33.7 million Canadians are not Shona Holmes

[kpete]

Sunday, July 26, 2009
33.7 million Canadians are not Shona Holmes

By GottaLaff

***I have been given permission to repost this in its entirety:
http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/07/337-million-canadians-are-not-shona.html

To my American friends: I sincerely hope you’re not taken in by the GOP propaganda featuring Canadian Shona Holmes trashing our system of universal healthcare. The problem is both that Ms. Holmes and her Republican masters misrepresented her condition and that the tactic itself is reprehensible. The GOP can’t produce any logical argument against a system that is entrenched in every Western society except yours, so they resort to fear-mongering and lies, claiming that one Canadian’s skewed view trumps the experiences and beliefs of the rest of us.

There are almost 34 million Canadians and it’s true, not every one of them supports universal healthcare. It’s not a perfect system and we too debate its reform and worry about its cost. But it is also integral to our identity as Canadians. Ask what makes us a people and the majority will cite government-administered, publicly funded healthcare. Along with the French fact, it is also what differentiates us from you – though we wish, for your sake, that it didn’t.

Like our Conservative Party, your Republicans really do take the people for fools. The GOP expects you to believe that one woman denigrating Canadian healthcare speaks for all of us. Even if her story were factually accurate – and apparently it is not – opponents of healthcare reform have claimed that her experience is typical. It’s a surreal if sadly unsurprising experience to watch Republicans in Congress stand up and outright lie about my country, but that’s what’s happening. So if you have the sense that Canadians routinely rush to the U.S. for MRIs and that those who don’t are dropping dead on a daily basis, well, think again.

As former Liberal health minister Ujjal Dosanjh has pointed out on CNN, the Canadian system is not run by nameless, faceless bureaucrats who decide whether or not you are worthy enough to receive treatment. Actually, that sounds rather closer to a description of how your HMOs operate. In Canada, where healthcare is not private enterprise, medical decisions are made by doctors. Of course, when you or a loved one is sick, it’s a scary time, and everyone would prefer to be treated right away. And I know from personal experience that if your life is in danger, that’s exactly what happens.

Half a lifetime ago, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her doctor did not put her on a waiting list. She did not go south to receive more timely, better treatment in the U.S. Instead, she was diagnosed late one Monday afternoon then had a mastectomy the very next day. That’s the way it works in Canada: her condition was deemed so serious that she received immediate care – and of course her operation, stay in hospital, and subsequent treatment were paid for by the state. No one asked if my mother had insurance or ran a credit check to ensure she could afford to stay alive.

The Canadian healthcare system is not flawless. Particularly in rural areas, we have shortages of doctors. It can sometimes take a while to get an appointment if your condition isn’t acute. We don’t do a great job of promoting preventative medicine. But despite what you’ve heard from Shona Holmes, most Canadians believe that our system is one of the best in the world, and we’re rather horrified that millions of Americans are uninsured.

As a proud Canadian I’m sick and tired of the lies Republicans tell about our healthcare system to avoid reforming yours for ideological and partisan political reasons that we consider perverse. They did the same thing when the Clinton administration made its attempt, and alarmingly, the tactic seems to work: Bill and Hilary failed in ‘94 and now polls are indicating that Obama’s popularity is slipping, that his push for reform is stalling.

It wasn’t any easier for us to muster the political will needed to implement universal healthcare in Canada. In the 1960s both provincial and federal administrations faced determined opposition; in Saskatchewan there was even a doctor’s strike. But both the Saskatchewan government of Premier Tommy Douglas and, subsequently, the Canadian government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson persevered to the benefit of all Canadians. Now doctors are among the most vocal supporters of universal healthcare.

Don’t squander the opportunity to do what’s right because of Shona Holmes. Shona Holmes does not speak for Canadians. I’m sorry the woman was sick, but that doesn’t make her an expert on healthcare or give her the right to condemn our system. I don’t know Ms. Holmes personally so I can’t really comment on what motivates her, but rest assured, the other 33.7 million of us Canadians are not Shona Holmes. The Republicans paid that woman to lie to Americans about Canada, and both of us deserve better than that.

[annabanana]

1. Ronnie Reagan showed the money guys how WELL

folksy little anecdotes work.

