Health Care Stories from Americans in Canada

Canadians lead longer, healthier lives than Americans

Research by David Feenie of Kaiser Permanente Health Research, strongly suggests what we in Canada know to be true- Universal Healthcare works!

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-04/bc-cll042710.php

McKinsey Study on US Health Care Costs

Fascinating studies on health care costs.

It looks like Americans spend more on health care than they do on food. And they spend more on health care than China spends on all goods.

The telling piece is that 40% of the 2+ trillion dollars is spent on outpatient care. Same day care for treatments that do not require a hospital stay. A nation of hypochondriacs? Or worse yet how about insurance fraud? Why would outpatient care be so high?

The Health Reform Bill in Simple Terms

The Immediate Benefits of Health Reform 

• The health reform bill passed last night is a victory for all Americans -- families, seniors, workers and small businesses.  Americans now have the security of knowing that they will not have to watch the American dream slip away if they get sick or are in an accident.
• Beginning this year, health reform will bring down costs for families and small businesses, it will end the worst insurance company practices and it will expand coverage to millions of Americans.
• This year, Americans will start to see significant benefits because of this bill and other important reforms will follow.

 
American families and small businesses will see costs go down immediately because of this bill.

In 2010 the bill will:

• Make providing employee coverage more affordable for small businesses by giving a tax credit of up to 35% of premiums to small businesses that choose to offer coverage.
• Create a temporary high-risk pool to provide affordable insurance options to adults who are denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
• Provide a $250 rebate for Medicare recipients who fall in to the Part D donut hole – the first step towards closing the donut hole for good.   The bill will also provide a 50% discount on prescription drugs which fall into the donut hole beginning in 2011.
• Require new private plans to cover preventative care – with no co-payments or deductibles.  Medicare will also provide free preventive care beginning January 1, 2011.
• Create a temporary reinsurance program for early retirees – this will help employers and retirees age 55-64 struggling to pay expensive premiums

 
Health reform will immediately expand coverage

This year:

• Insurers will no longer be able to deny children coverage because of pre-existing conditions – this applies to new plans and grandfathered group plans. Never again will insurance companies be able to deny coverage to a child because of his or her health.
• Young adults will be able to remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they turn 26 – this applies to new and grandfathered plans.
• Americans will be guaranteed access to the care they need. Insurance companies will no longer be able to drop coverage when someone gets sick or impose lifetime caps – restrictive annual limits will be banned for new plans and grandfathered group plans.

 
In the next fiscal year:

• Community health centers will be able to nearly double the number of patients they treat over the next 5 years with additional funding.
•  New investments in the bill will increase the number of medical professionals throughout the country – we’ll have more primary care doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

 
Immediately, health reform will strengthen consumer protections and reign in insurance companies.

• This bill will ensure consumers can appeal decisions private insurers make about their plans by creating a new, independent appeals process beginning this year.
• The bill will crack down on insurance companies and ensure they are spending your premium dollars on medical services – in the individual and small group market, insurers will be required to spend 80 percent of premiums on medical services and for the large group market, they’ll be required to spend 85 percent. Insurers who don’t meet those requirements will have to send rebates to policyholders. This will begin on January 1, 2011.
• Insurers will no longer be able to discriminate based on income beginning this year.  For new group plans, insurers will not be able to implement eligibility rules that unfairly benefit higher-wage employees.
• This bill will end the practice of unreasonably hiking up rates beginning in 2011.   Insurance companies will be required to submit justification for all premium increase requests. Companies who make excessive increases or cannot justify increases, may not be allowed in the new health insurance exchanges.
• The bill will help states create consumer assistance offices with funding coming this fiscal year.  These offices will help consumers file complaints or appeal decisions from insurance companies.

The final hours of the health care reform project

Well...here we are in the final hours of the Health Care Reform project. I think that 14 months makes it a project. At this time, I am looking at it all and I am glad to say that at least we have got something here. In 1994, healthcare reform was sacrificed on the altar of expediency, power politics, and corporate influence. The current healthcare reform project at the start of this year was well on its way to facing the same fate. Yet, President Obama looked at us all and reminded us that we had a job to finish. This assignment had to be handed in, and it would be completed. No ifs, ands, or buts. And if it were to get a failing grade, so be it. We would do our best to make sure it passes, but not finishing the job could not be an option. We finally understood that hey, we gotta do this. And a great many Americans have reacted like students who would prefer taking a pass on a particularly difficult assignment. Over the past year we have been subjected to the most interesting lessons on political science, the most fascinating of political analyses, and yes, a full demonstration of the successes as well as some of the failings of the American Democratic Political System. We are at the point where we are counting and re-counting votes down to the wire. The final dances with the wolves that will somehow, seemingly miraculously, get a Bill onto the President's desk for signature. And the photo op will go down in history. How do you get 218 members of Congress and 51 or 52 senators, plus the President, not to mention at least a couple of Secretaries, at least, into one big happy portrait?

