Canadians for Sustainable Medicare (C4SMC)
 

Whew, I digress and we’ll probably now see if fellow Rotarians are reading this.

 

Reading the summary, elevator pitch of C4SCM states their “goal is publically funded heath care that is affordable and sustainable. Our values are a healthy society, patient choice, timely access to health and fiscal prudence by governments.” And for all of this to happen “Medicare’s sustainability requires the ingenuity and contributions of the private sector. Innovation and entrepreneurship must be encouraged.”

 

I thought this was how our system worked in the first place. Government regulated, run, funded, blah, blah, blah Medicare. Not quite.

 

The sound of straight Private vs. Public is a scary thought. The right balance is definitely needed but how to regulate and track to ensure that people aren’t falling through the tracks. I’ve had both the positive and negative experiences with Medicare. Heck, I was at the hospital four times over the course of over a year with what I was told at the time “GAS”. At 15 weeks of my pregnancy I was told they needed to do emergency surgery to remove my appendix. It would have been nice to have it out the year before but alas the doctors assumed that my pain was simply “gas”. With all of this being said, would I have paid to see a specialist after my first two bouts of the pain? Not sure. Would I have had treatment sooner? No one can say. I do know that the wait times and our growing population is a strain on many.

 

My father needed shoulder surgery. He waited more than a year to get it done. He is one tough cookie. He was told all but two pieces of his shoulder muscle were torn off. I know he never discusses his pain. He took it in silence and just kept on going. He didn’t go on leave from his work and modified how he carried things, got in and out of vehicles and didn’t ask for help (mom called us to move things when dad wasn’t around). Again, the wait! What would have happened if my dad wasn’t so driven and stubborn. A medical leave of absence paid by health care? I know he would have mentally been affected by this move – depression, inability to work or contribute, loss of income…

 

After going through the wait, I could see my parents looking at a private option moving forward. Not that they would want private health care, but this situation wasn’t ideal. It was considered almost “elective”. That my father chose to have the muscles pulled and reattached to his shoulder. Interesting though that this is how our system is currently working.

 

Medical options should be available. The big questions will be, how to manage a private and public health care to ensure it is fair to all. How can our government and policy makers ensure that this is working correctly? How do you manage greed? How do you keep the skills in the public health care system if the public starts paying more?

 

One thing is sure. We do have flaws and we need to be open minded. We need to know that everyone, regardless of socio economic status can have access to health care. I do not know the answer and regardless of our path in the future. We will need to work on it. We will need to adjust the process. Other questions will be, how fast can you change things if needed to do so right away? – we’ve seen how fast government can work with policies and bills. Hard and difficult questions that will be our test – if we change the system, will it work and could we go back if we need to?

 

I guess I should also share at least a couple of positive experiences with health care. Funny but not funny that we remember the negative more vividly. I was finally able to get my appendix out – the surgeon and staff were awesome on that visit. A digital rectal exam is not what it sounds like! My delivery with Una was phenomenal. The doctor was off two hours before she was born but stuck it through the 36 hours with me and wanted to see her born. My husband cut just below his knee with a chain saw and needed to be rushed to a rural hospital – we had great service with stitches, needles, pain killers and antibiotics. Got in and out in a flash….so there are good things. The fact that we could simply go in and not worry about money or need to speak with parents to borrow money to pay for these things is a blessing. But will it be sustainable? Is there room to grow?