> From: Mark Dapoz <md@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> As for the ever growing delays, according to the Ontario governemnt
> itself
> here are some real (although incomplete) statistics (http://
> www.waittimes.net):
>
> Knee Replacement: 357 days
My Mom waited a year to have a knee done... on Blue Cross, in Michigan!
One thing is true for a single-payer system: you can gather stats
like that, giving your enemies free ammunition. In the murky US way,
it's not so simple.
In my Mom's case, she was bounced around from specialist to
specialist, test after test, forced to endure countless non-working
cheaper alternatives, before they finally agreed to give her a knee.
I have no idea how anyone could possibly wade through all the bloody
paperwork -- which is surely costing something -- to come up with a
wait-time statistic. In fact, her perspective is that a lot of the
run-around she got was so that they could generate "good" statistics
-- prove they were doing something. ("Patient treated successfully
for pimple on knee -- case closed. Tests for other patient complaints
are proceeding.") But the first doctor she saw said she needed a
knee, then the insurance company made her jump through hoops for over
a year.
So, in Ontario, the government makes you wait a year, and in
Michigan, the insurance company makes you wait a year. Which is
better, the socialist year or the capitalist year? :-)
I think people are whipping numbers around that they simply don't
understand, just to prove their case. I'll stop it (except for the
occasional randomly selected signature line) if everyone else will.
:::: Nature must, in the not too distant future, institute bankruptcy
proceedings against industrial civilization. -- William Catton ::::
:::: Jan Steinman <http://www.VeggieVanGogh.com/Van> ::::
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