An American Living in Canada Responds to Sally Pipes

Danny Williams, the Premier (Governor) of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador does not prefer American medicine. As is his right (and his choice) under the Canadian Medicare program, and under the advice of his Canadian Medicare-paid doctors, he preferred to go to Florida. And that’s not a bad idea when you’re in Newfoundland in the middle of winter. And if you have a vacation condo in Florida, as Premier Williams does, well duh!
  
Yes, some American hospitals (especially in Florida, Arizona, and California) are popular vacation destinations for about 40,000 Canadians a year, but guess what, Cuba is a lot cheaper, and will soon overtake them all! You can’t beat getting some good ol’ sun and surf in the middle of a Canadian winter! It’s pure dollar and sense wisdom.

A single-payer system in the Golden State is a wonderful idea that is only being considered because every other option simply does not make sense in the current economic climate. And Ms. Pipes may argue that government health care leads to waiting lists, rationing and lower quality of care. Yet, one thing you can’t argue with is Canada’s life expectancy rate which is almost 3 years longer than in the U.S.!

Oh yes, Canadian doctors heading south. A decade ago, a salary of $200,000 U.S. dollars was worth $320,000 Canadian dollars. Quite the premium. Very attractive. Today, however, $200,000 U.S. dollars is worth $210,000 Canadian dollars. There’s a heck of a lot fewer graduates going south. In fact, the word is that U.S. medical graduates are increasingly heading to the Great White North, fleeing the broken U.S. healthcare system, and many other U.S. professionals are joining them. There is now a waiting list for them to get in to Canada.

Most Canadians who are on waiting lists for healthcare are waiting for treatment of non life-threatening conditions, such as hip replacements and similar procedures. Yes, there are the serious cases. My brother in-law was on a list for a liver transplant for about four months. He received a liver, but his body rejected it. Within less than two weeks, he received another one. If your condition is life threatening, you shoot to the top of the list. This approach applies to the emergency room, as well. If you break your wrist, you may wait a few hours depending on the hospital and how many people are showing up. If you are having a heart attack, you will see a doctor within minutes.

Government spending on healthcare over the past 20 years in Canada has decreased, overall, creating major challenges for healthcare management and delivery of service, but nothing near what the U.S. has faced. In fact, the per capita cost of healthcare in Canada has been kept low (at about half the cost in the U.S.) precisely because it is publicly regulated and controlled. Private market driven healthcare costs are impossible to control centrally, regionally or nationally. This has been proven, quite spectacularly, in the U.S. 

Canadian doctors and healthcare professionals are generally more prudent in using healthcare resources. Waste not, want not. In the U.S., for example, malpractice fears alone have doctors sending far more patients for costly procedures and tests than are actually necessary.  As for pharmaceuticals, how many Americans are importing medicine from Canada over the internet? You just can’t beat generic drugs available at a fraction of the cost. You can’t beat good quality healthcare at a fraction of the cost. You can’t beat the fact that not one Canadian, not one, has ever lost their house or gone bankrupt because of healthcare bills.  

And you just can’t really argue with that, eh?

Larry Rousseau
American in Canada with dual American-Canadian citizenship
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Reference:
Sally Pipes opinion piece.
"Why Canadian premier seeks health care in U.S."
San Francisco Chronicle

Danny Williams could have stayed in Canada for top cardiac care

There is some good news in this story -- being a premier and an important politician doesn't mean you can just jump the line in front of any other patients deserving cardiac care. And if it was that bad your health care system in Canada would send you to the US anyways, Mr Willliams, you just have to work through the system rather than just bail to the US.

CIGNA HealthyRewards - a step in the right direction?

Have you heard of CIGNA's HealthyRewards program? Or Humana's new program called Humana Momentum?

