Six weeks ago today, I had a laparoscopic hysterectomy...
A few months before my surgery, one of Terry's cousins, who lives in Michigan, shared on Facebook that she was undergoing a hysterectomy. Over the next few weeks, she shared photos of knitting projects she was working on as she recuperated, distances walked as she regained her strength... and finally, the good news that she was feeling great and able to return to work.
Then came an interesting Facebook post: her $43,000 hospital bill for her hysterectomy!
Not to worry - she told Facebook friends and family... She had health insurance... But receiving the bill made her stop and think about those who might not have insurance coverage or money to pay for the procedure.
Then she added: I only have to pay the $7,000 deductible... and the costs of pre-op visits to the doctor ...
I was shocked!
You see, the big difference between her insurance coverage in Michigan and mine in Canada is that I will never even see a bill... not for the surgery, not for my hospital stay, not for any of the lab tests... nor for any doctor visits... Our government-run health care insurance covers it all.
Do we appreciate the amazing health care system we Canadians have?! It's time for us to sit up and take notice!
Showing posts with label Medicare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicare. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Friday, April 8, 2011
My Mother's Pain
March was a trying month for my 91-year-old mother. An arthritic knee was acting up - and painkillers seemed to have little effect.
Then anti-inflammatory medication caused one side of her face to swell up.
I'm taking so many pills, my mother fretted. They'll probably kill me.
On her second trip to the hospital emergency room, this time for upper leg pain she couldn't endure, X-rays revealed the problem was bursitis, a common inflammation - nothing more.
When she yelled out in pain during a blood test ("You're killing me!!"), it became apparent that what to most people would be a minor discomfort, was intolerable to her.
At that point, a geriatric nurse came over to talk to us.
We went into a quiet office, where the nurse asked my mother about her life, past and present. After their little chat, the two of them went for a "walk" around the hospital ward.
I want to see how you're doing on your walker, the nurse explained.
I sat waiting for them, feeling a sense of relief: Someone was trying to see beyond her symptoms.
Your mother is very anxious, the nurse commented when they returned. Has she been that way for long?
Ever since she moved here nine years ago, I replied... Especially if she doesn't sleep well at night... And she said that pain kept her awake all night.
I think she should be assessed and followed for a while in a geriatric day hospital, the nurse replied. She would come in twice a week. If her anxiety is a problem, or if it gets worse, a small amount of medication could perhaps help.
I'm also going to prescribe some physiotherapy and adjust her pain medication...
For the first time in a long while, I felt a sense of hope.
Then anti-inflammatory medication caused one side of her face to swell up.
I'm taking so many pills, my mother fretted. They'll probably kill me.
On her second trip to the hospital emergency room, this time for upper leg pain she couldn't endure, X-rays revealed the problem was bursitis, a common inflammation - nothing more.
When she yelled out in pain during a blood test ("You're killing me!!"), it became apparent that what to most people would be a minor discomfort, was intolerable to her.
At that point, a geriatric nurse came over to talk to us.
We went into a quiet office, where the nurse asked my mother about her life, past and present. After their little chat, the two of them went for a "walk" around the hospital ward.
I want to see how you're doing on your walker, the nurse explained.
I sat waiting for them, feeling a sense of relief: Someone was trying to see beyond her symptoms.
Your mother is very anxious, the nurse commented when they returned. Has she been that way for long?
Ever since she moved here nine years ago, I replied... Especially if she doesn't sleep well at night... And she said that pain kept her awake all night.
I think she should be assessed and followed for a while in a geriatric day hospital, the nurse replied. She would come in twice a week. If her anxiety is a problem, or if it gets worse, a small amount of medication could perhaps help.
I'm also going to prescribe some physiotherapy and adjust her pain medication...
For the first time in a long while, I felt a sense of hope.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
SOCIALIZED Medicine or MediCARE?
One of the challenges of teaching English to immigrants is explaining subtle differences in meaning of English words. No two languages have exactly the same concepts, so simple translations don't always work. When a student, for example, called fund-raising letters she was stuffing into envelopes at the Heart and Stroke Foundation "propaganda," she couldn't understand why her boss was taken aback.
What's wrong with what I said? she asked...
It was difficult for her to grasp the difference in connotation between the terms advertising, information and propaganda! The subtleties evaded her.
But words impact our perceptions... For instance, when I hear politicians in the US talk about Canada's health care system as "SOCIALIZED medicine," I cringe, because, to me, the word SOCIALIZED conjures up images of socialism and communism.
(Yet Canada is no less democratic than the US!)
I prefer the term Health CARE or Medi-CARE, with the implied focus on CARING for people.
I like to think that we are a caring society that INVESTS IN PEOPLE - providing education, medical care and equal opportunity to all.
I don't mind paying the taxes it costs to live in a society where we look out for each other. As my father used to say at tax time: Be thankful you have to pay taxes. In the Communist regime I grew up in, the government just came in and took it all!
What's wrong with what I said? she asked...
