Ignorance and arrogance – a tale from Canada
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When the news broke that Newfoundland’s premier went to the United States for heart surgery, I withheld judgment.
Idiotic bloggers like Sister Toldjah jumped at the chance to say Danny Williams’s decision showed how bad Canadian health care is; other bloggers condemned the decision for the black eye it presumably gave universal health care.
But I was willing to wait for more of the story to come out.
Sure, I was annoyed at what Williams did. I was miffed by this elected man’s decision to offer no public explanation before the trip to a surgeon’s table in Miami.
Still, I reckoned he might have a satisfactory explanation.
It turns out the guy is a total asshat.
Andre Picard critiques Williams’s defence of his decision better than I could.
“Williams has the unquestionable right to get medical treatment in the United States,” Picard writes in the Globe and Mail.
“But the ignorance and arrogance Mr. Williams displayed in making the decision to get heart surgery in Miami Beach is staggering.”
Williams’s defence of his Miami trip implied, as Picard says, “that the surgery he sought in the United States was not available in Canada, and that health care in this country – and cardiac surgery in particular – is inferior.
“That is utter nonsense on both counts.”
Williams was presented with a choice between two procedures, both of which are offered in Canada. The option he chose is available in at least seven Canadian cities, and (as Picard notes) “cardiovascular outcomes in this country are as good as in the U.S., and often better.”
To say that staying in Canada would have meant settling for anything less than “the best possible health care” is to defame Canadian medicare. Shame on the premier for doing that.
Take it away, Andre: “Mr. Williams’s sin was not in going to the U.S. for surgery, it was in acting on partial information, uttering untruths about the availability of care, and smearing – however inadvertently – Canada’s health system in the process.
“The Premier said he did ‘some checking,’ but the reality is that he depended on the old boys’ network and on prejudices about Canada’s health system instead of readily available evidence.
“Sadly, this is often how decisions are made by the politicians who are stewards of our health system, and we all suffer for it.”
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How long would he had to wait for the procedure had he opted to have it in Canada? Is it at all possible that that was a factor?
Will: A valve abnormality was detected last spring. Williams was told in December, 8 months later, that surgery was needed soon but not urgently. So, no, it doesn’t appear that speed was a factor here.
Besides, I know this may come as a shock to some U.S. residents who’ve been egregiously misinformed about the Canadian system, but if a Canadian urgently needs surgery he/she gets it right away. The system prioritizes according to need, unlike another system that prioritizes (partly) according to ability to pay.
A story in my family: My father needed multiple bypass surgery. It wasn’t a matter of greatest urgency (i.e., he wasn’t going to die right away without it), but it was of fairly high priority. So, after a fairly short wait, he got that surgery. That was in 1990. Twenty years later, he’s still among the vertical and turns 90 this year. And all without having to haggle with an insurance company to get his surgery paid for, and without going into medical bankruptcy. That’s how a civilized system works.
The average rich Canadian jetting down to south Florida in mid winter, for surgery, at his own expense I presume, and convalescence at his condo is not headlines. Newfoundland’s Premier doing same, in the current health care climate here, is big headlines.
Looking OK on the beach (at his age, looking ‘good’ on the beach ain’t likely) may have been a factor in Williams’s decision-making. He chose a ‘minimally invasive’ procedure that barely leaves a scar, though it may be medically less desirable.
Yup! I lived in South Florida for many years. I can guarantee that someone who lives in the frozen north isn’t going to hop on over to Vancouver if he can fly on down to Miami, Florida, in the dead of Winter.
Truth and Four: Danny Williams is a multi-millionaire and has a condo in Florida. That condo had to factor into his deliberations.
I recall watching a programme by that fat American bloke who’s name escapes me…oh no it doesn’t…Michael Moore…which clearly evidenced that health care in the USA which costs you lots of money is no better…and often worse..than health care in Canada and Great Britain which costs you absolutely nothing directly.
Even indirectly you only pay ‘National Insurance’ in Britain and, I assume, some equivalent in Canada.
The man is obviously suffering from psychological problems if he wants to go…
…hang on…Miami?
Ahhh! He wanted to be in warmer climes!!!
It’s Canada’s fault for being cold.
So there….;-)
Sounds like this joker just wanted to go to Miami and used surgery as an excuse.
The weather is nice in Miami this time of year Stimpson. Convalescing by the pool eyeing hot chicks in bikinis ain’t so bad either.