Is this a step in the right direction? It does not look like your actual insurance rates get a discount, but you do receive more incentives for staying healthy like Jenny Craig memberships and LensCrafter deals. What if all those new customers that the insurances companies are bound to get are incentivized for healthy living with programs like these AND discounted insurance rates? Is this one way to motivate people to live a healthy lifestyle and therefore lessen the load on everyone?

Oh yes, insurance companies stocks rose 30%+ today. And the bill is not even passed yet. I am still skeptical on how insurance companies will react -- will they be good corporate citizens and respond in kind to the new bill?

The Dismantling of the Health Care Reform Bill

“A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you’re disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable. But meanwhile, pass the health care bill.” - Paul Krugman

I got a really bad feeling this morning after reading some of the health care press. I was reminded again by the numbers and the urgency of the problem:

Here's what I perceive happening - there are people in Congress that want to kill this bill by picking it apart piece by piece. Dismantling it altogether, until the left (the whole left) becomes disinterested and makes the whole process implode. They want to frustrate the efforts made during 2009. And then blame the progressives for "not working together." It's pretty transparent to me, now.

We cannot let them do this. We must fight for a proper health care bill. I have thought many times before that if the health care bill fails this time, there will only be one other option left. And that will happen when things get too tough financially for the average American, just like $4/gallon gas prices. And that option is a single-payer system.

Shouldn't we start fighting fire with fire? Does the American citizen need to be hit over the head with a 2x4 before they realize that the politics being played with in Washington will affect their health care and wallet very soon?

UPDATE: You want proof of the Republican strategy? Take a look at what the Republican Senator Coburn from Oklahoma had to say.

UPDATE 2: Talking Points Memo website post "Goodbye, Cruel World" talks about handwringing on the left. Basically the answer is "Stop your whining and complaining, this is the work of real democratic states, and it's hard work." I agree - we need to all step up.

References:

Benen, Steve.  “Ten Months In.” Washington Monthly, Political Animal Blog, 2009-11-29. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_11/021205.php
Chamberlain, Charles.  “Governor Dean Speaks to Me: Health-care bill needs major improvement to be worth passing.” Democracy for America, 2009-12-17. http://www.democracyforamerica.com/blog_posts
Bill Clinton:  “Abandoning Health Care Bill 'Colossal Blunder.'” The Huffington Post, 2009-12-17. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/bill-clinton-abandoning-h_n_396159.html
Cohn, Jonathan.  “The Left Is Playing With Fire (Updated).” The New Republic, 2009-12-16. http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/the-left-playing-fire
Dionne, E.J. Jr.   “Crunch Time.  Why health reform must pass by Christmas.” The New Republic, 2009-12-07.  <http://www.tnr.com/article/economy/crunch-time>
_______ “The Most Frustrating Body. The Senate has changed, and not at all for the better.” The New Republic, 2009-11-19.
http://www.tnr.com/article/environment-energy/the-most-frustrating-body
Krugman, Paul.  “Pass the Bill.”  The New York Times, 2009-12-17. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/opinion/18krugman.html

VIDEOS:

The Ed Show:  Arianna Huffington and Joan Walsh, Salon.com. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/arianna-on-ed-it-is-absur_b_393480.html>
Howard Dean on CNBC:  “Health Care Battle: Democrats vs Democrats.”  Howard Dean, former Democratic National Committee chairman and former Vermont governor, discusses the issue with CNBC. Yahoo, 2009-12-16.  <http://news.yahoo.com/video/business-15749628/17170409>
MoveOn  “Hits $1 Million Mark In Anti-Lieberman Campaign.” The Huffington Post, 2009-12-17.  <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/17/moveon-hits-1-million-mar_n_395962.html>
Stein, Sam.  “Gibbs Lashes Back At Dean, Suggests He’s Irrational.” The Huffington Post, 2009-12-16. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/gibbs-lashes-back-at-dean_n_394596.html

Health Care in America - Richard J. McCann

We've received an excellent multi-page analysis of the health care reform situation along with excellent FAQs. Easy to read, well written and well-informed. We've integrated the FAQs into the popular post "How will health care reform affect me?

Health Care in America

California Nurses Association: No Health Care Bill is Better than a Bad Health Care Bill

The CNA (owner of singlepayer.com) spells out their position on the current health care bill passed by the House. Their basic position is that it's a bad bill -- and they think an outright change of plan towards Single Payer is the only way out of spiraling health care costs. Something to think about carefully.