bitch. Waiting lists for knee surgeries and the like are almost a year!
Also, there is a lot of fraud and abuse of the system, which costs a lot, and spending lately has not gone up proportionally to inflation and population growth. Private clinics/hospitals are not the answer here. More money and some internal competition is what is needed, and more money to doctors and less to management.
You're rant about how much you "hate it here" tells me that you're either not canadian or spent little time here or both. Either way, go back the the US, if you like it that much. But ask and you'll find 98% of us are very happy here, and we can get started on what's wrong with the USA.
Communism \Com"mu*nism\, n. [F. communisme, fr. commun common.]
A scheme of equalizing the social conditions of life;
specifically, a scheme which contemplates the abolition of
inequalities in the possession of property, as by
distributing all wealth equally to all, or by holding all
wealth in common for the equal use and advantage of all.
!= socialism.
Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
Born 1961, Montreal, Quebec.
I've never had any of the above mentioned problems, and neither did my friend when he got lukemia.
Then you and your friend have been extremely lucky. Know this: the funds for that care, in some small part, came from an individual who never needed more than a routine doctor's visit, until he needed repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Left untreated this is a death sentence. The best surgeons in the U.S. have a 70% recovery rate. The surgery was denied in Canada. Had the patient purchased U.S.-style private health insurance, or even self-insured, with the tax dollars he paid for health care since it was was socialized in Canada, affording the surgery would have been a non-issue, with plenty of funds to spare. However, he was literally taxed to death, denied the means to save his own life with his own money.
I have never heard of this surgeon quota, and a quick google search didn't find me anything.
You think it would be front page news? Look deeper, like for waiting lists for moderate surgery, like hip replacements, etc. Why are there waiting lists at the same time that doctor's salaries are capped? If there are waiting lists, there is demand, yet supply is curtailed.
There are some problems, however. The salaries do need to go up for doctors and surgeons., as a lot (but certainly not all) do head to the US. Its not an astronomical number as you imply, though.
Salaries need to be established by a free market, and not capped by state fiat. As for transmigration between Canada and the U.S., a far greater percentage of Canadians leave to go south, than the reverse -- IIRC 1/10 as many Americans emmigrate to Canada, in terms of sheer numbers, but that translates into 1/100th of the population. IOW, Canadians are 100 times as likely to leave for the U.S. than the reverse. Wonder why?
Most life threatening surgeries/treatments are done quickly, but its the non life threatening ones that are the bitch. Waiting lists for knee surgeries and the like are almost a year!
See my notes on this above. When "most" is "less than would have happened on a free market with the patient's own funds", this is state-sanctioned murder.
More money and some internal competition is what is needed, and more money to doctors and less to management.
Only a free market can deliver this -- Canada has been throwing money at health care for decades, rather than letting the health care system earn what it deserves bassed on service and volume provided.
You're rant about how much you "hate it here" tells me that you're either not canadian or spent little time here or both. Either way, go back the the US, if you like it that much.
I was born in and lived in Canada from 1961 to 1997, left for the U.S. with family and lived there from late 1997 to early 2003, having to return for visa reasons. I would gladly leave again at the first opportunity, no doubt pleasing us both.
But ask and you'll find 98% of us are very happy here, and we can get started on what's wrong with the USA.
Of course 98% are happy! They rob and murder the remainder. Hence, my broad generalization that 98% of Canadians are liars, thieves, and murderers.
Time and time again, I've been told to lie on government forms to "get what I need", saying, for example, that I intend to live in Ontario permanently. A society where deceipt is an essential part of the culture, essential for survival is a very unhealthy one.
As for the U.S., there are plenty of problems there. In fact, compared to most Canadians, I called most Americans "paranoid, opinionated, blowhards". I figured if I was going to generalize and catch those that do not fit the description in such a wide net, I may as well seek the worst in the place I prefer. I reiterate, I prefer opinionated blowhards to murderers.
You could've hired me.