Keep voting against your own interests, and keep reaping the rewards, Alberta!
i have been waiting 3 years for hip surgery, still no idea when it'll happen. i've lost everything since im unable to work, let alone walk to the store. I can no longer afford to eat daily, every other day is still a bit much...gotta make that food last! my food budget was $8 this month. Food bank here in town helps, sure, but who wants to eat old, outdated, stale food, for years on end. Alberta government is more willing to let me die on MAID program than to fix me so i can go back to work and pay tax' again.
The healthcare system here is FUCKED
And they want to privatize it such that you need to PAY for the privilege of having said healthcare. They’ve taken a hard look at the American for-profit model, and have realized just how profitable holding people’s health and life in ransom for their money can be.
With or without any wealth, you will still get processed by the current system. And with the way we triage, a billionaire with the same medical issue could be right after you, and you would still get processed before them regardless of how poor you are.
In a for-profit system, you’ll only get processed if you can pay. Can’t pay? Go die in the gutter outside like the freeloading scum you are. Your ability to be treated and the speed at wich you will be processed rests entirely on how much money you can throw at them. With a large enough donation, you could even get a stubbed toe moved to the head of the triage line, ahead of people on the threshold of death who will die without immediate attention.
The American system is great if you have money. A lot of money. If you are poor then it is more a "Sucks to be you" system than a Medical System.
A couple of years ago I was paying us$700/month for medical insurance for my family, and it sucked. Deductibles meant that I still had to pay a couple thousand dollars for my wife's surgery and any visit to be seen cost a us$35 copayment. Just to be seen, not for any medication or treatment. To top it off, you have to fight the insurance company to get them to actually cover anything, and who work their asses off not to pay out. It is also always possible that your local medical facility wont take your insurance so you still end up paying out of pocket, assuming that you actually can.
Imagine being rushed to hospital only to find out that none of the treatment that they gave you is covered by your expensive insurance because the ambulance company does not accept your insurance and the doctors, nurses, anaesthetists etc are out of your network. Lot of Americans do not have to imagine that because it happens every day. Canada's system may be flawed but it can get worse. Much much worse.
If you are poor
You say "not rich" funny.
The cost of healthcare - acute and preventative - was a major factor in my decision to cut short my stay there after 5 years and abandon my green card options. I was working in I-T for a great company with what I was told by a work-chum was a great medical plan; so I was up there for earnings among the 99%. Top-ten, maybe top-5%.
Fuck no. I can't hinge my future on ensuring I don't get taken to the wrong hospital by an ambulance.
Don't vote Conservative. If you're one of the non Conservative voters, please consider moving to another province and help push for electoral reform.
way back before they went all crazy, i did vote for them. not i a while tho, and especially not this last round.
if i could afford to move, i would.
Feel like donating to my 'get the hell out of alberta' fund? I'm kidding of course
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Alberta’s health care system is being crushed by demand for its services, according to physicians across the province, with children waiting for cancer treatment, hospital wards overflowing and prenatal appointments delayed.
Alika Lafontaine, a physician in Grande Prairie who until earlier this year was president of the Canadian Medical Association, said Alberta’s situation mirrors that in other health care systems across the country.
Asked whether hospitals are in worse shape than they were at the height of COVID-19, Dr. Lafontaine said the system is less resilient after going through repeated cycles of stress without fixes for underlying problems.
The government recently announced that nurse practitioners will be able to set up their own publicly funded clinics – a decision that drew outrage from some physicians, who said it devalued their work.
Patients had to be double bunked, which caused what he described as “pure gridlock.” Health care facilities in the Edmonton area have been operating under a disaster plan for about six weeks.
Kerry Williamson, an Alberta Health Services spokesperson, confirmed that a small number of children with cancer in Edmonton had to wait to start chemotherapy, but are now receiving treatment.
The original article contains 1,067 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
In Quebec our hospitals are at 150-200% for years, maybe 20 years. It's certainly the worst case in canada...
I've been on a waiting list for a family doctor for 8 years now.
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