I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

And here's another one of my recent favorites. 

LIKE your post, Pip!

C4C, my sister's doctor ordered an MRI for her neck and back.  Her insurance company denied it.  Where are all of the cries of outrage from the right when a FOR PROFIT company inserts itself between you and your doctor, the  way they say the ACA does?  (It doesn't, by the way.  Read the law.)

I wish a right winger would happen along and fill in the blanks:

"It's perfectly, morally, fine for a FOR profit insurance company to deny a treatment  or test ordered by my doctor because........"

C4C - yes we can choose our doctors, pharmacies and hospitals. However, the public hospitals have huge waiting lists and I would never risk going to one. I have private health insurance which covers in-hospital treatment and extras like dental, optical, physio etc. The refunds we get are not all that great, so we have out of pocket expenses. BUT the hospital accommodation and theatre fees are fully covered by the private insurance. When I had rads they weren't covered by private insurance because I wasn't an inpatient, but when I had chemo I was admitted as a day patient and paid nothing. Of course the public hospital would have been totally free but I prefer to choose my own docs for in-hospital treatment.

A good example is the ultrasound I had last week at a private hospital - covered by our Medicare - cost $296 I got $92 back from Medicare nothing from private insurance as it is not covered. The free breast screening centres we have here will no longer see me as I had been diagnosed with bc - now that is not right, but I don't trust them now either.

Staying home sick today - so nice of that person at work coming in with a cold last week - grrrr

and sorta just for fun:

Suzie - when I was in New Zealand in the late 90's we spoke with a lot of people about the 2 tiered health care system (public and private) like you have.  This is one problem I see with a Single Payer system, capitalism will always come in to fill the void and many of the kiwis noted this problem, yet they were totally aware of our FUpped system and did not want that.

It doesn't seem like Canada has this issue, am I wrong??

This is why Obamacare might ultimately be the better system, as it levels the playing field and provides subsidies for those that can't afford to play.  This is how Switzerland works (much like Obamacare) and I've only heard good things about their healthcare system.

Kam:  Just as anywhere else, our healthcare "system" is a bit complicated, although the vast majority of Canadians are quite happy with the way things are.  Do we have a 2-tier system?  Not in theory, although some would say Yes, in practice.  But the 2-tier thingy really only applies to elective surgeries such as plastics, cosmetic and ortho.  IOW, if you want a facelift, and it's not medically necessary, you'll go to a cosmetic surgeon and pay him/her directly.  (It may or may not be done in-hospital).  There are some ortho procedures such as arthroscopy that can be done in a non-hospital setting and, for a fee, the patient will avoid a hospital surgery waiting list. 

There is a problem with wait-times here, although not if your condition is life-threatening.  Out-of-pocket costs would be drugs not administered in-hospital.  Certainly no co-pays to see a doctor, nor for any diagnostic tests, at least here in Ontario.  Many of us do carry supplemental health insurance to pay for dental, physio, chiro, drugs etc.  Most full-time employees receive this type of insurance as a benefit, but of course it's much, much less than insurance that would cover ALL healthcare costs.

The over-riding ethos that governs Canadian healthcare is that a 2-tier system is anathema, and that healthcare is a right, not a privilege.  So glad I live here!

Linda - out of hospital stuff here ie gp visits,specialist visits etc are covered by medicare - but you pay a gap if your doctor doesn't bulk bill - luckily my GP does. Specialists never do - I'll pay when I see the bs this week - I'll get some back from medicare. She charges 90 for a visit and I get back 36.55.

The theory here is that the Breast Screening clinic is just that - a screening process. Once a person has been found to have breast cancer, screening is not what is needed.  So I went to the Breast Screening Clinic for a while and once the first cancer was found, I was out of their program. Now it's just a different referral system for mammograms. There is no difference in cost - all of it is covered by our health program with zero out of pocket expenses.

I do know plenty of patients here in the US where a cancer was missed during the screening process. I want Canada's system.  If people have to wait for non-emergent procedures - that's okay by me.

On sisters: I've concluded that my biological sister is a psychopath.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10737827/Psychopaths-how-can-you-spot-one.html  Basically, it is impossible to have a real relationship with someone who is incapable of it.  I have repaired ties with family with whom I disagreed with over politics or religion: we simply agree not to discuss the subject.  My sister, however, is a habitual liar and manipulator and is toxic.  Anything more than the most superficial relationship is not only impossible but destructive.  I have as little contact with her as possible.  My real sisters are sisters of choice, not of birth.