[TexasObserver]

2. Recommend

[Oregone]

3. Why is anyone concerned about Canada again?

It isn't like the US is going single-payer anyway. The precious private insurers will always be there.

[Posteritatis]

9. Black-and-white "thought," mainly

Anything that edges so much as a millimeter away from the current model is, to a lot on the right, exactly the same as diving into full-fledged Stalinism.

[SidDithers]

4. Two things to remember about Shona Holmes...

1. She didn't have a brain tumour. She had a Rathke's Cleft Cyst. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/reality+check+reality+check/1783177/story.html

2. She's suing the Ontario government to recover the $100,000 she spent for her treatment at Mayo. So, no matter what she says in the TV ads, she still thinks that the government should be paying for her health care.

Sid

[glarius]

5. The killer phrase used by the Repubs..."Do you want the government making your medical decisions?"

Or "do you want the government coming between you and your doctor, as they do in Canada?"....This phrase is repeated daily ad nauseum. The belief they are trying to implant in the minds of the American population is the lie that Canadian doctors do not make the medical decisions. As I have posted repeatedly....THE GOVERNMENT PAYS THE BILLS, PERIOD!....They also say the government chooses our doctors. Another LIE! I myself have changed doctors a few years ago, when a woman doctor came to town. (I'm a female)
By the way....I'm glad to get this information about Shona Holmes. I just sort of sensed there was something phony about her.
I notice that of late they seem to be alternating between Canada and Great Britain in their attacks on Universal health care. It's really pathetic. They should be ashamed of themselves!

[progressivebydesign]

7. Repubs prefer to have our medical decisions made by some surly CLERK in a high rise!!!

I fucking hate the republicans right now... oh, I mean more than ever now.

[TaffyMoon]

6. Shun Shona

definately shun her.

[Laelth]

8. K&R for the truth. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[redqueen]

10. Is that the woman with the benign cyst, who goes around calling it 'cancer'? (nt)

[KamaAina]

11. Wasn't there a Knack song about her?

:shrug:

[Javaman]

12. The one grossly misinformed fellow employee at our recent health care meeting...

we just got a new health care plan at work. the usual crap, rinse and repeat.

then one of my fellow employees, who comes off at times as being a bit mental, asks the following question, "if I'm out of the country say in France or Germany and I get injured how will I be covered?" The health care rep then began, what I would like to call "phrase gymnastics", to explain to my dimwitted fellow employee how he will be covered.

Now this is where I usually get myself in trouble, but no higher ups were around so I piped up, "wouldn't just be easier for my fellow employee to just claim he doesn't have health care and then be treated for free by the that foreign nations public health care plan?" Silence.

After being caught completely off balance, the health care talking head began to blather about substandard care.

I cut her of and said, we are 37th in the world, France and German, I believe are in the top 10.

She ignored me and went on to the next question.

So much stupid going around it's incredible.

later on, the fellow employee, came up to me and said, "you would actually say you didn't have insurance?" Damn straight, I replied. He then responded, I shit you not, with, "that's just plain unAmerican".

After I finished laughing, I asked him exactly how is that being unAmerican?

He began to pontificate about how I was lying, how we have the best health care in the world, blah blah blah.

When he was done, I told him I would send him a few links.

About a week later, he comes up to me with the look of a 3 year old that was just told that Santa doesn't exist. He, much to his credit, apologized. And thanked me for the information.

One at a time folks, one at at time.

[alfredo]

13. It wasn't cancer, it was a cyst!!

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/health/reality+check+reality+check/1783177/story.html

Still, I found Holmes tale both compelling and troubling. So I decided to check a little further. On the Mayo Clinic's website, Shona Holmes is a success story. But it's somewhat different story than all the headlines might have implied. Holmes' "brain tumour" was actually a Rathke's Cleft Cyst on her pituitary gland. To quote an American source, the John Wayne Cancer Center, "Rathke's Cleft Cysts are not true tumors or neoplasms; instead they are benign cysts."

There's no doubt Holmes had a problem that needed treatment, and she was given appointments with the appropriate specialists in Ontario. She chose not to wait the few months to see them. But it's a far cry from the life-or-death picture portrayed by Holmes on the TV ads or by McConnell in his attacks.