Why Romney Doesn’t Want A Canadian National Healthcare ID Card
Romney’s best line of the day was unscripted. A stray Canadian had driven from Ontario to ask Romney a question and in the process joked that Romney could not have his ID card for Canada’s national health-care system.
The ball sat on the tee for a long second before Romney hit it. “I don’t want it!” Romney said. The crowd roared.
— “Two Michigan rallies revealRomney, Santorum flaws,” David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post, Feb. 25, reporting on a rally earlier that day in Shelby Township, Mich. (suburban Detroit)
Hmm. Well, okay. Romney and his wife Ann, an MS victim, have about $220 million with which to pay their medical expenses.
But there’s another reason that they don’t need national medical insurance: They live in Massachusetts, and so, by law, have medical insurance, even though neither Romney nor Ann is employed and even though Ann has a serious medical condition the onset of which predates the end of their coverage through Romney’s last employer. That law is known, among those who deride it, as “Romneycare.”
He has health insurance because he can afford to purchase it. His insurec position has nothing to do with the Mass law.
The issue is for all those who cheered his response. Those people have a problem both stemming from falsely identifying with Romney.
Daniel
beat me to it.
“the crowd roared.” who ARE these people?
Yes, of course, he can afford to purchase medical insurance. Which is one of my points. He and his wife are wealthy enough that they probably would choose not to have it, though, were they not required by “Romneycare” to have it. They can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for medical care, if necessary, and not see the loss of the money impact their life in any way.
And were it not for Romneycare, Ann probably would be uninsurable. Which is another of my points.
When I managed medical groups we received at least five faxes a week from Canadian physicians desperate to get a job in the U.S.
Be careful what you wish for.
Well, since presumably the Canadian doctors’ motive was to increase their income substantially, and since I’m not an M.D., and since I’m very interested in having affordable access to good medical care for myself and for everyone else here in the U.S., I’m being quite careful of what I wish for. And I hope to get it.
Yes, Ann might have been uninsurable. I apologize for not completely understanding this was your point.
rusty
sad to say, some doctors want to get rich. i guess they can’t do that in canada. too bad.
see, what i want in a doctor is someone who can get rich by treating me for conditions i don’t have, or that can’t be cured, but charges me on the principle of “your money or your life.”
i mean, what the hell.
what’s funny about Americans is that they want rich doctors, but want someone else to pay the bill.
Coberly, Beverly:
Before some reforms Canadian primary care docs had to see 45 – 50 patients A DAY to make a living. Get rich? Get real.
Report about what’s real: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/788717/canada-s-doctors-are-well-paid-study-shows
“FREDERICTON, June 2, 2011 /CNW/ – Canada’s doctors are very well paid, and in fact, the arrival of the medicare system boosted their incomes, a new study shows.
“Jacalyn Duffin is a medical doctor and a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she holds the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine. She began the study after discovering that a gap in our knowledge about how physicians’ pay had evolved with the expansion of Medicare in the 1960s, and more generally over time.
“Dr. Duffin, who is presenting the study at the 2011 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton,New Brunswick, says she was able to compile information from a variety of sources, including the census. With that information, she charted doctors’ incomes in Canada from 1850 to 2006, and made year to year comparisons.
“What she found was that Canadian doctors have always earned better-than-average incomes.
“But she also found their income received a significant boost with the advent of Medicare.
Before Medicare many patients – often as much as one-third – couldn’t afford to pay their medical bills….”
Report about what’s real: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/788717/canada-s-doctors-are-well-paid-study-shows
“FREDERICTON, June 2, 2011 /CNW/ – Canada’s doctors are very well paid, and in fact, the arrival of the medicare system boosted their incomes, a new study shows.
“Jacalyn Duffin is a medical doctor and a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she holds the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine. She began the study after discovering that a gap in our knowledge about how physicians’ pay had evolved with the expansion of Medicare in the 1960s, and more generally over time.
“Dr. Duffin, who is presenting the study at the 2011 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton,New Brunswick, says she was able to compile information from a variety of sources, including the census. With that information, she charted doctors’ incomes in Canada from 1850 to 2006, and made year to year comparisons.
“What she found was that Canadian doctors have always earned better-than-average incomes.
“But she also found their income received a significant boost with the advent of Medicare.
Before Medicare many patients – often as much as one-third – couldn’t afford to pay their medical bills….”