Sandy - I got the chills reading the link, flinched at the picture of Ted Bundy, but the hardest part of my reading it, was thinking of my own ( and only) birth sister.  Don't have the label for it, and doesn't matter anymore as I've left it all w-a-a-y behind me, but the Modus Operendi of "do it my way or I'll stop talking to you/cut you off" is toxic, frightening, wearing, and sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who took so, so, so long to realize how destructive it was, as, because Jackie so eloquently wrote about a few pages back, it was always done under the "guise" of family. Implying you ( me) have no choice but to deal with this.

AH, the joys of learning, loving, nurturing kindness of a family of choice.

Interesting to me, when one marries, society declares that is "legally" a family, but there doesn't seem to be the same recognition of other relationships, mostly those are called friendships, not speaking of sexuality,  just the emotive word of "family" - not always appropriate for me.

good morning, all!  I've been reading all your posts and totally absorbed in all the family talk.  We always laugh and say we're a dysfunctional family.  Sisters and brothers who don't speak for what I view as pretty small potatoes.  I am lucky in that my sister, brother and I remain very close in spite of political and religious differences.  I have a daughter who won't even invite her brother to her wedding and my sister's two daughters haven't spoken in years.  No serious reason, no psychopaths, just dumb stuff.  Living with stage IV cancer has enabled me to see more clearly what is small stuff and what is big stuff.  Big stuff:  I'm one of those moms who forgot the mommy filter a couple of times and during what I call one of my rageaholic tantrums said things I should not have said to my children.  We've talked for hours about the impact that had on them, especially my daughter, and have worked through it with lots of apologies and forgiveness.   Thinking back I can make lots of excuses for why I lost my cool as a mommy, but really, nothing excuses things I said.  I'm glad my daughter came to me and talked to me about how it affected her.  I would have hated going to my grave without making amends.   I do wish she and my son would talk things through and mend their relationship but al-anon has taught me that I can't control what others choose to do.

Glenna - so glad you had the heart to heart with your daughter.

I can deal with differences in politics and religion.  i can deal with the accidental or incidental fights that happen in relationships.  I cannot deal with someone who lies, who has no real emotional connection, and who tries to manipulate every situation to her advantage.

Sun, Yorkie - sounds like we have similar situations with our sisters.  I struggled for years to try to find good in my sister, and my oldest daughter kept trying to tell me that it was useless.  It's only been in the last 5 and 1/2 years, since my mother died and we've had "joint" responsibility for taking care of my father that I realized just how toxic she was.  There was the time she took $30,000 out of one of his accounts  put it into her name, and put a note on the account that I was not to have access to the adduct she had robbed - a note was ineffectual since I had his co-power of attorney.  There was the time she was telling me to my face to go ahead and find a place to move him to New Jersey from Cincinnati; all the time, she was planning to sabotage any placement I would find. She wanted to know the details of every apartment I looked at, and then vetoed or stalled on every one. She was also telling me that she thought I should be paid as a manager if I brought Dad up here, but only because she could then turn around be paid if Dad moved to Columbus where she lives. I only found out because she told my father's live-in caregiver that she wasn't going to let me rent an apartment for him in New Jersey - and asking the caregiver to help her move him to Columbus.  The caregiver called me and told me that my sister had offered to fly her to Nebraska, where her family lives, if the caregiver would help move my dad to Columbus instead of New Jersey.  The caregiver, who truly cares about my dad and doesn't trust my sister to take care of him, called me and told me what my sister was up to.  When I confronted her, she lied and said the caregiver was lying, but then when forced to repeat it in front of the caregiver, squirmed and tried to come up with an explanation.  Last fall, she made it quite clear that I should let my father die when he was hospitalized - so as not to waste what will be her inheritance on taking care of an old sick man with Alzheimer's.   Sorry. I know I'm going on.  When I read the article on psychopaths, it struck such a chord.

Happy Noon Gals,

Wow .. this family stuff is very powerful.  I am very close to my brother and sister and our views on religion and politics are quite different.  I love and accept my brother just the way he is ... as long as he doesn't try to preach to me.  I can't write about my sister.  It's too much for today.

Need to get dressed and walk the dogs!  Counting the days until I am with my grandsons again.

Glenna ... I wish my son would talk to me the way your daughter did.  We both keep things pretty close inside, but I would really like to know if I have caused him any hurt so I can make amends as well.  I was in Al-Anon for a long time .. such a great program!

hugs,

Bren