On 31-Mar-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

, I don't believe it.

What you believe is irrelevant. We are concerned with the
facts. Your believes have already been shown to be mostly
fictional.

Private insurance is not allowed for
"medically necessary" care.

Where does it say that?

And IF a "medically necessary service" is insured, then access to that
service is directly controlled by the government. It is rationed and
priority lists are created and people are not allowed to "jump the queue" to
get better or faster care.

You make this up and we are supposed to believe it? Where does it say
anything of the sort?

THEY are the ONLY civilians who CAN
seek better, faster private treatment at their own expense. Of course,

No - they get treatment through different clinics, not at their expense.
Stop making this stuff up.

Good thing the US doesn't recognize extraterritoriality

Though the yanks expect their laws to be applied extraterritorially.

As it is, it's ambiguous how the Canada Health system pays
for care in the US.

Not at all. It's well defined.

feds have to "consult and agree" with the provinces, but push comes to
shove, the feds can shove the plan down the province's throat by withholding
required funds and imposing penalties.

The latter is your fantasy. All things where federal and provincial governments
are required to work together require both levels to consult and agree. That's
why federal-provincial conferences are regularly held (Unlike the US, where states
do not have enough power to require the feds to negotiate on a regular basis).
There are ten provinces, three territories and only one federal gocvernment.
When push comes to shove, the feds are outnumbered. Constitutional changes in
the early 80's were wiped out by one province - that's power.

I imagine even more force would be
used if a recalcitrant province still refused.

You imagine a lot of things. We've come to ignore most of them.

Thus, the FEDERAL government (in the person of the Governor in Council) can
define what is covered and what is not and who gets it.

Yet the coverage is defined, and changed, by the provinces. Funny how reality
doesn't follow your fantasies.

[...lots or ranting elided...]

If the government were really interested in
people, they would be happy to take on the more complicated, costly cases
that private enterprise doesn't want to deal with.

No, dickhead. If the easy stuff is done by second tier medical clinics,
then only the _expensive_ and _less_common_ procedures are left for
government. This means that the taxpayer foots the bill _only_ for the
minority of worst case care situations. If the private clinics are so
much more efficient, they should be able to handle the tough stuff.
They won;t since they are only interested in a quick buck.

Private clinics do exist already. They keep costs down by hiring poorly
trained staff and providing inferior service for routine procedures.

The threat of private enterprise is so scary that the provinces have been
bullied into regulating private clinics so that they can't even opt out of
the system and provide service strictly to those who are willing and able to
pay.

And yet the private clinics exist and provide services that one can buy.
My example of a friend that payed for cataract surgery rather than wait
for her hospital shows that.

Thus, the government SETS THE PRIORITY LIST by
dictating what is covered and what is not,

What is covered is not the same as a priority list, dickhead.

That's undeniably government priority setting and list
making.

Relax dickhead. That's an example of a region not being able to
provide an adequate level of service.

This is mostly bull****. It didn't just eliminate over-billing, which would
have been fine, what it actually did was utterly eliminate the ability of a
patient to pay for BETTER care if they can afford it, while still providing
ADEQUATE care for everyone.

There is no correlation between extra billing and better service or treatment.
Extra billing is just a way for a doctor to inflate his earnings.


YOU CANNOT GET BETTER, FASTER MEDICAL CARE IN CANADA FOR "MEDICALLY
NECESSARY" TREATMENTS NO MATTER WHAT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE, NO
MATTER WHETHER OR NOT A PRIVATE PHYSICIAN IS WILLING TO GO THE EXTRA MILE
FOR YOU!

Take a pill, dickhead - you'll bust a blood vessel.

There is no correlation between how much a doctor wants to charge and the
quality of health care. "Better" is entirely bogus in the above rant.
Faster is debatable.

Their compensation is strictly limited to what the government
feels is "reasonable," and they can't set up a private practice to make
more,

They make as much as they care to according to how many patients they
see. Doctors are allowed to set up private clinics and can take
profits out of the clinic for all work that is paid that does not
directly involve their services. They can also make money from clinical
services that are not medically necessary. Doctors remain in the highest
income earning bracket in Canada.


the only people who can get better care by paying for it are tourists,

Since when should we provide free health care for tourists?

There it is, folks, the proof positive that Canada centrally controls and
rations health care.

Not much proof. Lots of ranting though.

Mike