Report about what’s real: http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/788717/canada-s-doctors-are-well-paid-study-shows
“FREDERICTON, June 2, 2011 /CNW/ – Canada’s doctors are very well paid, and in fact, the arrival of the medicare system boosted their incomes, a new study shows.
“Jacalyn Duffin is a medical doctor and a professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, where she holds the Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine. She began the study after discovering that a gap in our knowledge about how physicians’ pay had evolved with the expansion of Medicare in the 1960s, and more generally over time.
“Dr. Duffin, who is presenting the study at the 2011 Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Fredericton,New Brunswick, says she was able to compile information from a variety of sources, including the census. With that information, she charted doctors’ incomes in Canada from 1850 to 2006, and made year to year comparisons.
“What she found was that Canadian doctors have always earned better-than-average incomes.
“But she also found their income received a significant boost with the advent of Medicare. Before Medicare many patients – often as much as one-third – couldn’t afford to pay their medical bills….”
rusty
first a matter of logic. if they want to get rich they come to America, they don’t see forty to fifty patients a day in Canada to get rich.
but by my kentucky arithmetic that’s about five to six per hour. i haven’t had a doctor spend ten minutes with me in the last thirty years.
well, gee, Beverly, THAT’s no problem.
When I looked like I couldn’t afford to pay my doctor bill, the doctor (new to me) refused to look at my daughter until I paid his hundred bucks up front.
Better than what average? Better than plumbers and accountants?
Well, the doctors also have calls to and from the hospital and the nursing homes, calls to and from specialists, calls to and from pharmacists, therapists, and labs, prepare medical records, review and sign lab and imaging reports, review and sign off on Rx refills, and occasionally pee and eat a cookie. And some apppointments go way over ten minutes.
I believe 5 or 6 years ago there was a bit of a scandal when a senior government official in Quebec came to the US for medical treatment. Also about the same time a Liberal MP did the same.
Hmm. They should have gone to France instead. Excellent results at no cost, apparently even to visitors.
I believe that five or six years ago, and five or six months ago, and five or six weeks ago, and five or six days ago, there was a scandal when an American tried to get his critically ill child medical treatment in Ontario by driving the child across the border and presenting a fake Canadian National Health Insurance ID. The child, like the father, was uninsured. Had no access to health insurance. The child died on the trip back home.
Keeps happening. Not sure why. Can’t these people use some of their $220 million savings for out-of-pocket payment for medical expenses?
Huh? Well, obviously not in Canada–where they;ve outlawed such things.
Huh? Well, obviously not in Canada—where they’ve outlawed such things.
A living–which is what you said they had to see 45-50 patients A DAY yo make.
A living–which is what you said they had to see 45-50 patients A DAY to make.
well, all i can say is it’s a pity all them canadians dying along the border fence trying to get in to see an american doctor.
which of course is nothing compared to the plight of the canadian doctor. forced to work so hard they don’t have time to pee or eat a cookie.
All I can say is that by comparison the Candian system is barbaric. The only difference appeares to be catastsrophic care, which they ration. The states could easily adopt that system without destroying the wonderful system that exists today.
When young people ask me about career choices I tell them to go to dental school, vet school, physician assistant training, but not to medical or nursing school. It isn’t worth it.
In the interest of at least speaking accurately… Isn’t Canada’s healthcare system provincial rather than national?
Don’t dentists have one of the higher suicide rates?
Seems to be an urban myth ;
🙂
Some years back a friend of mine had some cosmetic plastic surgery performed by a high priced Park Avenue doctor. At one point, the doctor herself explained that she had had cosmetic plastic surgery performed, but that she had gone to Canada where it was cheaper, and the doctors were just as good. It probably is harder to get rich as a doctor in Canada, though you can always, as Tom Lehrer suggested, specialize in diseases of the rich.
Some years back a friend of mine had some cosmetic plastic surgery performed by a high priced Park Avenue doctor. At one point, the doctor herself explained that she had had cosmetic plastic surgery performed, but that she had gone to Canada where it was cheaper, and the doctors were just as good. It probably is harder to get rich as a doctor in Canada, though you can always, as Tom Lehrer suggested, specialize in diseases of the rich.
Some years back a friend of mine had some cosmetic plastic surgery performed by a high priced Park Avenue doctor. At one point, the doctor herself explained that she had had cosmetic plastic surgery performed, but that she had gone to Canada where it was cheaper, and the doctors were just as good. It probably is harder to get rich as a doctor in Canada, though you can always, as Tom Lehrer suggested, specialize in diseases of the rich.