It was difficult for her to grasp the difference in connotation between the terms advertising, information and propaganda! The subtleties evaded her.
But words impact our perceptions... For instance, when I hear politicians in the US talk about Canada's health care system as "SOCIALIZED medicine," I cringe, because, to me, the word SOCIALIZED conjures up images of socialism and communism.
(Yet Canada is no less democratic than the US!)
I prefer the term Health CARE or Medi-CARE, with the implied focus on CARING for people.
I like to think that we are a caring society that INVESTS IN PEOPLE - providing education, medical care and equal opportunity to all.
I don't mind paying the taxes it costs to live in a society where we look out for each other. As my father used to say at tax time: Be thankful you have to pay taxes. In the Communist regime I grew up in, the government just came in and took it all!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Canadian Medicare: A Day in the Life...
Ever since my 90-year-old mother moved into a retirement residence, she has been keeping so busy with their many activities that she rarely thinks about her aches and pains. But yesterday, when I got home from church, there was a message on the answering machine from a nurse at the residence: My mother had a sore toe and her foot was swollen. It looked infected - so she needed to see a doctor immediately.
Since it was Sunday, I had two options available to me: a walk-in clinic or a hospital emergency room, where xray equipment and labs were on site. I opted for the emergency room, even though I knew it would probably entail a longer wait.
When we got there, dozens of people were waiting to see a doctor - some had cuts, others limped, and a few just looked sick. Most were accompanied by someone, so the waiting room was full. Progress seemed slow for the first two hours - more serious cases had obviously preempted those of us sitting in the waiting room. But then, three groups of people were called into the examining rooms in quick succession, and we were finally seen.
Within 10 minutes a doctor determined that my mother had a fungal infection. She decided to administer a strong dose of antibiotics inter-venously before sending her home with a prescription. This procedure took about an hour, during which time the doctor also disinfected the blister on her toe and bandaged it, sending the fluid from the blister to a lab to have a culture done.
In the meantime, an ER nurse arranged to have a visiting nurse go to my mother's residence and administer inter-venous antibiotics for several more days. A wound-specialist would also visit my mother at home, and we would need to come back for a follow-up appointment.
The cost of all this - absolutely nothing.
(A portion of the tax we pay goes to medicare... so that when we need it, it's there!)
Since it was Sunday, I had two options available to me: a walk-in clinic or a hospital emergency room, where xray equipment and labs were on site. I opted for the emergency room, even though I knew it would probably entail a longer wait.
When we got there, dozens of people were waiting to see a doctor - some had cuts, others limped, and a few just looked sick. Most were accompanied by someone, so the waiting room was full. Progress seemed slow for the first two hours - more serious cases had obviously preempted those of us sitting in the waiting room. But then, three groups of people were called into the examining rooms in quick succession, and we were finally seen.
Within 10 minutes a doctor determined that my mother had a fungal infection. She decided to administer a strong dose of antibiotics inter-venously before sending her home with a prescription. This procedure took about an hour, during which time the doctor also disinfected the blister on her toe and bandaged it, sending the fluid from the blister to a lab to have a culture done.
In the meantime, an ER nurse arranged to have a visiting nurse go to my mother's residence and administer inter-venous antibiotics for several more days. A wound-specialist would also visit my mother at home, and we would need to come back for a follow-up appointment.
The cost of all this - absolutely nothing.
(A portion of the tax we pay goes to medicare... so that when we need it, it's there!)
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
The Real Cost of Medicare...
I was chatting with a good friend - an American who has spent much of her adult life in Canada, married to a Canadian. During our conversation, she mentioned the current US medicare debate and how sad it made her.
It's hard for me, as a Canadian, to understand why so many Americans don't want everyone to have medical coverage, I said. To me it's totally illogical.
They think the cost is too high, she replied.
Her comment made me think of my recent trip to Hawaii. At the Ala Moana Shopping Center, I remember watching several ladies pick up empty soda cans to take to a recycling station several blocks away.
It wasn't unusual to see dusty, sunburned beachcombers gathering cans to cash in at the recycling depot. But these ladies looked different. I stared at them for a few minutes because I had never seen anyone hobbling along like they were. Something was obviously wrong with their legs.
I remember thinking - if these ladies were in Canada, would they be walking like that? Or would a doctor long ago have fixed whatever their problem is? Can they simply not afford to get treatment for whatever ails them?
If so, the cost of a country's health insurance can't simply be counted in dollars and cents. Surely one must factor in lost potential: the loss to society of everything that these women (and others like them) could achieve - if their medical problems weren't holding them back ... If they could afford the treatment they needed...
It's hard for me, as a Canadian, to understand why so many Americans don't want everyone to have medical coverage, I said. To me it's totally illogical.
They think the cost is too high, she replied.
Her comment made me think of my recent trip to Hawaii. At the Ala Moana Shopping Center, I remember watching several ladies pick up empty soda cans to take to a recycling station several blocks away.
It wasn't unusual to see dusty, sunburned beachcombers gathering cans to cash in at the recycling depot. But these ladies looked different. I stared at them for a few minutes because I had never seen anyone hobbling along like they were. Something was obviously wrong with their legs.
I remember thinking - if these ladies were in Canada, would they be walking like that? Or would a doctor long ago have fixed whatever their problem is? Can they simply not afford to get treatment for whatever ails them?
If so, the cost of a country's health insurance can't simply be counted in dollars and cents. Surely one must factor in lost potential: the loss to society of everything that these women (and others like them) could achieve - if their medical problems weren't holding them back ... If they could afford the treatment they needed...
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Canadian Medicare - A Personal Perspective
I never gave much thought to medical insurance as a child growing up in Alberta and British Columbia in the 1950s and 1960s. Neither province had medicare at the time, and I remember how suspiciously we all viewed Saskatchewan when this province instituted government medical insurance. There were rumblings in the news: Was that province becoming a little too socialist for comfort? The media portrayed a government-run medical insurance plan as undemocratic... but to people like my father, a car mechanic who at 19 had escaped to Canada from a communist regime - universal health insurance seemed the essence of democracy. I remember how happy he was when our small city of Kelowna instituted dollar-a-day hospital coverage - we would be billed only a dollar for every day we were hospitalized. Was his sense of relief due to the fact that one of my cousins, who was a few months older than me, had been diagnosed with cancer and was spending weeks at a time in the hospital?
Across the country - in Quebec - my future-husband's family was experiencing their own medical ordeal at about the same time. While still in her mid-30's, Terry's mother had developed lung cancer. As the disease progressed, she was hospitalized again and again with pneumonia and then for surgery, as doctors tried to stem the disease by removing more and more lung tissue. Terry's father, an office worker who supplemented his income by working weekends as a waiter, was hit hard financially and emotionally by the burden of his wife's illness. By the time she died four years later, he was left with 4 children to raise alone, and a debt from his wife's medical expenses that he would never be able to pay off. His private medical insurance did not begin to cover all the expenses they had incurred.
When I went to Israel as a university student, any bias I had against government-run medical insurance quickly disappeared. Could I - a struggling student - afford to see a doctor? Of course! Everyone could - it was free!
So when I returned to Canada a number of years later, I was delighted to discover that all provinces had instituted government-run health care plans! The way we pay our premiums changes from time to time. Once, in Ontario, a set premium was deducted from our pay, together with other compulsory deductions. If you were a student, you had to mail your premium in. Now medical insurance is part of our income tax - the amount we pay fluctuating with our income. This past year I paid $600, or $50 a month.
How do I feel about a government-run medical plan? I wouldn't want to ever be without it! When I think about the stress endured by my husband's father when his young wife fell ill, I am thankful that I don't have to wonder - Can we afford to go to the doctor about this? I can see a doctor at any time, without taking my check book (as I remember my sister-in-law doing in Texas). My mother has had surgery for cancer twice in the past 7 years, but we have never had to worry about paying for it.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the two most important changes in Canada in the past hundred years are laws guaranteeing compulsory free education for all children - and free government-sponsored health care. Yes, both cost the tax-payer a substantial chunk of their tax bill, but they are both definitely worth it!
Across the country - in Quebec - my future-husband's family was experiencing their own medical ordeal at about the same time. While still in her mid-30's, Terry's mother had developed lung cancer. As the disease progressed, she was hospitalized again and again with pneumonia and then for surgery, as doctors tried to stem the disease by removing more and more lung tissue. Terry's father, an office worker who supplemented his income by working weekends as a waiter, was hit hard financially and emotionally by the burden of his wife's illness. By the time she died four years later, he was left with 4 children to raise alone, and a debt from his wife's medical expenses that he would never be able to pay off. His private medical insurance did not begin to cover all the expenses they had incurred.
When I went to Israel as a university student, any bias I had against government-run medical insurance quickly disappeared. Could I - a struggling student - afford to see a doctor? Of course! Everyone could - it was free!
So when I returned to Canada a number of years later, I was delighted to discover that all provinces had instituted government-run health care plans! The way we pay our premiums changes from time to time. Once, in Ontario, a set premium was deducted from our pay, together with other compulsory deductions. If you were a student, you had to mail your premium in. Now medical insurance is part of our income tax - the amount we pay fluctuating with our income. This past year I paid $600, or $50 a month.
How do I feel about a government-run medical plan? I wouldn't want to ever be without it! When I think about the stress endured by my husband's father when his young wife fell ill, I am thankful that I don't have to wonder - Can we afford to go to the doctor about this? I can see a doctor at any time, without taking my check book (as I remember my sister-in-law doing in Texas). My mother has had surgery for cancer twice in the past 7 years, but we have never had to worry about paying for it.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the two most important changes in Canada in the past hundred years are laws guaranteeing compulsory free education for all children - and free government-sponsored health care. Yes, both cost the tax-payer a substantial chunk of their tax bill, but they are both definitely worth it!
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